Intel has released three strategic reference architectures to help IT and telecom companies accelerate hardware and software development for software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualisation (NFV).
The designs integrate open standards for SDN and NFV with Intel hardware and software to make networks more responsive to changing markets, claims the company.
Intel has launched the reference architectures for telecommunications, cloud data centre and enterprise data centre infrastructure market segments.
Intel Communications and Storage Infrastructure Group general manager and Intel Architecture Group vice president Rose Schooler said, "SDN and NFV are critical elements of Intel’s vision to transform the expensive, complex networks of today to a virtualised, programmable, standards-based architecture running commercial off-the-shelf hardware."
According to the company, combining the SDN and NFV on standard x86 platforms helps in cutting acquisition and management costs, while enabling new services.
Intel said, SDN and NFV are complementary networking technologies which will help in improving the network design, deployment and management across data centre and telecom infrastructure.
Separation of control and data planes, SDN allows the network to be programmed and managed externally to ensure better traffic control across the entire data centre, the company added.
NFV claimed to allow service providers to virtualise and manage networking functions such as firewall, VPN or intrusion detection service as virtual applications running on a high-volume x86-based server.
The three reference designs launched by the company include the Intel Open Network Platform Switch Reference Design, the Intel Data Plane Development Kit (Intel DPDK) Accelerated Open vSwitch and the Intel Open Network Platform Server Reference Design.
