6WIND’s Software Incorporated in CloudNFV Proof-of-Concept Approved by ETSI

PARIS , December 18, 2013 — 6WIND, the gold standard for data plane processing in software-defined networks, today announced that its software has been included in the CloudNFV™ Proof-of-Concept,  which is the first Network Functions Virtualization PoC to be approved by the ETSI Industry Specification Group. CloudNFV is a group of vendors dedicated to creating a technical framework and demonstration platform for NFV based on cloud computing and Software Defined Networking (SDN) technologies in a multi-vendor environment. In addition to 6WIND, the other founding members include CIMI Corp, Dell, EnterpriseWeb, Overture and Qosmos, while Mellanox and Metaswitch Networks have joined as integration partners and Huawei as a TMF/OSS integration partner.

The objective of CloudNFV is to structure software and hardware elements, select practical interfaces and data models, and adapt as needed through the evolution of the ETSI NFV ISG specification. The approved PoC application, sponsored by the service providers Sprint and Telefonica, is available via ETSI’s website.

The data plane performance optimization delivered by 6WIND’s software ensures that CloudNFV deployments are cost-effective when compared with traditional physical equipment. Within the NFV architecture, there are two main applications where data plane processing, running on a standard server platform, represents a potential bottleneck. The first is the virtual switch, which must provide sustained, aggregated high-bandwidth network traffic to Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) running in Virtual Machines (VMs), while also maximizing the performance of secure VM-to-VM communications. The second application is the VNFs themselves, which must deliver networking performance that is comparable to that achieved by equivalent physical implementations.

Standard open-source software solutions, such as the Open Virtual Switch (OVS) and the Linux kernel networking stack, do not deliver the level performance or scalability required to address these data plane bottlenecks. 6WIND’s networking software solves these problems through an innovative architecture that typically delivers a 10x performance acceleration for the standard open-source solutions, while that performance scales linearly with the number of processor cores configured to run the data plane. 6WINDGate™ delivers these benefits while retaining full compatibility with the standard OVS software and standard Linux distributions, so that neither OVS nor the VNF applications need to be changed.

The value of 6WIND’s solutions is outlined in a recent IDC Private Vendor Watchlist report, discussing the importance of data plane acceleration in applications such as SDN and NFV. The report confirms that 6WIND is well placed as a supplier of solutions for these markets, building on the company’s existing business as the #1 supplier of high-performance networking software for LTE infrastructure and network appliances. The full report is available via IDC’s website.

“Our participation in the CloudNFV PoC illustrates our commitment to provide industry-leading solutions for the critical performance challenges in SDN and NFV, building on our membership of the Open Networking Foundation and the ETSI NFV ISG,” said Eric Carmès, CEO of 6WIND. “6WINDGate has already been adopted by many tier-one Telecom Equipment Manufacturers (TEMs) for physical equipment and it’s deployed in service provider networks worldwide. Thanks to enhancements we have developed to address bottlenecks in virtualized networking environments, we look forward to demonstrating in the PoC that 6WINDGate is also the ideal solution for virtualized data plane performance challenges.”

“The ETSI PoC process is critical in establishing a real implementation framework for NFV and a hosting architecture for virtual functions. CloudNFV’s PoC specifically addresses both, and we’re happy to have had 6WIND’s inputs, particularly on the way infrastructure hosts virtual functions optimally,” said Tom Nolle, President of CIMI Corporation and the architect and facilitator of CloudNFV. “We already know that the performance of the data path is the most critical single factor in achieving the necessary levels of performance and the optimum number of VMs per host. Hosting network functions may be the most demanding application ever placed on servers from a data-path perspective, and we’re happy to be able to demonstrate 6WIND’s value in enhancing data path performance in the CloudNFV PoC.”

“Leveraging their established position in LTE network equipment, 6WIND is well-placed to address the telecom NFV/SDN networking market that will be worth several billions of dollars in the coming years,” said Brad Casemore, Research Director, Datacenter Networks at IDC. “As network functions are progressively deployed as virtualized solutions, 6WIND can ensure that they remain cost-competitive with legacy physical implementations, opening the way to significant OPEX and ARPU improvements for service providers.”

For more information on 6WIND, please visit http://www.6wind.com. For more information on CloudNFV, please visit http://www.cloudNFV.com.