OpenDaylight Releases Hydrogen Open-Source SDN Platform

The first software release from the vendor-led Linux Foundation project gives network engineers and developers a way to test software-defined networking.

Marcia Savage

February 4, 2014

1 Min Read

Ten months after launching with the goal of creating an open-source SDN platform, the OpenDaylight Project is releasing its first software.

Called Hydrogen, the software comes in three editions designed to accommodate the needs of developers, enterprises and service providers. Neela Jacques, executive director of OpenDaylight, said Hydrogen will help network engineers and architects to get hands-on experience with software-defined networking.

"For the last two to three years, anyone involved in networking has heard how SDN is a cure-all for a wide range of problems they have. Now they need to turn that into a set of practical decisions in terms of their architecture," he said in an interview.

Network architects are wondering whether they need to make sure every switch they buy supports OpenFlow, and how OpenFlow compares to other protocols, Jacques said. However, the SDN landscape is complex, with many proprietary architectures.

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