Learn about ONF’s Common Information Model work and how it will benefit network operators as well as their respective organizations.

Information modeling holds significant value for network operators and their companies, but this is one area in the SDN landscape that has admittedly been a little lacking. We’ve aimed to address this need through our Common Information Model (CIM) work, and I recently shared some additional information about this project with Network Computing readers. Here’s a quick excerpt:

Information modeling may seem like an arcane aspect of computer networking, but it has huge implications for the level of consistency — and therefore interoperability — that product developers, service providers, and open source projects bring to their respective products, services, and architectures. That’s why the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) launched its CIM work in 2014.

Our goal is to help foster development of an industry-wide, open CIM that reduces unnecessary variety in how developers represent a given concept or problem. Having a CIM, a process for using the CIM to generate implementation views, and tools that consistently generate the implementations is key to ensuring unambiguous and interoperable products as well as open source software.

This also helps reduce errors and enables code to be more easily produced. For network operators who want to build best-of-breed networks, it enables them to compare apples to apples and take full advantage of the latest abstractions and virtualization technologies.

To learn more about information modeling and ONF’s CIM work, read the full article at Network Computing.

- Dan Pitt, Executive Director

SDN is having an impact on networking throughout the globe. 

It is no secret that SDN has made great strides over the last five years. In this time, we have seen SDN grow and expand to have a global impact. Research firm IDC recently forecasted that the worldwide SDN market will be worth nearly $12.5 billion by 2020. There is good reason for this projected growth – as more and more connected devices emerge for consumer and enterprise use, the networks will be tasked with handling the increase in traffic flow and radically changed usage patterns. The reality is, not all networks today are set up to manage traffic in the ways that can accommodate their evolving usage. Here are three areas within the networking industry that are driving SDN adoption around the globe.

Cloud Data Centers

Data centers are growing in complexity and requiring greater agility, motivating enterprises to move their data centers to the cloud. In 2014, cloud traffic crossed the zettabyte threshold, and according to the Cisco Cloud Index Report, more than 86 percent of all data center traffic will be based in the cloud by 2019. Cloud data centers support increased virtualization, standardization, and automation leading to better performance as well as higher capacity and throughput, but at the cost of significantly increased network complexity. With virtualization, services move rapidly between physical hosts, and data must often migrate between locations. To cope with these demands the network fabric must be dynamically reconfigurable in real-time, while exponential growth in the number of network connected devices is rendering manual control of the network logistically and economically unfeasible. Even though traditional switched networks are still prevalent in the enterprise, the value of SDN in coping effectively with and even reducing complexity in the data center is already well established. The performance of cloud data centers with SDN means that administrators can deploy new services quickly and securely, scale them gracefully and cost effectively, and optimize utilization of resources in support of evolving network usage. Now more than ever, reliable implementations of SDN technologies is an essential requirement for leading data centers.

Applications

SDN creates a direct channel of communication between applications and network functionality, very much in contrast with traditional networking where applications see the network as a “black box” into they have very limited oversight. SDN makes it possible for applications to replace and expand current network functions that have traditionally been delivered through proprietary network appliances and hardware devices. SDN-enabled applications can actively request specific network resources and participate in managing network bandwidth and Quality of Service (QoS), thus directly impacting customer experience, delivering new monetization opportunities and ultimately enhancing the network’s overall business value. For example, consider self-optimizing networks. Organizations have long relied on technologies such as load balancers and mobile optimization, applied on a device-by-device level and not holistically. Self-optimizing networks enable IT managers to have a bird’s-eye view of the entire network, allowing them to manage, route, and prioritize traffic effectively. Since optimization can be done automatically via an application, these networks can turn the network overload into a balanced load, improving the quality of user experience. By thinking of these applications now, network infrastructure providers and operators will be able to rapidly evolve and provide customized, flexible networks that enhance the user experience and positively affect their bottom line. Moreover, many of these network functions are now available as Open Source Software that can be deployed on standard COTS or merchant silicon based platforms, reducing both OPEX and CAPEX, avoiding vendor lock-in, and enabling a more agile response to changing networking requirements.

5G Connectivity

With the emergence of connected devices from smartphones to fitness trackers, our mobile networks will soon face a revolution. Current mobile connectivity, 4G, has lived up to its expectations. But in order for mobile networks to successfully transmit communication from the disparate connected devices that are emerging, they too will also need to change, and SDN can help. The next generation of connectivity is already being tested in some markets around the globe. There are also plans to have 5G connectivity up and running as early as the 2018 Winter Olympics in Seoul, Korea. 5G promises to provide 100 times greater speed, latency cut by a factor of five, and data volume capacity up to 1,000 times greater than 4G. In order for 5G networks to be successful, they will need to have SDN at the core to allow flexibility and programmability. As more devices infiltrate the network, SDN and NFV will be critical in not only reallocating resources based on demand, but also deploying services to the network’s edge. 5G will drive a revolutionary change in the way networks operate and SDN will help them along in this revolution.

The networking areas highlighted above are not acute to one region over another. All of these areas touch various businesses around the globe in need of SDN today in order to support network connectivity of the future. As SDN continues on its path of exponential growth, we will continue to hear about new use cases that SDN impacts for the better. It is clear that SDN will continue to have a global impact as the revolution continues.

- Marc LeClerc, Market Area Director and VP of Strategy and Marketing for NoviFlow

ONF Director of Technical Programs Rick Bauer shares how networking was a life-changing opportunity.  

It was in the early 1990’s, and our family microfilm service bureau in Washington, DC, was taking off. Film had turned to images, images meant digital storage, and accessing those images meant networks. From crude peer-to-peer to Netware to TCP-IP based LAN’s, we scanned millions of images monthly and created massive databases for hospital systems, large litigation projects where collections of documents numbered tens of millions, and our company went to over 800 employees and $80 million revenue. My dad—an orphan from the streets of Depression New York City—had realized the American Dream for himself and his children. Our clients ranged from Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus to the CIA. One of the more exciting—and now declassified—jobs we did was microfilming spy transcripts from East Germany only days after the Berlin Wall fell. It was heady stuff, and very exciting, to work around the clock and create this material. We even created the network for Langley to use.

Networks were the key. Information could move if networks worked. Soon our vision expanded: what could schools and small businesses accomplish if they had network tools? We started a spinoff that wired schools to radically change how schools, instruction, and families engaged due to these networks. With help from MCI, we created the first school where every parent and student had his/her own e-mail account.  Seems so passé today but this school network could change the way parents engaged with teachers, the ways that students could collaborate, and the way that this growing World Wide Web thing could help learning. I got to work with industry luminary Vint Cerf from MCI (now Google) as we played “Johnny-E Appleseed”, hooking up donated T-1 circuits to underprivileged schools in Baltimore and Washington. Other companies came to help. Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Lew Platt—they all came to these schools, donated equipment, services, and expertise to provide world-class networking to students and teachers.

While at a conference in Australia, I presented about our  experiences in the DC area, I met a few schools where every student and teacher had a laptop computer. Imagine that! A chance meeting led to a new job as the CIO for the first school in America where every student and teacher had a notebook computer. Again, passé today, but it was thrilling stuff at the time—and networking was the key to making a 500-acre campus with 80 buildings connected. This school went from ATM to 10/100 switched networks, and we were rolling. We adopted 100-VG AnyLAN from HP with  then-CEO Lew Platt voluntarily replacing the entire campuses of 100VG to 100T switches, at HP’s expense, just for interoperability and because “it was the right thing to do for these schools.” Thanks to network upgrades, changes were brought to education!

My work moved over to CompTIA and it was fun helping create certifications families in cloud computing, enterprise mobility, and even healthcare IT. In my interview for that job, one of the managers looked me straight in the eye and said, “Rick, are you going to work hard for us? Do you realize just how important this is? These certifications can change someone’s life!” Tears welled up in my own eyes, because I knew that computer networking had given me a job, fed my kids (and now feed my grandkids), and had changed the lives of hundreds of my own students. “Yeah, I know all about that,” I choked up, “because networking changed my own life.”

Later we got CompTIA to donate “all you can eat” certifications to military bases around the country, and they gave me leave every Tuesday to teach PC bench tech and networking classes to Wounded Warriors—men and women coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. Watching these young men and women—many with traumatic injuries, missing limbs, and other challenges—build their own computers, networks, train and certify, and then get jobs because open-minded companies invested in those who gave so much for our nation—what a difference we could make through networking. I would drive home from nearby Fort Carson each Tuesday evening, filled with gratitude, knowing that we had done good work and provided a foundation through training in networking. We changed people lives through networking. For a former West Point cadet who never saw action, I felt like I was serving my country in a genuine way—and all through these networking skills I had been so blessed to learn.

Today I get to work with some of the greatest people in the world through the Open Networking Foundation. Folks who work for transformative companies who are bringing SDN to the world, changing the way networking is done—and will be done. They are inspired by a vision of lives that can be changed through networking connections. Sometimes I miss running and managing (and occasionally breaking) a company network, but strolling through their labs and data centers, I get a sense of how impressive and impacting their world is, and what kind of networked world we will leverage in the future. It still gets me jazzed and excited to go to work. I try to avoid the “when I was your age” stories about early networking, but the truth is networking changed my life and it is something that makes our world go around.

- Rick Bauer

The era of software defined everything is here. Bithika Khargharia discusses the top three technologies utilizing the software approach.

Software defined everything (SDE) – virtualized computing infrastructure delivered as a service – is taking over. Hardware components that used to be manually controlled are now being automated by intelligent software, reducing complexity and increasing cost savings. The top three terms that have gained the most buzz in this movement are software defined networking (SDN), software defined data center (SDDC) and software defined storage (SDS), and for good reason.  All of these terms, which fall under the umbrella of information and communications technology (ICT), are more agile and programmable, as they are software based. SDE will bring maximum flexibility across all ICT.

SDN

In a traditional network architecture, the data plane and control plane are coupled on the physical device; an architecture not particularly fit to meet the needs of today’s end users since it makes the network too static and limits network designers. SDN decouples the control and data planes, abstracts the underlying network infrastructure from the applications, and logically centralizes the state and intelligence of the network. With the explosion of mobile devices and content, server virtualization, and the advent of cloud services, it is clear why the industry is going software-defined in the network.

SDDC

In an SDDC, all technology components are virtualized and represented as a software function. The software-defined approach to data centers provides service agility and provisioning benefits and reduces energy consumption. Unlike hardware-driven data centers, where OpEx costs can run high, SDDCs lower costs through streamlining and automation. SDDCs make the data center more scalable and easier to manage.

SDS

Each time an organization buys traditional storage, they have to pay for the hardware and the associated proprietary management software. SDS separates the hardware from the software, creating flexibility and cost savings. In an SDS environment, resources of the pooled storage infrastructure can be automatically and efficiently allocated to match the application needs of an enterprise. Automating storage infrastructure with software provides better scalability, speed, and utilization.

It is more than clear that the era of SDE is here. The efficiency gains made possible by virtualization, open source software and hardware disaggregation first seen in data center compute now extend to and have been integrated with on-line storage, and networking infrastructure, enabling greater automation, faster provisioning, decreased costs, quicker implementation, and more overall efficiency. Software defined ICT only makes sense! The future has arrived, and it’s software-defined.

- Bithika Khargharia, Director of Product and Community Management

Alex Stancu provides insight on the completion of ONF’s second wireless transport SDN PoC. 

We recently completed ONF’s second wireless transport Proof of Concept (PoC) to continue advancing the industry’s commercial adoption of SDN. The second PoC was a success, with wide participation from the wireless transport industry. I provided some insight into how the project came together in a contributed piece for SDxCentral. Here is an excerpt from that article:

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a paradigm that emerged in the networking industry in order to mitigate the limitations proven by traditional networks, such as complexity, difficult management and configuration, or vendor dependency. SDN was adopted initially in campus networks, then in data centers, and now researchers are trying to introduce it in all of the aspects of a network, from optical domain, wireless transport networks to Internet exchange points. Last October, the Open Networking Foundation’s (ONF) Wireless Transport project completed the industry’s first multi-vendor Wireless Transport SDN Proof of Concept (PoC). Furthering ONF’s goal of promoting greater commercial adoption of SDN, the PoC was designed to encourage the development, testing, and implementation of an open source controller capable of managing a multi-vendor microwave network.

Over the past six months, the project developed and executed a second PoC at Telefónica’s German offices in Munich. Several entities that form the Wireless Transport project, including equipment vendors Ceragon, Ericsson, Huawei, NEC, and SIAE; integrators and application providers such as HCL, Tech Mahindra, highstreet technologies, and Wipro; and operators AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, and Telefónica joined forces to demonstrate the applicability of this information model in an SDN environment.

Wireless transport networks are a key component of existing network deployments. The need for capillarity (i.e., extension of the service reach) to provide the sufficient network coverage demanded by end users resides greatly on wireless transport networks connecting access nodes to aggregation domains. Being a huge area of investment by network operators, it is a desirable objective to simplify and facilitate the roll-out and run of this network segment.

Read the complete article on SDxCentral to learn more about ONF’s second wireless transport SDN PoC. We’ve also put together a white paper to summarize the full details of the PoC, which can be found here.

- Alex Stancu, Ceragon Networks

If you’ve ever wondered how to change the “sending” or “from” email address of your mailings, then today’s quick tip is right up your alley! The sending email address is shown to your subscribers even though FeedBlitz handles sending the mail. It is also the address which receives any replies you may have. To update this address, follow these steps:

My Sites -> Mailing List -> Orange Settings Button -> Mailing Settings and Schedule Tab

Here, select the email address listed and a pop up will appear, allowing you to edit both the email address and the “sender’s name.” Keep in mind that the “sender name” can be overridden by a name or nickname in a subscriber’s address book.

       

Related Stories

• Quick Tips: How to Add a Second Twitter Account for Autoposting
• Let’s Talk about Spam
• Add Etsy and Shopify to your Email Marketing

 

• Agile Hybrid Cloud Connectivity: Customers can order Ethernet services such as E-Line, E-Access and E-Lynk, Level 3’s public cloud connection service, with flexible bandwidth options.
• Level 3’s Dynamic Capacity: When customers order Level 3 Adaptive Network Control Solutions with Dynamic Capacity, the system can scale bandwidth up to 300 percent on demand, scheduled in advance or automatically based on configurable network threshold triggers.
• Optimized Data Backup and Recovery: Customers can schedule Dynamic Capacity for regular or ad-hoc events such as data replication. Level 3’s system can schedule additional capacity in advance on an hourly basis to ensure that the workload happens within the required time window.
• Accelerated time-to-market for new applications: With cloud connectivity between public and private infrastructure domains, Level 3 customers can quickly move applications from development to production.
• End-to-end visibility through Level 3’s Enhanced Management: Level 3 administrators and their customers can view granular real-time information about the performance and utilization of networks and services.

We highly recommend testing any special promotions or emails to be sent over or on a holiday before the holiday arrives to ensure deliverability and format are up to your liking.

To send a test email of a Newsflash or Newsflash On Demand mailing, begin creating your mailing as usual, then:

1. Once your copy is ready, select the Audience Inclusion tab.
2. Switch to the second tab labeled Dynamic Segment Filters.
3. Click the Add / Edit Segment button.
4. Enter the following:   email=insert your email address here
5. Press Check Segment Syntax
6. Once the check is clear, click Count Included Subscribers
7. If the count = 1, you’re ready to test.

You will then be able to review your newsflash and either send the mailing immediately or practice scheduling it.When you use the segment filter to only include yourself, you reduce the risk of sending your rough draft to your entire audience.

Once you are certain your newsflash is ready to show the world, you don’t have to start from scratch. You can build your final draft from the test. Just start at the Send a Mailing step, select Newsflash and instead of building it from a Blank Newsflash or using the On Demand feature, scroll a little farther down the page and select your test from the previously sent newsflashes.

Taking the care to test your emails in this manner ensures your holiday emails and promotions arrive in your subscribers’ inboxes exactly as planned. The last thing you want to be doing over your holiday break is double checking your email marketing. Create it in advance, test it, schedule it and forget it. Our system will handle the rest!

If you have any questions, simply send our Support Team an email at support@feedblitz.com, or you can chat or give us a call 1.877.692.5489 Monday – Friday, 9 am to 5 pm EST. We also have plenty of great support available 24/7 in our online Help Forum and YouTube channel!

       

Related Stories

• Quick Tips: Changing Your Sending Email Address
• Autoresponders 201: Exploring Advanced Features
• Quick Tips: How to Add a Second Twitter Account for Autoposting

 

Rick Bauer discusses the three top benefits of participating. 

The Layer123 SDN & OpenFlow World Congress is almost here, and we can’t contain our excitement. At this year’s event, we will be having our annual SDN Solutions Showcase. Started in 2014, the ONF SDN Solutions Showcase provides the opportunity for ONF members to demonstrate their real-world SDN solutions. Are you an ONF member and have a booth presence at the SDN & OpenFlow World Congress, October 11-14 in The Hague, Netherlands? Then you can participate in the SDN Solutions Showcase for free! The submission form is simpler than ever this year, being only five questions long.

Why participate? Did we mention it’s free to enter? Aside from that, the three top benefits organizations gain from demoing their SDN solutions in the Showcase at the Layer123 SDN & OpenFlow World Congress are:

• 1.Visibility to ONF Member Companies:We will feature all participants, their demos, and their presentations in PDF form in our weekly member emails and the SDN Solutions Showcase section of our website. Our weekly member emails are sent to all of our ONF member companies, meaning that you and your SDN solutions will reach plenty of eyes. Along with this, participants can talk about their solutions being demoed in the Showcase on our blog, which will be shared via the ONF Twitter and LinkedIn.
• 2. Highlight SDN Solutions Today and in the Future:
  As a participant in the Showcase, we will be directing people to your booth space by providing all attendees with an SDN Solutions Showcase passport. The passport will provide attendees with a map identifying all participants for easy navigation through the expo floor. Additionally, all participants will receive signage to identify themselves as being a part of the SDN Solutions Showcase. There will also be a reception the night before for ONF members and all SDN Solutions Showcase participants. On top of this, all participants will also be included in future white papers that ONF compiles.

• 3. SDN Solution Showcase Awards:
  Participants will have the chance to win two awards, the “Congress Stage Spotlight” (awarded to two organizations), and the “Best in Showcase.” The “Congress Stage Spotlight” winners will be chosen during the Showcase’s dress rehearsal, a week before the show, by a panel of judges. Those judging include Dan Pitt, Marc LeClerc, Bithika Khargharia, Shweta Latawa, Alex Zhang, Judy Zhu, Shahar Steiff, Levi Perigo, Inder Monga, Antonio de la Oliva Delgado, and myself. The two chosen winners will be able to demo their SDN solutions and will be awarded on the SDN & OpenFlow World Congress stage. Both winners of the “Congress Stage Spotlight“ receive approximately 10 minutes to present and discuss their demos to the entire audience! We are excited to be able to offer this main stage time at no additional cost.
  
  For the “Best in Showcase” award, participants will not be looking to impress judges with their SDN demos, but the attendees of the event. The audience will be selecting the winner of the “Best in Showcase” award, which will be presented with a plaque on the SDN & OpenFlow World Congress stage. Attendees will vote for their favorite demo on their passports, which they will turn in to the ONF booth to be counted.

While we have focused on the benefits for those participating in the SDN Solutions Showcase, there is something in it for general attendees as well. The SDN Solutions Showcase passports allow attendees to visit each participating booth and receive a sticker in their passport for each demo viewed. All the attendees with completed passports (visits all the booths and receives all the stickers) will be put in a drawing to win $1,000!

The benefits of participating come with no cost, and the submission process is easier than ever. Enter your SDN solutions by September 26 to participate in the ONF SDN Solutions Showcase at the Layer123 SDN & OpenFlow World Congress this October.

See you in The Hague!

- Rick Bauer, Director of Technology Programs