OpenDaylight Releases Initial Software 'Hydrogen'

The open source project OpenDaylight launched an open software-defined networking platform called Hydrogen on Monday.

The introduction of Hydrogen shows that the project is on the right track, said OpenDayLight project Executive Director Neela Jacques. "When you take these two things ... you have a project with enormous momentum," Jacques told eWEEK. "We are delivering real code, not just talk, not just plans."

Hydrogen comes in three editions: the Hydrogen Base Edition, the Hydrogen Virtualization Edition, and the Service Provider Edition.

The Base Edition has a multi-protocol SDN controller. It is created for organizations that are wishing to use proof-of-concepts or tests in virtual and real environments.

The Virtualization Edition is also made up of everything in the Base edition, but with a few additives - functionality features for creating a multi-tenancy in network virtualization environments and overlays using OpenFlow, tools for detecting DDoS attacks and APIs for security and network management. It is created for enterprise data centers that may be in need of SDN environments or using clouds based on Open Stack.

The Service Provider Edition also include contents of the Base Edition plus SNMP protocol support for traffic engineering and programming models, and APIs for setting up service levels and workload relationships and managing commodity Ethernet switches.

According to organizers, the platform will not only give market vendors an open ground in the creation of their SDN solutions but a push to the adoption of SDN, as well.

In the initial OpenDaylight Summit in Santa Clara on Monday, Ericsson, IBM, NEC, and other member vendors of the collaboration project announced a lineup of their new products and technologies derived from the work of OpenDaylight project.

The OpenDaylight Project is hosted by the Linux Foundation. It was developed to speed up the adoption of software-defined networking (SDN) and produce a solid foundation for Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) for its member vendors.