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June 2017

Boron

By Uncategorized

Platform For Network-Driven Businesses

Boron (B) is the fifth release of OpenDaylight (ODL), the leading open source platform for programmable, software-defined networks. OpenDaylight has become the de facto platform for service providers and enterprises making the transition to SDN. Learn more about how OpenDaylight is being used in different kinds of organizations here.

With the Boron release, OpenDaylight marks a new milestone in technology and community maturity. Boron is the result of significant collaboration between users, network equipment vendors, and the growing ecosystem of systems integrators and application developers building OpenDaylight-based solutions for unique use cases and user requirements. Building on their deployment experiences and experimentation, several leading user organizations have invested their own resources into the OpenDaylight developer community, originating more than half of the new projects proposed for Boron.

Boron brings a strong practical focus on two leading types of deployments, with enhancements to cloud and NFV support as well as large-scale network engineering. New operational tooling, enhanced performance and improved documentation round out the improved deployment experience. Boron also provides new tooling and documentation to support application developers, as well as greater integration with larger industry frameworks from OPNFV and OpenStack to CORD and Atrium Enterprise.

New Features in OpenDaylight Boron

Common SDN toolchains

Boron includes improvements to several projects related to cloud and NFV, including OpenFlow, OVSDB and OVS/FD.io. The Genius project is an application composition pipeline, useful for service function chaining. OpenStack-related capabilities have been re-architected within a unified development framework for better scalability and performance, including clustering and persistence. The NetVirt project improves coordination between OpenStack Neutron and the OpenDaylight controller, as well as enhanced support for IPv6, Security Groups (via OpenFlow configuration), VLANs, and other important capabilities.

Boron increases support for new methods of approaching classic traffic engineering challenges faced by telco networks. OpenDaylight already provides an exceptionally broad range of southbound protocols, and now continues to build out and standardize how protocols such as OpenFlow, BGP, PCEP, MPLS and NETCONF are used, and how to model them effectively.

Operational tooling

With active deployments supporting revenue-generating services, operational tooling is becoming critical for network managers. The Cardinal project monitors the health of the controller itself, delivered as a service to existing, deployed networki monitoring and analytics tools. The Centinel analytics engine now enables new levels of end-to-end data collection and machine learning to support performance monitoring and bandwidth managment across WAN links. EMAN is an energy management plug-in based on the IETF EMAN spec. The OCP plug-in enables operators to jointly manage radio and fronthaul network provisioning.

Application developer tooling

YangIDE provides new editing support for anyone who needs to work with Yang models — either create new models, make changes to existing models, or to integrate models into new services and custom appliances. NetIDE faciliates interoperability between open source SDN controllers: apps written to Ryu/Floodlight/Pyretic controllers can now be run on OpenDaylight-managed infrastructure. A new approach to clustering in OpenFlow provides high availability to non-distributed, or “singleton” applications without introducing overhead and latency from maintaining and managing multiple instances at once; this allows developers to write to OpenDaylight without needing to know the details of the platform HA implementation.

Architecture Diagram

View the complete ODL Feature List and descriptions.

Support OpenDaylight

By Uncategorized

The OpenDaylight Foundation promotes and advances the global development, distribution and adoption of the ODL platform. The work we do is sustained by our members, who are committed to collaborating within an open governance framework to solve our industry’s shared challenges.

Learn more about:

  • How the Project is governed, including the Technical Steering Committee and Board of Directors
  • Our advisors and ambassadors
  • Becoming a member, to support and advance OpenDaylight and the open SDN ecosystem

Enhanced Stability, Security and Network Programmability (by Ryan Goulding)

By Blog

This post was originally published on Inocybe Technologies blog, reposted with their permission.

End users can rest assured that the early days of OpenDaylight releases that were jam-packed with tens-to-hundreds of new under-supported features are far gone. The latest release, Carbon, showcases the maturity and production-grade quality that Platform users have come to expect. Carbon provides significant improvements to security, stability and network programmability.

A driving goal for the OpenDaylight Carbon release is to improve the stability and reliability of ODL services.  Namely, several projects are converted to use Aries Blueprint for service activation over the bespoke configuration subsystem, an effort which was started in Boron and is improved in Carbon.  Blueprint is better documented and easier to debug, resulting in a more effective and satisfying application development experience.  Since Blueprint supports parallel service activation, there is less latency between starting the controller and utilizing the provided services.  Upgradability is improved through the Blueprint adoption, since efforts are made to separate application configuration from code wiring.  This is useful since most operators upgrading OpenDaylight wish to maintain configuration between releases, but pick up internal wiring changes.

Initial groundwork to add Apache Karaf 4.X features for each project was performed in hopes of transitioning to the newer container in the Nitrogen release.  Additionally, enhanced testing was added to ensure that features import all of the appropriate runtime bundles, improving stability of ODL features.  This groundwork should greatly help the community developers to perform the very non-trivial Karaf upgrade during the Nitrogen release cycle.

The RFC 6020 implementation of the YANG 1.0 Data Modeling Language is superseded by an implementation of RFC 7950, the YANG 1.1 Data Modeling Language.  For application developers this means that they’re now able to use YANG 1.1 constructs in their YANG models. On a similar note, interoperability with southbound NETCONF devices utilizing RFC 7950 is made possible in the Carbon release.

The clustered NETCONF implementation is greatly stabilized through re-architecture around the cluster singleton service, as well as greatly increased test coverage.  End users can expect a consistent clustered NETCONF experience to that of the Boron release, but have more peace of mind surrounding the stability of NETCONF in a distributed controller deployment.

A forward looking version of the MD-SAL Binding Specification version 2 is included in the Carbon release, though there are not yet any consuming applications.  The new version of the binding specification solves several deficiencies discovered in the original binding specification.  This implementation is Twirl-based, which has a similar function to the xtend implementation in the V1 spec, but generates the code in Scala instead of Java.  Don’t worry about running out to learn Scala; the generated Scala code is injected into the Java Runtime Environment, and is accessible to traditional Java clients.

Carbon contains an implementation of the recently (and finally) standardized RFC 8040, RESTCONF.  Hitherto, OpenDaylight users are probably most familiar interacting with the RESTCONF Draft 02 API.  The DRAFT 02 API still exists for compatibility purposes, since many pieces of software still rely on that API contract.  The new RFC 8040 RESTCONF API implementation is made available through a separate endpoint.  Users are encouraged to start exploring and using the standard version of the API, since it is still unclear how long the community should support the DRAFT 02 version.

Additionally, security of RESTCONF is improved through the addition of a model-based authorization schema in the AAA project.  Operators can now dynamically restrict sets of URL endpoints to specific classes of users at runtime.  This enhanced authorization mechanism is available for both RESTCONF versions.  AAA contributors have also added support for model-based certificate management.  Although the certificate management functionality is currently only integrated with OVSDB in the Carbon release, there are plans to provide hooks for use with other southbound protocols in the future.

An initial implementation of IETF Call Home based Draft 08 is added to the NETCONF project offering.  The implementation is currently not cluster aware, but offers the base functionality for Call Home functionality.  Overall, this improves the integration points for ODL, and enhances an operator’s ability to automate orchestration of ODL as part of a greater architecture.

Carbon debuts a new project called Daexim, a utility which allows the import and export of data from the MD-SAL datastore in JSON format.  Daexim is limited in the sense that it cannot tolerate YANG data model changes between releases.  However, developers can write external logic to manipulate data between import and export, providing for easier upgradability between releases of ODL.

Additionally, Carbon includes the first incarnation of jsonrpc, a project aimed towards enhancing external communication and federation with the controller.  For now, jsonrpc exposes a shim for ZMQ, a well tested, commodity message bus implementation.  Instead of utilizing RESTCONF, NETCONF or some other northbound interface, application developers can hook into the bus to manipulate data.  In essence, this unlocks the capability to write controller applications using non-JRE languages that support ZMQ integration.  This is compelling from the standpoint that it unlocks the ability for an entirely new set of developers to become involved with the project.

Overall, Carbon provides greater stability, security and enhanced network programability.  Groundwork is put in place to perform the Karaf upgrade in the Nitrogen release, and service activation is greatly stabilized and better tested to ensure a more consistent and friendly operational experience.  New functionality is added to help communicate with the controller, export data, and orchestrate ODL as part of a greater solution.  Dive in and download OpenDaylight’s Carbon release today from: https://www.opendaylight.org/downloads.

Written by Ryan Goulding, Senior Software Engineer at Inocybe Technologies.

Introducing OpenDaylight’s Sixth Platform Release, Carbon

By Blog

Carbon has been released! OpenDaylight’s sixth platform release, Carbon, adds new enhancements to better support Metro Ethernet and cable operators as well as Internet of Things (IoT) deployments. As OpenDaylight continues to mature, a growing number of member use cases are emerging from companies including CenturyLink, China Mobile, Inocybe Technologies and Tencent.

OpenDaylight’s latest release further advances the platform’s scalability and robustness, with new capabilities supporting multi-site deployments for geographic reach, application performance and fault tolerance. Southbound protocols OpenFlow and Netconf gained in scalability and features, as did various administrative utilities.

Carbon also streamlines service function chaining by providing an integrated framework for NFV management. Much of this integration work and new capabilities available in Carbon were showcased as part of a proposed “Nirvana Stack,” presented in Boston last month.

As these toolchains are further integrated into higher level open source projects like ONAP, OpenStack and OPNFV, they are increasingly enabling innovators to productively explore new use cases such as IoT.

To learn more about Carbon or download the release, visit here.

We would like to thank our supportive community of developers and members who helped make the release possible!

OpenDaylight Matures with Carbon Release and New Market Deployments

By Foundation News

The sixth release of the open SDN controller adds new enhancements to support IoT deployments and better integration with OpenStack  

SAN FRANCISCO, June 6, 2017–The OpenDaylight Project, the leading open source platform for programmable, software-defined networks, today announced its sixth release, Carbon. With this release, OpenDaylight adds new enhancements to better support Metro Ethernet and cable operators as well as Internet of Things (IoT) deployments.

“OpenDaylight-based networks are delivering business and consumer services to more than 1 billion subscribers around the globe today, as well as a growing number of users in the enterprise space,” said Phil Robb, Executive Director of OpenDaylight at The Linux Foundation. “Carbon delivers a deeper level of platform maturity, while solidifying the toolchains for leading use cases in private and hybrid cloud as well as the carrier market.”

OpenDaylight’s latest release further advances the platform’s scalability and robustness with new capabilities supporting multi-site deployments for geographic reach, application performance and fault tolerance. Southbound protocols OpenFlow and Netconf gained in scalability and features, as did various administrative utilities.

Carbon streamlines service function chaining by providing an integrated framework for NFV management. Much of Carbon’s integration work and new capabilities were showcased as part of a proposed “Nirvana Stack,” presented in Boston last month.

Carbon also supports a series of PCMM specs and other capabilities required by cable operators. It also improves operators’ ability to enable software applications and service orchestrators to configure and provision connectivity services in physical and virtual network elements–in particular, Carrier Ethernet services as defined by MEF Forum.

These toolchains are being incorporated as core components of higher-level open source frameworks, such as ONAP, OPNFV and OpenStack, as well as real-world implementations of designs from standards bodies such as MEF. These new combined stacks are increasingly enabling innovators to productively explore new use cases such as IoT.

Supporting quotes

China Mobile

“A SDN controller plays an important role for us to fast and flexibly launch services for public and private clouds, and it is a critical component in our next-generation network,” said YANG Zhiqiang, Deputy General Manager of China Mobile Research Institute. “The robustness of the OpenDaylight platform has enabled us to build our own controller and develop customized applications.”

Inocybe Technologies

Inocybe Technologies helps customers build and deploy production-grade products and services by leveraging the OpenDaylight platform as the foundation for numerous SDN deployments spanning a variety of industries, including healthcare, financial services, smart cities and industrial controls.

“We continue to see new use cases emerging for OpenDaylight, including our work with Avaya on supporting IoT,” said Mathieu Lemay, Chief Executive Officer of Inocybe Technologies. “Using OpenDaylight enabled us to develop an SDN architecture for IoT that is capable of managing and securing up to 168,000 connected devices, the largest implemented in the market today.”

CenturyLink

As CenturyLink virtualizes its network, SDN controllers provide pivotal functionality. The diverse requirements within the network, datacenters and central offices demand flexibility from OpenDaylight and applications such as the Edge Access Controller.

“As part of our work to achieve full network virtualization, we have created our own virtualized Broadband Network Gateway (vBNG) using open source components including OpenDaylight and OpenStack,” said Adam Dunstan, Vice President of SDN/NFV Engineering at CenturyLink. “We used OpenDaylight software to build our SDN access controller because of its flexibility to work with legacy operations support systems as well as newer orchestration platforms.”

Tencent

As a leading provider of internet services in China, Tencent has deepened its commitment to open source deploying OpenDaylight as a standard across their network. The open SDN platform provides Tencent with the flexibility and maturity to accommodate a growing user base and the massive scale required to provide those users with high quality services.

“We’ve selected OpenDaylight as our standard SDN controller as it has enabled us to build an agile infrastructure that can support our diverse network requirements,” said Wade Shao, deputy director of network architecture center, Tencent. “We are also hoping our partners will work together with us to build on and contribute to OpenDaylight, as we believe it matches our network strategy.”

About the OpenDaylight Project

The OpenDaylight Project is a collaborative open source project that aims to accelerate the adoption of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). Founded by industry leaders and open to all, the OpenDaylight community is developing a common, open SDN platform that fosters new innovation and reduces risk. Get involved: www.opendaylight.org.

OpenDaylight is a project at The Linux Foundation. Linux Foundation projects harness the power of collaborative development to fuel innovation across industries and ecosystems. www.linuxfoundation.org

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