Open Networking Foundation Names Judges of Open-Source “OpenFlow™ Driver” Competition

PALO ALTO, Calif., August 8, 2013 – The Open Networking Foundation (ONF), a non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the adoption of open Software-Defined Networking (SDN), today announced six judges for the open-source “OpenFlow™ Driver” competition. These judges represent a wide range of prestigious backgrounds with notable experience in software, systems, and SDN architectures from both research and corporate perspectives.

Open to the worldwide development community, ONF’s “OpenFlow Driver” competition aims to create an interoperable, open-source implementation of the latest OpenFlow standard. The driver produced through this contest will enable easy transitions between different implementations of the OpenFlow protocol, and the winner will be awarded a grand prize of $50,000.

“We are incredibly pleased to introduce this highly-acclaimed panel of judges who will evaluate the competition entries to award the best OpenFlow driver that can be used for easy transitions between various implementations of the OpenFlow protocol,” said Dan Pitt, executive director of the Open Networking Foundation. “The winning entry will certainly need to be formidable, and we’re looking forward to sharing that software with the world.”

The renowned judging panel includes the following:

Dr. Jun Bi
Bi is the professor and director of network architecture and IPv6 research division at the Institute for Network Sciences and Cyberspace (former Network Research Center) at Tsinghua University, Beijing. He is the leading expert (PI) of the first major SDN project supported by the “863” High-Tech Program (China Ministry of Science and Technology): Future Network Architecture and Innovation Environment (FINE). Bi was recently named a Research Associate for ONF.

Dr. David Erickson
Erickson serves as director of course content at SDN Academy, which delivers premium hands-on SDN training for companies and individuals. He has been involved with the OpenFlow protocol and SDN at Stanford University since 2007, and he is a contributor to the OpenFlow specification, having authored and contributed to software at all levels of the SDN stack.

Dr. Umesh Krishnaswamy
Krishnaswamy is engineering lead at Open Networking Laboratory and leads the development of the Open Networking Operating System (ONOS), an open-source distributed operating system for SDN. His interests are in the software infrastructure aspects of cloud computing, SDN, big data, and emerging technologies, and he was recently named a Research Associate for ONF.

Dr. Yuji Sekiya
Sekiya is a professor working in the Information Technology Center of the University of Tokyo. Sekiya is a board member of Widely Integrated Distributed Environment (WIDE) Project, and he focuses on developing the IPv6 protocol stack, DNS measurement, SDN, network virtualization, and cloud computing.

Dr. Rob Sherwood
Sherwood is the chief technology officer of controller technologies for Big Switch Networks, an ONF member company. He has spent several years developing and evangelizing the OpenFlow standard, and network virtualization in particular, including prototyping the first OpenFlow standard-based network hypervisor, the “FlowVisor.” Sherwood is also the chair of the ONF Architecture and Framework Working Group.

Chris Small
Small serves as SDN architect for the University of Washington in Seattle, and he is also co-PI of a DARPA-sponsored effort in securing SDN networks. He has extensive experience in ISPs, research, education, and startups. He works in SDN to identify the best practices related to network automation for all users of today’s networks.

Due to increased interest, the competition will now close on September 15, 2013, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. For more information about ONF’s open-source “OpenFlow Driver” competition, including submission guidelines, please visit www.opennetworking.org/competition.