“The interest we’ve received from member companies and the momentum we’ve experienced in conformance testing underscore industry demand for conformant SDN solutions and overall interoperability,” said Dan Pitt, executive director of the Open Networking Foundation. “OpenFlow v1.3 builds on the existing testing specification incorporating a more robust feature set and demonstrates our commitment to making OpenFlow v1.3 a stable target for implementers. By supporting OpenFlow v1.3, vendors looking to expand their product lines are able to show customers their long-term commitment to the protocol and the future of networking.”
Since the OpenFlow Conformance Testing Program’s inception in 2013, ONF has certified six products from four member companies for their solutions: DCN, HP, Meru Networks, and NEC. An ONF Certificate of Conformance is the highest level of assurance available in the market today and validates conformance to a particular version of the OpenFlow specification. Vendors can earn an ONF Certificate of Conformance for networking hardware, including switches and routers, as well as network software.
“The companies that have already completed conformance testing have rapidly seen the benefits of the program, including an increase in quality and accelerated product deployment,” said Erica Johnson, director of the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab (UNH-IOL) and chair of the Open Networking Foundation’s Testing Leadership Council. “By undergoing testing, vendors are able to solidify their commitment to the OpenFlow specification while also building network operators’ confidence in the products they deploy in their networks.”
The ONF OpenFlow Conformance Testing Program has six accredited international testing laboratories, namely Beijing Internet Institute (BII) in Beijing; China Telecommunication Technology Labs (CTTL) in Beijing; Criterion Network Labs (CNLabs) in Bangalore; Indiana Center for Network Translational Research and Education (InCNTRE) at Indiana University; Network Benchmarking Lab (NBL) of National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) in Hsinchu, Taiwan; and University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab (UNH-IOL) at the University of New Hampshire.