Seventeen major technology companies, including Deutsche Telekom,
Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Verizon, and Yahoo, have banded
together to develop and promote a new approach to networking called
Software-Defined Networking (SDN) through a non-profit foundation,
the Open Networking Foundation (ONF).
Other founding members of the ONF include: Broadcom, Brocade,
Ciena, Cisco, Citrix, Dell, Ericsson, Force10, HP, IBM, Juniper
Networks, Marvell, NEC, Netgear, NTT, Riverbed Technology, and
VMware.
SDN promises to make network data handling more efficient and
flexible through automation and programming. Existing network
switches provide mechanisms for quality-of-service adjustments,
allowing network data types to be differentiated or blocked. SDN
offers a way to optimize the use of many of these capabilities and
to deploy new ones. It could help network switches communicate to
determine optimal solutions to network problems.
For example, SDN could assist with re-routing data flows
dynamically during a particularly popular online event. It could be
used to detect denial of service attacks more efficiently, or to
provide the infrastructure to outsource the management of home
networks.
"Software-Defined Networking will allow networks to evolve and
improve more quickly than they can today," said Urs Hoelzle, ONF
president and chairman of the board, and SVP of engineering at
Google. "Over time, we expect SDN will help networks become both
more secure and more reliable."
Arne Josefsberg, general manager of Windows Azure Infrastructure at
Microsoft, said that programmable network management systems would
benefit Microsoft's cloud services platform.
Arising from a six-year research collaboration between Stanford
University and the University of California at Berkeley, SDN
consists of two primary elements, a software component called
OpenFlow and a set of management interfaces for network service
providers.
The aim of the ONF initially will be to encourage the adoption of
the OpenFlow standard through free licensing.
The nascent technology is already prompting some concern. In a
message posted to David Farber's Interesting People mailing list,
privacy advocate Lauren Weinstein observed that without a network
neutrality framework, SDN could limit the services or options of
Internet users.
"While the stated possible positives of such technology are real
enough, the same mechanisms could be used to impose exactly the
sorts of walled gardens, service degradations, and 'pay to play'
limits that are at the heart of Net Neutrality concerns, as
dominant ISPs in particular would be tempted to leverage this
technology to further restrict user applications to the benefit of
their own profit centers," he wrote.
Yet any technology can be misused. Absent a clear and present
danger, technical innovation shouldn't be shunned because the
politics of network management remain unsettled.