Open Networking Summit News: LSI, Ixia, Extreme Networks

The Open Networking Summit (ONS) is underway in Santa Clara this week, and software-defined networking (SDN) news is everywhere. ONS created a visual.ly infographic to depict the SDN revolution and LightReading interviewed Dan Pitt, executive director of the Open Networking Foundation, on his thoughts about the new SDN landscape. The Open Networking Summit conversation can be followed on Twitter hashtag #ONS2013.

LSI introduces ARM-based Axxia 4500 processors.  LSI introduced its Axxia 4500 product family of communication processors designed to accelerate network performance while supporting increasing traffic loads throughout the enterprise. Designed for software defined networks as well as enterprise and data center networking applciations, the Axxia 4500 is LSI's first ARM technology-based communication processor family. It includes LSI acceleration engines and includes up to four ARM Cortex A15 cores with a CoreLink CCN-504 coherent, QoS aware interconnect in 28 nanometer process technology. It features up to 100Gb/s of L2 switching function to reduce board space and bill of material costs. “As more business and personal information moves to the cloud, the need to access data quickly and securely from any location, at any time, is critical and is forcing customers to look at new ways to manage this traffic,” said Jim Anderson, senior vice president and general manager, Networking Solutions Group, LSI.  “The networks that carry the data are being tasked to do more than ever before, and the Axxia 4500 communication processor family is purpose-built to deliver the high performance required by these demanding trends.”

Extreme Networks Showcases SDN solutions, partnerships.  Extreme Networks (EXTR) announced that at the Open Networking Summit (ONS) this week it will be highlighting Software Defined Networking (SDN) strategies, technology and multi-vendor interoperability demos with Big Switch Networks and NEC. "The SDN market is rapidly evolving and we ship Ethernet SDN solutions from the campus to the data center that leverage our hallmark performance as well as innovations via the ExtremeXOS operating system," said David Ginsburg, CMO for Extreme Networks. "At ONS, we are furthering our Open Fabric approach to the edge and data center by showcasing unique, first to market performance capabilities, partnerships with leaders like Big Switch and NEC, and extensive interoperability tests and performance demonstrations based on OpenFlow."   Extreme Networks supports Automated Flow Management and hardware-based Quality of Service with traffic shaping and QoS for its SDN-enabled Ethernet switches.   Its ExtremeXOS modular OS for Ethernet switches provides QoS profiles for SDN traffic with support for bandwidth rate limiting, and rate shaping with single or dual rate QoS policies and configurable drop policies.

Ixia IxNetwork OpenFlow test solution.  Ixia (XXIA) announced that it now enables service providers to fully benefit from the reliability and scale of standards-based software-defined networking technologies, including OpenFlow. With the new v1.3 protocol, service providers will gain increased value from the greater scale, reliability and features available. Ixia IxNetwork is an off-the-shelf, standards based OpenFlow test solution with OpenFlow v1.3.  IxNetwork speeds application delivery across the network by allowing users to test and validate network infrastructure, capacity and scalability. “As the OpenFlow standard continues to develop and expand, it is critical to have test tools available for development and predeployment testing,” said Michael Haugh, Senior Market Development Manager, Ixia. “By providing the industry’s leading OpenFlow test solutions, being an active member of the ONF, and serving as the chair for the Testing-Interop Working Group, Ixia continues to contribute significant advances to the industry.”