Centec Fuels Open Development with "Lantern", the Industrial First Open Source Hardware Based SDN Switch Implementation

SUZHOU, China, Nov. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Centec Networks, a leading innovator of SDN switching silicon and advanced SDN turnkey system solutions, today announced a revolution in open software-defined networking (SDN) with the introduction of "Lantern". Lantern is an open source implementation targeted at hardware based SDN switches, integrating Linux Debian 7.2 OS, Open vSwitch (OVS) with silicon SDK and adaption layer as an open source turnkey solution. The solution can be downloaded via GitHub with Apache 2.0 License.

SDN is a new approach to networking of which the OpenFlow™ protocol, maintained by the Open Networking Foundation (ONF), is the key technology. Implementing SDN via an open standard enables extraordinary agility while reducing service development and operational costs. The complete open source release includes silicon SDK and adaption layer facilitates research activity in the field. It also enables equipment vendors to further innovate on top of a turnkey solution. Furthermore, the Lantern release is intended to contribute to the open eco-system which is crucial to SDN development in the industry.

"Widespread adoption of OpenFlow-based SDN solutions requires the development of open solutions for both software and hardware," said Dan Pitt, executive director of the Open Networking Foundation. "Our mission at ONF is to accelerate the adoption of open SDN so we are excited to see our member companies propelling solutions to market that anticipate and meet end-user needs for open SDN solutions."

The Lantern release includes source code written in Debian Linux as the platform OS, modified Open vSwitch (OVS) as the OpenFlow agent, as well as a silicon SDK and adaption layer. In conjunction with the release, it includes a development guide and compilation scripts. Lantern features:

• OpenFlow 1.0 interoperating with mainstream OpenFlow controllers
• 2.5K embedded flow entries with complete match field and stats
• Complete L2 to L4 match fields
• Flexible editing L2-L4 fields, such as rewriting MAC DA/MAC SA/l4port/IP
• Popular tunnel overlay technology such as L2 over GRE, QinQ

Combined with the Lantern release is a high-performance development platform, V330-52TX-RD, powered by Centec's SDN optimized switch silicon. V330-52TX-RD is a product level development platform with 48*1GE RJ45 network ports and 4*10GE SFP+ uplink ports. The development system can be purchased by E-commerce at Amazon.com.

"As a switch silicon and whitebox solution vendor in SDN," Said Tao Gu, VP of business development of Centec Networks, "Centec firmly believes that open is one of the main benefits of SDN and has long devoted into developing open SDN solution. Centec is planning to continue the open source roadmap in SDN, such as the support to OpenFlow 1.3, OF-Config 1.1 and an OpenStack Neutron plug-in to integrate physical switches into the OpenStack environment, with more SDN optimized development systems."

About Centec

Centec Networks is pioneering to provide switching silicon and whitebox solution for SDN. We are committed to enable SDN into networks of carrier, enterprise and data centers. Leveraging the high performance open SDN architecture, Centec enables customer networks seamlessly migrate from traditional L2, L3 and MPLS/MPLS-TP applications to the new SDN track. Together with the customer, Centec is redefining the switching network with optimized investment and more opening capability to create value for future and today.

For more information, please visit http://www.centecnetworks.com

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Contact:

Enka Hu
+86-0512-62885358
[email protected]

SOURCE Centec Networks (Suzhou) Co., Ltd.