Brocade Reveals SDN Approach, Adds OpenFlow For 100GbE

Brocade has revealed its approach to software-defined networking (SDN), and has integrated OpenFlow support in its MLX Series of routers and related Brocade NetIron platforms.

The news is significant in the networking arena, as software-defined networking (SDN) is a burgeoning area of interest. SDN environments use the OpenFlow protocol, and they are increasingly appearing in data centres that run cloud computing models.

SDN Trend

And SDN is being back by big name vendors after a number of major tech firms – including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and Verizon – created the Open Networking Foundation in March 2011. This is a non-profit group whose aim is to drive innovation around SDN, in part by pushing the continued development of OpenFlow.

But why the interest in SDN?

Well simply put SDN is seen by its backers as a way to give IT administrators greater control over their networking environments, thanks to its flexibility such as allowing for relatively easy software upgrades, and powering down routers that are not in use in order to save energy costs.

The software works as a controller of everything else going on in the network. SDN can run on hardware that uses off-the-shelf processors, rather than needing more expensive proprietary chips. Cisco is already backing SDN, as is Hewlett-Packard and Juniper.

Brocade Approach

And now Brocade has announced that in support of its SDN strategy, it has also integrated hardware based OpenFlow support in the Brocade MLX Series of routers and related Brocade NetIron  platforms, enabling customers to deploy SDN at 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) performance.

Brocade says that its strategy revealed today will “guide its SDN investments, marketing and partner relationships to deliver highly flexible, end-to-end networking solutions.”

It says that the focus of these solutions will be on network virtualisation, automation and simplification in large-scale data centres, along with traffic engineering and flow management on high-speed networks.

“The Brocade strategy provides a clear upgrade path to SDN, leveraging existing network investments and enabling network operators to start now with a low level of risk as they begin to provide services in a highly predictable, non-disruptive manner,” said the company.

The Brocade SDN approach is included in its existing VCS fabric technology. Meanwhile Brocade says it will be the first networking vendor to deliver OpenFlow in ‘hybrid mode’. This means that customers can simultaneously deploy traditional Layer 2/3 forwarding with OpenFlow. This would effectively enable network operators to integrate OpenFlow into existing networks, giving them the programmatic control offered by SDN for specific flows while the remaining traffic is handled as before.

The company also said it is “building an ecosystem of partners for SDN” through strategic investments, solution designs and interoperability testing. To this end it recently unveiled an OpenFlow lab in Japan.

“SDN will transform networking infrastructure into a platform for innovation, enabling customers to deliver new services and applications faster and at greater scale,” said Ken Cheng, vice president of the service provider business at Brocade. “Brocade is already a pioneer in defining SDN standards and, by executing on our SDN strategy we believe we will be going further than any networking vendor by broadly embedding SDN technologies into our solutions.”