Open Networking Laboratory

Open Networking Laboratory
Name	Open Networking Laboratory
Type	Research laboratory
Founded	2011
Location	Palo Alto, California
Focus	Software-defined networking, network virtualization, programmable networks

Open Networking Laboratory is a research and development organization focused on programmable networking, software-defined networking, and network virtualization. The laboratory has contributed to academic research, open-source development, and standards efforts influencing commercial networking vendors, university testbeds, and nonprofit consortia. Its work intersects with major initiatives and institutions in the fields of computer networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

History

The laboratory originated from collaborations between academic groups at Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and industry partners including Google and Facebook during a period of rapid interest in programmable networking following the emergence of OpenFlow and early software-defined networking experiments. Key milestones include early prototype demonstrations on campus networks, contributions to the development of controller platforms related to NOX and POX prototypes, and participation in multi-institution demonstrations alongside projects from University of Cambridge and Carnegie Mellon University. The group engaged with standardization and community projects involving the Open Networking Foundation, early adopters such as Microsoft and Yahoo!, and research consortia like GENI and NSF-funded programs. Over time the laboratory expanded from proof-of-concept testbeds to broader deployments in collaboration with municipal networks and research networks such as Internet2 and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop.

Mission and Objectives

The laboratory’s stated mission emphasizes advancing programmable infrastructure through experimental science, open-source software, and shared testbeds. Objectives have included accelerating translation from academic prototypes to production-quality platforms used by organizations such as AT&T and Verizon, fostering interoperability among controller projects like OpenDaylight and ONOS, and supporting reproducible research for groups at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and ETH Zurich. The lab aims to educate students and practitioners from institutions like Princeton University and University of Washington via hands-on access to equipment and datasets, and to influence policy discussions involving regulators such as the Federal Communications Commission.

Research and Projects

Research themes encompass control-plane architectures, data-plane programming, network verification, and performance measurement. Projects have included development of scalable controllers compatible with platforms from Cisco Systems, programmable switches from Broadcom and Intel, and packet-processing pipelines influenced by languages and tools such as P4 and DPDK. Experimental work has been published alongside papers presented at venues including SIGCOMM, NSDI, OSDI, and CoNEXT. The lab contributed to multi-authored efforts on network slicing demonstrations with partners like Ericsson and Nokia and performance studies in collaboration with cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services and Alibaba Cloud. Workstreams also touched on security and formal verification, engaging with projects from IMDEA Networks and Technische Universität München.

Infrastructure and Testbeds

The laboratory maintains hardware and virtualized testbeds integrating programmable switches, commodity servers, and orchestration frameworks. Testbed components have been interoperable with facilities such as GENI, PlanetLab, and the Emulab environment from University of Utah. Interconnects and measurement systems have integrated technologies from Juniper Networks and telemetry frameworks used by Netflix for large-scale monitoring. The lab supported reproducible experiments by providing containerized environments compatible with Docker and orchestration with Kubernetes, enabling experiments that mirrored deployments by Oracle and IBM cloud infrastructures.

Partnerships and Collaborations

Collaborations span academic labs, national research infrastructures, and commercial vendors. Academic partners included groups at Cornell University, University of California, San Diego, and University College London. Industry alliances involved joint work with Intel Corporation, Broadcom Inc., and systems integrators such as Red Hat. The lab participated in standards and open-source consortia including Open Networking Foundation, Linux Foundation, and projects like Open vSwitch and OpenDaylight, aligning with developer communities around GitHub and professional organizations such as the IEEE and ACM.

Impact and Contributions to Networking

Contributions include open-source software releases, experimental datasets, and demonstrators that influenced controller designs and switch abstractions adopted by vendors and research testbeds. The laboratory’s experiments informed operational practices at campus networks like Stanford University and influenced curricular materials used by programs at Columbia University and University of California, Los Angeles. Publications and code from the lab were cited in standards discussions at the IETF and informed regulatory technology assessments submitted to agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission. Demonstrated capabilities in network slicing, traffic engineering, and in-band telemetry fed into product roadmaps at companies such as Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks.

Governance and Funding

Governance has combined academic leadership with industry advisory boards and participation from nonprofit organizations. Funding sources included research grants from the National Science Foundation, sponsored research agreements with companies like Google and Microsoft, and collaborative projects funded by agencies such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and regional innovation programs in California. The laboratory adhered to typical university-industry collaboration agreements and contributed to workforce development initiatives supported by foundations and philanthropic programs affiliated with institutions like Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Category:Computer networking research organizations