OpenDaylight Project, the collaborative open source project that aims to accelerate adoption of software-defined networking (SDN) and create a solid foundation for network functions virtualization (NFV) for a more transparent approach that fosters new innovation and reduces risk, shared a first glimpse at the OpenDaylight SDN architecture aimed for the first release called “Hydrogen.”

OpenDaylight Hydrogen includes new and legacy protocols such as OVSDB, OpenFlow 1.3.0, BGP and PCEP, as well as multiple methods for network virtualization and two initial applications that leverage the features of OpenDaylight such as Affinity Metadata Service to aid in policy management and Defense4All for Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack protection. A plugin for OpenStack Neutron has been integrated, and the Open vSwitch Database project will allow management from within OpenStack.

“The OpenDaylight community is developing an SDN architecture that supports a wide range of protocols and can rapidly evolve in the direction SDN goes, not based on any one vendor’s purposes,” said David Meyer, Technical Steering Committee chair, OpenDaylight Project.

“As an open source project OpenDaylight can be a core component within any SDN architecture, putting the user in control. The community is working to further refine the Service Abstraction Layer to deliver an efficient application API that can be used over a broad collection of network devices so we can deliver a best-of-breed platform that will help users of all stripes realize the promise of SDN.”

Project contributors include Cisco, ConteXtream, Ericsson, IBM, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), NEC, Pantheon, Plexxi, Radware and developers Brent Salisbury and Evan Zeller from the University of Kentucky.

So what’s the big deal with SDN?

Peter Levine, a General Partner with the VC outfit Andreesen Horowitz, sees SDN as the next renaissance in the marketplace, while JR Rivers, Co-Founder and CEO of Cumulus Networks, stated that, “When you look at the physical networks, a customer wants the best network they can get for that dollar. Enterprise and cloud networks are capacity bound,” thus SDN is now a big deal.

Other big shots in the industry are also making an effort in SDN such as Dell, which unveiled an SDN-enabled switching platform at VMworld just weeks ago.  Back in July, Cisco announced that it will support SDN across its entire portfolio starting from its two new routers; the ISR 4451-AX, is a high-performance branch platform that offers up to 2Gbps of forward performance with native WAN optimization, and the ASR 1000-AX WAN, an edge router that integrates Application Visibility and Control and AppNav capabilities with virtual wide area application services. Both will be compatible with Cisco’s Open Network Environment (ONE) architecture in the first quarter of 2014.