AT&T (NYSE: T) says that the third release of OpenDaylight's Lithium open software defined networking (SDN) software will help its ongoing effort to build its own SDN controller using ODL components.
The telco has been moving forward with transforming more elements of its network from hardware to software. One service that's taking advantage of SDN-based elements is Ethernet. AT&T now offers its switched Ethernet service with its Network on Demand capability available in more than 100 U.S. cities.
In March, the service provider announced that it plans to virtualize 5 percent of network functions on its AT&T Integrated Cloud (AIC) by the end of this year.
With the release of Lithium, which is now available to those seeking to build and deploy SDN solutions, OpenDaylight said service providers and enterprises can transition to SDN with particular focus on broadening programmability of intelligent networks.
"As AT&T builds our global SDN controller using ODL components, we look forward to releases like Lithium with clustering and its improved features, important for our controller," said Margaret Chiosi, distinguished network architect for AT&T, in a release. "Other features like Network Intent Composition and IoT protocols are also beneficial for the platform."
In addition, users of Lithium can create their own service architectures or leverage an OpenDaylight-based commercial offering to deliver dynamic network services in a cloud environment, craft dynamic intent-based policies and begin virtualizing functions with Service Function Chaining (SFC).
Lithium has been designed to meet the needs of end users including those who are leveraging Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV). Some of the OpenDaylight Lithium improvements include increased scale and performance, network services for cloud data center platforms, security and automation features, and new and enhanced APIs for interoperability.
For more:
- see the release
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