NEC Corporation of America (NEC), a provider of advanced IT and communications solutions, announced the availability of Version 5 of ProgrammableFlow Networking Suite.
The ProgrammableFlow Networking Suite includes the ProgrammableFlow PF6800 Controller, which is the first generally available SDN controller supporting the OpenFlow 1.3 standard.
The OpenFlow 1.3 specification provides broader interoperability and features that give customers more choice when they are designing networks. It helps customers avoid vendor lock-ins and lets them take advantage of simple, scalable, secure application-aware networking.
“OpenFlow 1.3 is a vendor-neutral, production-quality standard that includes input from a wide range of vendors to define a clean interface between switch and controller functions,” said Dan Pitt, executive director of the Open Networking Foundation.
NEC designed Version 5 of the ProgrammableFlow networking suite to support more interoperability with other OpenFlow devices, even when both OpenFlow 1.0 and 1.3 versions are present in a network.
It also doubles the scalability of the previous controller, now supporting up to 10,000 ports or 200 physical switches per controller (compared to 100 switches previously).
The solution also features IP Multicast in OpenFlow environment to deliver a single stream of information simultaneously to multiple users, helping reduce network congestion by streamlining traffic and maximizing resource usage.
The updated ProgrammableFlow OpenStack API brings a scalable, high performance, multi-tenant SDN infrastructure to OpenStack cloud deployments.
The combination of NEC’s ProgrammableFlow Version 5 networking suite, integrated with OpenStack Grizzly, provided the performance, network isolation and user-driven service model needed.
By adding more sophistication and maturity, NEC’s ProgrammableFlow Networking Suite is making OpenFlow more valuable in customer networks where it already has a presence, and it also is making OpenFlow increasingly attractive and relevant to growing numbers of prospective customers, said Brad Casemore, analyst with IDC.
The ProgrammableFlow networking suite supports the policy-driven data center by directing network traffic based on business priorities, such as distributing traffic across a variety of switches to use network resources more efficiently.
The ProgrammableFlow Controller PF6800 leverages OpenFlow 1.3 to determine the capacity of each link in a network with connection speeds up to 1 terabyte.
“OpenFlow 1.3 provides investment protection for customers looking for interoperable, programmable networks. NEC continues to offer best-in-class SDN, aligning Version 5 with the 1.3 open standard,” said Don Clark, director of Business Development for NEC.
The new functionality also provides greater performance, availability and resiliency reduces risk and adds to the business imperative to move legacy networks to SDN.
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