April 17, 2013, 1:10 PM — If software-defined networking ultimately changes the landscape of networking, Intel could be one of the biggest beneficiaries -- and might be one of the reasons.
SDN is intended to take the control of networks out of the equipment that forwards packets and into software that could run on standard computing platforms. If that vision comes true, then makers of sheer computing horsepower could find a whole new market. Intel is a prime candidate.
Though actually moving data through a network will still require specialized silicon of the sort that Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks and merchant chip vendors such as Broadcom make, SDN proposes that decisions about those movements can be made on servers.
"All the control-layer function which is being separated out in SDN is definitely in Intel's wheelhouse, and they could very effectively play in that market," Yankee Group analyst Jennifer Pigg said.
Intel is diving head-first into SDN at the Open Networking Summit (ONS) on Wednesday, not by unveiling switches or routers of its own but by pushing two reference designs that other manufacturers can use as the basis of future SDN products. The company is also formally announcing its DPDK Accelerated Open vSwitch, a software system that is based on Intel's Data Plane Development Kit, which is a set of tools for functions such as memory management and queueing. The DPDK Accelerated Open vSwitch allows for moving packets through standard Intel hardware quickly and efficiently, said Rose Schooler, vice president of the company's Intel Architecture Group, in a media briefing.
Intel has tried to gain a foothold in networking equipment in the past, with mixed results. For example, the standardized ATCA (Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture), which Intel helped to promote nearly 10 years ago for easing development and allowing more innovation, has been adopted mostly by smaller vendors, Yankee analyst Pigg said. But the current movement toward separating control from forwarding gives the company a better shot, she said.
At ONS, Intel is introducing the Open Networking Platform Switch Reference Design and Server Reference Design, plus the DPDK Accelerated Open vSwitch. All are available immediately to system manufacturers and can be modified based on Intel customers' requirements.
