OpenDaylight releases ‘Helium’, its 2nd-gen software-defined-networking platform
Tue 30 Sep 2014

30The collaborative open source consortium OpenDaylight has announced version 2 of its Helium platform, designed to evolve new techniques and software for software-defined-networking (SDN).
New features in the second version of Helium include customisable installation and a refined user interface called ‘dlux’. Greater build flexibility is provided via the Apache Karaf container system. Also featured in the upgrade is a more comprehensive integration with OpenStack and improved functionality in the Open vSwitch Database Integration project.
New to Helium is reinforced High Availability and assorted new protocols including an application policy framework, PacketCable MultiMedia and OpenFlow Table Type patterns.
OpenDaylight’s executive director Neela Jacques said: “The OpenDaylight community is iterating, shaping and defining a de facto standard for SDN and NFV through code creation…The community has made amazing progress in a short amount of time as you can see in this second release which integrates more functionality, apps and use cases. Helium brings us one step closer to having one common platform the entire industry can standardize on.”
The objective of the latest release, and the core project, is the development of an industry-standard SDN platform.
Helium’s predecessor was called Hydrogen, and was released in February of this year.
Datacenter Networks’ IDC Research Director Brad Casemore commented: “OpenDaylight is making steady progress cultivating a growing community of developers and users interested in adopting an open, common SDN controller platform. They’ve taken on the monumental task of bringing together all the disparate technologies, thoughts and ideas around SDN and forming it into a cohesive platform.”
The OpenDaylight project is hosted by non-profit technology consortium The Linux Foundation, and its core founding members include VMWare, Microsoft, IBM, Arista Networks, Red Hat, Cisco, Citrix, Ericsson, HP and NEC.
Helium’s successor, Lithium, is due for release in April of 2015.
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