Ixia enables carrier-grade OpenFlow Network Validation


Continuing its mission to deliver innovative solutions that enable service providers and enterprises to test and validate OpenFlow implementations, Ixia announced the expansion of its IxNetwork application portfolio. The solution validates the scale and performance of OpenFlow controllers by emulating OpenFlow v1.3 switches and is the first to help enterprises and service providers ensure that their networks are carrier grade – enabling faster service delivery.

Software Defined Networking (SDN) technologies, like OpenFlow, enable enterprises and service providers to provide a flexible application driven networking solution to their customers. As organizations and service providers in particular, use Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) running in data centers to deliver services virtually, SDN provides a quick and easy ability to program the forwarding plane of the network via a centralized control plane.

As enterprises and service providers deploy OpenFlow networks at a quickly increasing pace, Ixia is expanding the industry’s first off-the-shelf, standards-based OpenFlow test solution to help these customers realize the benefits inherent in these networks.
·         IxNetwork now validates the controller, which must communicate with all the switches in the network and as such, is critical to ensuring reliability of the entire network.
·         With IxNetwork 7.20, customers have the advanced functionality required to deliver an always-connected experience within SDN environments. Until now, network and test engineers have had limited options for scale testing a controller.

IxNetwork 7.20 allows enterprises and service providers to better validate OpenFlow networks through the following capabilities:

·         Emulates thousands of OpenFlow switches in various topologies to stress test their OpenFlow controller without the need of real OpenFlow switches in a customer’s lab.
·         Performs realistic functions such as establishing the OF-Channel, supporting statistic replies, LLDP based topology discovery, port status messages and generate packet-ins from these emulated switches.

As a member and leader of some of today’s top SDN/OpenFlow industry groups, including the Intel Network Builders ecosystem and ETSI NFV, and the chair of the Open Networking Foundation Testing and Interoperability Working Group, Ixia is at the forefront of the OpenFlow evolution. 

Ixia’s in-depth knowledge of OpenFlow and experience in testing large-scale, high-performance networks provides essential validation of our carrier-grade OpenFlow SDN implementations,” said Don Clark, director of business development, NEC Corporation of America.  “The addition of the OpenFlow 1.3 switch emulation to the IxNetwork provides comprehensive, real-world testing, assuring that the scalability and performance of the ProgrammbleFlow® PF6800 Controller can be reliably delivered to our customers.”

IxNetwork enables our customers to mimic real-world OpenFlow network environments to stress test and ultimately validate their OpenFlow controller,” said Michael Haugh, Sr. Marketing Manager, Ixia. “In fact, IxNetwork was used as the leading standard at the recent ONF PlugFest to validate OpenFlow v1.3 with both switch testing with controller emulation and controller testing with switch emulation.”

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