ENGINEERING
Indiana University forms group to explore networking technologies
Network architects from a range of Fortune 500 companies will converge on the Indiana Center for Network Translational Research and Education (InCNTRE) today, January 23, to take part in a new user group promoting OpenFlow and other software-defined networking (SDN) technologies.
The newly formed InCNTRE SDN User Group (ISUG) will bring together business leaders from insurance, finance, travel and healthcare who are investigating SDN technologies and the impact they may have on their networks. SDN has created substantial buzz in the networking world because it helps organizations build more customized and dynamic networks. Many consider OpenFlow, a protocol for controlling the behavior of switches, crucial to SDN's growth.
The SDN Lab enables vendors of SDN equipment and software to improve and test their products in a multivendor environment. In conjunction with those efforts, the ISUG will bring together IT professionals for further exploration of SDN technologies.
"Indiana University is on the cutting edge of SDN and OpenFlow technologies, with some of the foremost experts in the field on staff at InCNTRE, the Global Research Network Operations Center and IU's network architecture team," said Matthew Davy, InCNTRE executive director. "Private-sector network engineers, network architects and IT managers are busy getting up to speed on SDN and trying to understand how it will affect their networks. Given our expertise, it made perfect sense to form the ISUG as a way to facilitate the flow of information between IU's SDN experts and the private sector."
Davy said he expects ISUG to become an ongoing forum with an online presence, as well as periodic web conferences and face-to-face meetings. The January 23rd ISUG kickoff meeting will include:
- A presentation by Dan Pitt, executive director of the Open Networking Foundation (ONF)
- A discussion with the InCNTRE test engineers leading ONF testing program development
- A demonstration by the GlobalNOC developers who built and deployed the nationwide OpenFlow backbone for Internet2. (This is only the second nationwide OpenFlow backbone network in the world -- Google built the first.)