Spirent Communications, the leader in network, services and devices testing, today announced that it has joined forces with Indiana University’s Software Defined Networking (SDN)/OpenFlow research organization, InCNTRE to develop the conformance test suites within OFTest, an open source based test solution for OpenFlow networks. This joint effort, coupled with Spirent TestCenter OpenFlow performance testing solution, helps drive the cost-effective adoption and acceleration of SDN and OpenFlow.

With support from Spirent, InCNTRE researchers developed conformance test suites for OFTest, a Python-based conformance-testing framework, built on Open Networking Foundation’s (ONF) OpenFlow standards. OFTest has been designed to test the conformance of Ethernet switches in high-security and IP-based mobile networks. Spirent iTest, an integrated test authoring and execution solution built for testers, developers and automation teams, is providing automation support for OFTest.

“OpenFlow is an important technology for meeting the demands being placed on today’s networks, and conformance testing is critical to the success of OpenFlow in the marketplace,” said Matt Davy, executive director of InCNTRE at Indiana University. “We are pleased to collaborate with Spirent on developing OFTest to ensure it can be used to validate that Ethernet switches conform to the OpenFlow standard.”

To help benchmark flow scalability and forwarding performance of high speed Ethernet OpenFlow/SDN, Spirent offers Spirent TestCenter OpenFlow, the industry’s first solution for performance testing. It enables network operators and device vendors to measure performance, availability, security and scalability of OpenFlow network devices and end-to-end SDN application scale by defining millions of flows and exercising them with traffic patterns and behavior. The solution uses sophisticated interoperability and benchmark testing to help enterprises and cloud providers understand the performance limitations of their networks.

“We are very delighted to be cooperating closely with InCNTRE to promote the testing and adoption of OpenFlow standards using an open source approach,” said Aswath Mohan, Director of Segment Marketing, Data Center, Cloud Computing and Security at Spirent. “By combining OFTest with Spirent TestCenter OpenFlow, we enable customers to validate the capabilities of OpenFlow and SDN throughout the entire product lifecycle. We look forward to continuing our work with InCNTRE to drive adoption of OpenFlow and further refine testing procedures.”

For more information on how to test conformance and performance of OpenFlow/SDN technologies visit, http://www.spirent.com/Networks-and-Applications/OpenFlow

For more information about Indiana University’s work with the OpenFlow standard, visit http://incntre.iu.edu/openflow.

About InCNTRE

The Indiana Center for Network Translational Research and Education (InCNTRE) at Indiana University seeks to advance software-defined networking (SDN), and to catalyze researchers, students and IT staff within the academic community to fully realize the opportunities for innovation enabled by SDN. InCNTRE’s lab is the world’s only neutral, third-party SDN interoperability testing facility.

Under the leadership of executive director Matthew Davy, InCNTRE is playing a key role in encouraging the development and adoption of standards-based SDN technologies such as OpenFlow. InCNTRE’s research, education and testing activities are advancing the SDN industry while training the network engineers and developers of the future.

About Spirent Communications plc

Spirent Communications plc. (LSE: SPT), a global leader in test & measurement, offers an extensive portfolio of solutions to test data centers, cloud computing environments, high speed Ethernet networks and services, 3G/4G wireless networks and devices, network security, and global navigation satellite systems. For more information visit http://www.spirent.com/about-us/News_Room/About_Spirent_Communications_plc.aspx