The New IP Agency announced a lineup of 13 companies that have signed up for its next interop which will begin May 2; the participants represent a mix of hardware, software and test/assurance.

There are still a few other companies actively interested in getting involved with the interop -- which will test SDN/NFV service chaining -- The New IP Agency notes there is still time to participate.

The companies that have confirmed their participation are:

Want to learn more about the New IP Agency and its activities? Check out the NIA's website. The NIA is partnered with Light Reading.

The next interop is phase 3 of the NIA's schedule. This phase addresses service chaining, focusing on verifying use-cases that demonstrate a combination of virtual customer premise equipment (vCPE), a service chain and a software defined network (SDN) in a real-world environment. The phase entails the instantiation of multiple distributed CPE instances on a network function virtualization infrastructure (NFVi), establishing an end-to-end tunnel controlled by an SDN controller.

Vendors of NFVis, VNF Managers or SDN controllers in addition to VNFs part of the service chain, such as firewalls, service monitoring probes, DPI engines, session boarder controllers or L2/3 routers are welcome to participate in Phase 3.

The interop affords participating vendors to come together for a limited time in order to create a functioning service chain across multiple vCPEs and NFVi platforms tied together via an SD-WAN.

— Brian Santo, Senior Editor, Components, T&M, Light Reading