UNH-IOL to offer software-defined networking testing via SDN Consortium
The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) says it will leverage its previous work delivering testing and standards conformance services to create the SDN Consortium. Members of the consortium will be able to use UNH-IOL's facilities to participate in SDN controller and switch interoperability, conformance, benchmark, and app testing.
The SDN Consortium builds on UNH-IOL's existing switch test bed as well as its recent experience with an Open Networking Foundation (ONF) AppFest it hosted this past May and previous work with the OPNFV group. According to Timothy Winters, UNH-IOL senior executive, software and IP networking, the consortium's activities initially will focus on:
- interoperability testing between switches and controllers
- ONF OpenFlow Conformance Switch Certification
- benchmarking methodology for OpenFlow SDN controllers.
The facility also expects to participate in other types of conformance, performance, and applications testing while helping consortium members define and refine SDN use cases.
Winters says the UNH-IOL is prepared to work with controllers based on OpenDaylight, ONOS, or RYU. Switch vendors will have ready access to multiple controllers for regression testing, while app developers will be able to put their creations through their paces on multiple controllers as well.
The UNH-IOL will open the SDN Consortium this August 1. The facility will be in position to perform interoperability testing immediately; conformance and benchmarking capabilities will follow, based on requests from SDN Consortium members. The membership fee is $20,000. Winters says that the facility has already begun preliminary discussions with potential members. He expects between 5 and 15 members will sign up.
The lab, which recently moved into a new 28,000-square-foot facility, has been the site of numerous plugfests and test activities, including work with such organizations as the IEEE, IETF, ITU, NIST, and others (see, for example, "G.fast chips subject of Broadband Forum plugfest" and "25 Gigabit Ethernet: It works already, test event shows"). UNH students perform much of the lab's work, which furthers the university's goal of training future engineers.
Additional information on the SDN Consortium can be found on the UNH-IOL website.
For related articles, visit the SDN/NFV Topic Center.
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