Virtual Tenant Network Technology is Bootstrapped into OpenDaylight

I am pleased to announce that the project proposal for the OpenDaylight Virtual Tenant Network (VTN) has been approved by the Technical Steering Committee (TSC) and has entered the Bootstrap state. This marks another significant increase in functionality for the OpenDaylight Project and reinforces the benefits of a collaborative, open source development model.

The VTN proposal was introduced by NEC at the recent HackFest. It is a set of technology components that provide a multi-tenant virtual network through the OpenDaylight controller. Traditionally, physical networks have been configured as silos for each department within an organization (or for each customer) by a service provider. This has resulted in huge, unneeded hardware investments and operating expenses due to the underutilized, redundant network equipment required to implement this scheme.

The VTN addresses this problem by providing an abstraction that enables the complete separation of logical plane from physical plane of the network. This allows users to design and deploy virtual networks for their customers without needing to know the physical network topology or underlying operating characteristics. The VTN also allows the network designer to construct the virtual networks using common L2/L3 network semantics.

Once the network has been defined using VTN, it will automatically be mapped onto the underlying physical network by way of the OpenDaylight controller with the following benefits:

  • Hidden complexity of the underlying network;
  • More efficient management of network resources;
  • Reduced configuration time of network services;
  • Minimized network configuration errors.


For a complete description of the OpenDaylight VTN contribution along with pointers to download and work with the code, visit the OpenDaylight wiki.

A brief word on the “Bootstrap Project Lifecycle State” within OpenDaylight

For those not familiar with the Bootstrap state within the OpenDaylight Project, it is part of a process created to accelerate the induction of significant code contributions in the early stages of the OpenDaylight Project. In short, the Bootstrap state allows an existing, mature software asset to enter directly into one of the OpenDaylight project lifecycle states after a review by the TSC.


For more information, visit OpenDaylight Project Lifecycle & Releases on the OpenDaylight website.

As the OpenDaylight community works toward its first release later this year, additional Bootstrap proposals are expected to roll in, providing even more functionality for the initial release. To stay on top of these developments, join the mailing lists at lists.opendaylight.org along with the #opendaylight irc channel at freenode.net.

The VTN proposal was presented by NEC at the June HackFest to 65 developers representing 25 companies prior to entering the BootStrap state. We are excited by the speed of development and level of collaboration across OpenDaylight. We hope to see you at the next OpenDaylight HackFest, July 22-23 in Portland, OR. Please click here to register.