Huawei has announced that its S12700 agile switch has received OpenFlow version 1.3 certification, making it the first modular switch in the world to do so.
"Customers today are looking for high quality SDN solutions built on the OpenFlow specification for their next-generation networking environments,” Huawei general manager of switch domain, switch and enterprise communications Wang Shihong said. “By receiving OpenFlow v1.3 certification for our modular and fixed switches, we are further demonstrating our commitment to the OpenFlow specification while also enhancing customers’ confidence in the quality and performance of our SDN solutions now and into the future."
The certification follows Huawei’s S6720-EI and S5720-EI fixed switches receiving OpenFlow certification.
OpenFlow is a protocol developed by the Open Networking Foundation that allows network controllers to determine how packets flow through networks, rather than just relying on routers.
An ordinary router simply looks at the packets and checks if it’s addressed to any of the devices it’s connected to. If not, the router simply passes it along to the next router, where the process happens again. This works pretty well, but the concept was created in an era where only text was exchanged between computers.
Image via Pixabay
OpenFlow, by decoupling the control of the network from the physical layer, allows administrators to shape traffic using access control lists and more sophisticated routing algorithms to handle demanding traffic loads such as VoIP and videoconferencing by giving such traffic priority over the networks.
The selling point for OpenFlow is that it works with hardware from different vendors, so interoperability is important.
"Acquiring OpenFlow conformance certification is very important to commercial network products as it means they fully support the OpenFlow protocols,” Vice chair of the Open Networking Foundation’s testing and interoperability working group as well as a senior engineer and the BLL Group’s global SDN testing center, said. “The outstanding performance of Huawei’s three switch models in the test demonstrated Huawei’s rich experience and expertise in SDN technology. With its S Series Switches, Huawei has laid a solid foundation for advancing SDN innovation within the global SDN industry." E-certification could encourage more enterprises to adopt SDN.
Edited by
Kyle Piscioniere
