Given the multi-vendor story of open SDN, interoperability is a need of the hour, at a variety of levels.
San Jose, California (PRWEB) September 30, 2014
With the world moving towards the adoption of SDN, Criterion Network Labs (CNLabs), a SDN interoperability test facility, announced today that it is launching a SDN application interoperability test program catered to SDN application vendors.
Today's SDN applications have to perform and meet the deployment goals in a dynamic SDN ecosystem. Applications interact with SDN controllers to program the network and any inconsistent implementations of infrastructure components can lead to unexpected application behavior. A program that validates SDN application behavior in a multi-vendor and multi-protocol environment helps application developers maintain focus on application development yet deliver reliable applications with predictable behavior.
The CNLabs Application Interoperability program provides pre-deployment validation of network applications developed for a SDN enabled network. SDN applications certified through this CNLabs program are validated to be working across a variety of different controllers, network environments and frameworks.
CNLabs is one of the six Open Networking Foundation (ONF) authorized OpenFlow™ Conformance testing facilities globally. Along with ONF OpenFlow Conformance Program, CNLabs now offers interoperability programs for SDN applications, SDN controllers and switches to provide confidence in an increasingly multi-vendor and dynamic SDN ecosystem.
“SDN Application Interoperability Program is a natural progression for CNLabs. Given that the applications drive the entire SDN framework to ensure new services enablement and deployment, we at CNLabs felt it was critical to view interoperability in the context of applications and application requirements. The new program will be continuously enhanced to meet the needs of SDN vendors and application developers,” said Jayaprakash Kumar, Director, CNLabs.
In June 2014, Meru Networks MC4200 product, whose certification testing was handled by CNLabs, became the first Wireless Controller (WLC) product certified as part of the ONF OpenFlow Conformance Program. At this time, Meru Networks is also fostering SDN applications to further its open SDN wireless access strategy.
"We are glad to learn about the CNLabs SDN Application Interoperability Program. Given that the promise of SDN is interoperability across applications and network elements from multiple vendors, this certification will give added confidence to enterprises considering SDN for the unified wired-wireless networks," said Ajay Malik, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Engineering & Products, Meru Networks Inc.
Dan Pitt, Executive Director of the Open Networking Foundation, added, “Given the multi-vendor story of open SDN, interoperability is a need of the hour, at a variety of levels. The experience our accredited conformance-testing laboratories and plug-fest facilities have gained in stress testing real-world scenarios for switches and controllers leads naturally to the ability to promote application interoperability. All these efforts are in service to those who operate networks and want to reap the full benefits of SDN, and they constitute the growing strength of ONF’s interoperability program.”
SDN Applications successfully validated through the CNLabs SDN Application Interoperability program will receive a certificate of interoperability showing the level of interoperability achieved along with a comprehensive test report.
Besides SDN, CNLabs will also offer IPv6 and 6lowpan based M2M conformance and interoperability test programs.