Carrier Ethernet is an important building block of a new networking option that could begin to have a significant impact over the next year or two. I’m talking about software-defined networks—an initiative also known as Open Flow.

The idea behind Open Flow is to decrease network costs and simplify the introduction of new services by centralizing switch and router intelligence, essentially replacing traditional switches and routers with Ethernet packet forwarding engines.

I checked in recently with Dan Pitt, executive director of the Optical Networking Forum, to talk about the impact that software-defined networks are likely to have on the service provider market in general and on Carrier Ethernet in particular. The ONF is spearheading Open Flow standardization efforts, as well as efforts to promote the concept. And the organization has some heavy hitters among its members, including service providers such as Comcast, Deutsche Telekom, NTT Communications, Time Warner, and Verizon; as well as manufacturers such as Cisco, Hewlett Packard, and Juniper; and several data center operators.

I asked Pitt, only half-jokingly, if traditional switch and router manufacturers were seriously interested in Open Flow or whether they were simply keeping an eye on it, and he assured me that everyone involved in the initiative was taking it seriously. “To them, it offers a way of customizing [their offerings] and saving on software development and ASIC costs,” he said. “It may allow them to re-deploy software engineers to create other customized applications.”

Equipment based on the software-defined network concept is already on the market and already has been deployed by some large data center operators and on some university campuses. And although there are no conformance tests for such equipment yet, Pitt said the ONF is already working on test cases.

“Some service providers have very aggressive roll-out plans,” said Pitt. NTT, he said, plans to begin offering Open Flow-based services in the second half of 2012. Pitt also expects to see other service providers doing trials this year, leading to deployments in 2013. Verizon hopes Open Flow will help bring network costs more in line with burgeoning bandwidth demand, while Deutsche Telekom sees the technology as a way of reducing energy usage, Pitt said.

Software-defined networks are being designed to interoperate with traditional switch and routing infrastructure and, if desired, can be deployed one node at a time, Pitt explained. “More likely new services or networks will be devoted to this or this will be used as an edge technology to link islands of other things,” he said.

Pitt didn’t care to predict whether service providers that already have deployed a lot of Carrier Ethernet infrastructure would be more or less likely to move toward a software-defined network. “It depends on the culture of the carrier,” he said. Some may be thinking ‘We already made a huge transition’ and may be disinclined to make another big change right away, he added.

He also noted that provider backbone transport already “sort of separates the forwarding and control planes.”

On the other hand, some Carrier Ethernet providers may consider themselves to be on the leading edge and may be more inclined to deploy Open Flow, Pitt said. Such carriers, he said, “already saw the benefit of moving away” from traditional technology and may view Open Flow as another way of seeing such benefits.

Overall, however, Pitt expects the Open Flow software-defined network to “reinforce the importance and utilization of Carrier Ethernet for transport.”

Carrier Ethernet is an important building block of a new networking option that could begin to have a significant impact over the next year or two. I’m talking about software-defined networks—an initiative also known as Open Flow.

The idea behind Open Flow is to decrease network costs and simplify the introduction of new services by centralizing switch and router intelligence, essentially replacing traditional switches and routers with Ethernet packet forwarding engines.

I checked in recently with Dan Pitt, executive director of the Optical Networking Forum, to talk about the impact that software-defined networks are likely to have on the service provider market in general and on Carrier Ethernet in particular. The ONF is spearheading Open Flow standardization efforts, as well as efforts to promote the concept. And the organization has some heavy hitters among its members, including service providers such as Comcast, Deutsche Telekom, NTT Communications, Time Warner, and Verizon; as well as manufacturers such as Cisco, Hewlett Packard, and Juniper; and several data center operators.

I asked Pitt, only half-jokingly, if traditional switch and router manufacturers were seriously interested in Open Flow or whether they were simply keeping an eye on it, and he assured me that everyone involved in the initiative was taking it seriously. “To them, it offers a way of customizing [their offerings] and saving on software development and ASIC costs,” he said. “It may allow them to re-deploy software engineers to create other customized applications.”

Equipment based on the software-defined network concept is already on the market and already has been deployed by some large data center operators and on some university campuses. And although there are no conformance tests for such equipment yet, Pitt said the ONF is already working on test cases.

“Some service providers have very aggressive roll-out plans,” said Pitt. NTT, he said, plans to begin offering Open Flow-based services in the second half of 2012. Pitt also expects to see other service providers doing trials this year, leading to deployments in 2013. Verizon hopes Open Flow will help bring network costs more in line with burgeoning bandwidth demand, while Deutsche Telekom sees the technology as a way of reducing energy usage, Pitt said.

Software-defined networks are being designed to interoperate with traditional switch and routing infrastructure and, if desired, can be deployed one node at a time, Pitt explained. “More likely new services or networks will be devoted to this or this will be used as an edge technology to link islands of other things,” he said.

Pitt didn’t care to predict whether service providers that already have deployed a lot of Carrier Ethernet infrastructure would be more or less likely to move toward a software-defined network. “It depends on the culture of the carrier,” he said. Some may be thinking ‘We already made a huge transition’ and may be disinclined to make another big change right away, he added.

He also noted that provider backbone transport already “sort of separates the forwarding and control planes.”

On the other hand, some Carrier Ethernet providers may consider themselves to be on the leading edge and may be more inclined to deploy Open Flow, Pitt said. Such carriers, he said, “already saw the benefit of moving away” from traditional technology and may view Open Flow as another way of seeing such benefits.

Overall, however, Pitt expects the Open Flow software-defined network to “reinforce the importance and utilization of Carrier Ethernet for transport.”