What is SDN? Few people would be able to give a standard answer to the question within a short time, but at least most people are sure that SDN will change the world!

On 4 December 2013, Dan Pitt, the Presiding Chairman of Open Networking Foundation (ONF) – a global SDN leadership and organization institution, arrived at Beijing again. It is said that it was the third time that Dan Pitt had been to China in 2013. In his visit to Beijing in August, the Presiding Chairman, who had spent over 20 years on network architecture, technologies, standards and product development, said that the great development of SDN was a global phenomenon and that China had played a leading role in the trend of globalization. In his participation in the member salon held by China SDN Committee (ChinaSDN) – a strategic partner of the ONF, he again emphasized that the ONF would continue to expand the scope of the cooperation with the enterprises in the Asian-Pacific Region and fully promote the global development of SDN. He added that all switchboard products would support OpenFlow since 2014. 

 Dan Pitt in the salon held by China SDN Committee (ChinaSDN)

All switchboard products will support OpenFlow since 2014

As the SDN strategies of global network device manufacturers become clearer and an increasing number of innovation-oriented manufacturers participate in SDN, SDN has become more popular than ever before and has been playing a leading role in the new wave of network reform. Dan Pitt underlined that all the products of network switchboard device manufacturers would support OpenFlow a year later. Meanwhile, he pointed out that there was an ever stronger demand for the OpenFlow1.3 test in the current market and that the ONF would make greater efforts to develop the assessment standards, create performance assessment and quicken the promote of OpenFlow in the future. This August, Next Generation Internet Key Technology and Assessment Beijing Municipality Engineering Research Center (BII) Global SDN Testing and Certification Center – an SDN testing and certification institution authorized by the ONF was established in Beijing, becoming the second SDN testing and certification institution in the world, with the first one in America. 

The ONF PlugFest 2014 will be held in China in May

Moreover, Dan Pitt, on behalf of the ONF, had a negotiation with BII’s Global SDN Testing and Certification Center, and they also made clear something about the ONF PlugFest to be held in Beijing in May 2014. The PlugFest will be concurrently held in China and America, both of which will release the test results and the application trend reports at the same time. This will be the first time that the ONF has held the PlugFest in a country beyond America. 

The ONF makes a USD 1,000 dollar-member fee plan for newly-established enterprises

To encourage more companies to join the SDN camp to spur the development of the industry, Dan Pitt announced on the spot that the ONF would make a membership plan for newly-established enterprises in 2014. According to the plan, those new companies who were established two years ago can join the ONF with a membership fee of USD 1,000 and then enjoy all the rights and interests of an ONF member. In this way, the ONF hopes to provide an opportunity for a greater number of newly-established enterprises to develop and promote OpenFlow and boost their development. 

As a country with extensive ICT application, production and manufacture and the biggest network application market in the world, China will definitely attract great attention around the world on its SDN development. At present, a large quantity of giants in the industry, such as HUAWEI, ZTE, Tencent, Baidu, China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile, have all expressed that they will undertake the research on and the deployment of SDN. Obviously, as the SDN technologies are to change the world, all enterprises have the chance to take advantage of important force. What role will China play in the technological trend? Let’s wait and see.