SDN Research Center Opens

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- A consortium of eleven of the world’s foremost networking companies todaybecame founding sponsors of the Open Networking Research Center (ONRC), acollaborative research effort to explore software-defined networking (SDN) asthe new networking paradigm and provide open-source networking tools andplatforms. The founding sponsors include: CableLabs, Cisco, Ericsson, Google,Hewlett-Packard, Huawei, Intel, Juniper, NEC, NTT Docomo, Texas Instruments andVMware.

The faculty directors of the ONRC are Nick McKeown (Stanford) and Scott Shenker(Berkeley), who are both professors of electrical engineering and computer scienceat their respective institutions.

“SDN is a complete reimagining of networking,” said McKeown. “We’re lifting it outof the proprietary, black-box paradigm that has dominated networking for decadesand looking at a future characterized by open interfaces and open-source software.”Shenker adds that “For two decades, networking has remained essentially stagnantand networks are far too expensive, complex, and difficult to manage. This isabout to change thanks to SDN, which will enable network engineers to innovatefreely and make networks simpler and less expensive while becoming vastly morecapable.”

Open Networking Research Center