Allied Telesis Excels at Berkeley Lab Faucet Conference 2017

SAN JOSE, CA – November 8th, 2017 - Allied Telesis, a leading provider of hardware and software products that allow customers to build secure, feature-rich and scalable data exchange solutions, recently participated in the Faucet Conference 2017 with great results. Held at the prestigious Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in California, the event comprised of a one-day PlugFest and a two-day conference.

Allied Telesis and other leading network vendors gathered to test and demonstrate the interoperability of Faucet, an open-source Software Defined Networking (SDN) controller. Organized by Google and co-hosted by ESNet and Berkeley Labs, this one-day PlugFest was dedicated to testing OpenConfig—a form of vendor-neutral interoperability based on SDN principles. Participating vendors ran a suite of tests, using their own OpenFlow-enabled switches against the Faucet controller.

A key element of the first day’s testing was to demonstrate the capabilities of OpenConfig using a Google-based management framework in place of traditional command line interfaces, allowing total switch management. Allied Telesis gave an excellent demonstration and exceeded Google’s expectations—showcasing their industry-leading support for OpenConfig.

The PlugFest also had a focus on distributed stacking using multiple vendors’ equipment and the Faucet controller. Allied Telesis brought one of our most popular AlliedWarePlus switches, the x930 Series OpenFlow-enabled switch. The x930 was the root switch, connecting to other vendor switches, as well as Intel DPDK-based servers.

Faucet’s goal was to facilitate distributed stacking of multiple vendor switches without the need for proprietary stacking cables. As the SDN controller, Faucet routed traffic from hosts connected to one vendor’s switch to another vendor’s switch, via the x930. Allied Telesis was able to demonstrate complete interoperability with the other vendors, with the x930 excelling in its role, performing distributed routing and stacking.

Allied Telesis has attended a number of PlugFests with excellent results. This one was no different. The company easily demonstrating interoperability with OpenFlow and passing the OpenConfig tests with flying colors, impressing the Faucet community.

The OpenFlow conference network was purpose-built and replaced Berkeley Labs existing conference network. It featured an Allied Telesis x930 Series OpenFlow-enabled switch and Allied Telesis TQ4600 Enterprise-class wireless access points. The entire deployment was seamless from start to finish without any network disruptions throughout the PlugFest and Conference.

“With these encouraging performance and interoperability results we grow more confident that our investments in OpenFlow and other SDN-rated technologies will lead to clear, differentiable value in a competitive market,” said Seiichiro Satoh, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing for Allied Telesis.