Meru Networks says it has received the first certificate of conformance for a wireless LAN manufacturer given by the Open Networking Foundation for the ability of its mobility access controllers to work with the OpenFlow protocol for building software defined networks.
“Meru is leading the wireless industry in taking a truly open approach to SDN to enable third-party, unified management of wired and wireless networks,” Meru CEO Bami Bastani said in a release. “The SDN applications we are developing and the work being done by our growing OpenFlow development community will drive rapid proliferation of open standards-based networks where best-of-breed solutions win.”
The OpenFlow community hopes that by issuing certificates of compliance enterprises will have more confidence in assembling SDN networks by a number of vendors. While a number of hardware and software makers have components of an SDN solution, not all have a full stack. Some vendors have partnerships to flesh out their offering, but CIOs and network managers are still cautious about the fledgling technology.
The foundation, which promotes open SDN solutions around OpenFlow, has more that 140 members including Cisco Systems Inc, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Juniper Networks and Microsoft.
Vendors with certified products “assert their commitment to the OpenFlow specification, benefitting from shortened development cycles, faster product deployment, opportunities for testing protocols and more,” the foundation says. The conformance testing program was launched in July, 2013.
Vendors with certified products benefit from shortened development cycles, faster product deployment and opportunities for testing protocols, says Meru.