OpenFlow Workshop - 28 Feb 2012 10:00am - 4:00pm

Contact: Dr. Qiang Fu (qiang.fu@ecs.vuw.ac.nz)

Organisors: VUW, REANNZ, Google

Software Defined Networking (and OpenFlow specifically) is "emerging as one
of the most promising and disruptive networking technologies of recent
years" (http://opennetsummit.org/why.html). It has strong support not only
from major network users and providers including Facebook, Google and
Microsoft, but network equipment vendors including Juniper, Cisco, Brocade,
HP and IBM, some already shipping commercial hardware supporting OpenFlow.

OpenFlow devices are in production use internationally, most publicly in
research networks such as NSF's GENI, and Internet2's
and Indiana University's Open Science, Scholarship and Services Exchange.

Software Defined Networking breaks with conventional network/device
architecture by removing complexity from hardware and adding flexible
external control in software, enabling everything from massive datacenter
fabrics for cloud/HPC (http://openstack.org/) to high performance WAN (
http://www.openflow.org/wp/tag/internet2/).

Google has network research presence in New Zealand, based at Victoria
University, working on SDN/OpenFlow for the WAN with REANNZ and local ISPs.
In conjunction with REANNZ and Google, Victoria University will be hosting
a workshop on SDN/OpenFlow on Feb 28th 2012, 10:00am to 4:00pm. The
workshop will cover:

* An introduction to SDN/OpenFlow.
* A demonstration of an OpenFlow application on a Pronto 3290 switch
connected to the REANNZ network, illustrating arbitrary flow/packet level
control through software.
* Exploration/discussion of building an OpenFlow research network in NZ
* Identifying key OpenFlow projects for collaboration across NZ research
organisations and industry, establishing NZ as a leader in the field (and
enabling lower cost, higher performing and higher reliability WAN networks
versus conventional networking).