Internet2 has deployed the Open Network Operating System (ONOS) on its R&E network, a move that illustrates the service provider's initial migration to software defined networking (SDN).
This migration will affect five higher education institutions--including Duke University, Florida International University, the Indiana GigaPoP, MAX and the University of Maryland–College Park, and the University of Utah.
For this project, ONOS worked with the Internet2 NOC at Indiana University to validate the ONOS/SDN-IP solution as one of the first virtual SDN networks deployed in production on Internet2's nationwide network substrate. By doing this, the ONOS community could show the platform and the application's ability to work with heterogeneous hardware devices, at scale, in a real network scenario.
Internet2 is using the capabilities of its SDN substrate to provision virtual networks based on FlowSpace Firewall. The service provider deployed an ONOS cluster in a virtual network slice on the Internet2 network, controlling 38 OpenFlow-enabled Brocade and Juniper switches.
By deploying the SDN-IP Peering application atop ONOS peers with other, traditional networks, an SDN-based network like Internet2 can provides benefits such as network programmability, lower TCO and removal of vendor lock-in. Internet2 and ONOS said that in this particular case, the centralized control plane leads to significant improvements in network operation efficiency for its R&E network.
Some of the early work in this space also generated feedback that is now included as part of the requirements for upcoming ONOS releases.
A live demonstration of this deployment will be on display during the ONS2015 event.
For more:
- see the release
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