SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwire - Sep 6, 2012) - [ Brocade ] (NASDAQ: [ BRCD ]) today announced the appointment of Curt Beckmann, Brocade Principal Architect, as the chair of the Open Networking Foundation's (ONF) newly formed Forwarding Abstractions Working Group (FAWG), which will define the standard on how software-defined networking (SDN) and OpenFlow should be implemented in networking products. Beckmann's appointment reinforces Brocade's leadership in SDN and underscores the joint commitment between Brocade, the ONF and its member companies to deliver open, standards-based implementations of SDN and OpenFlow.

The FAWG will accelerate the innovation of next-generation OpenFlow-based networking models and frameworks, and will improve OpenFlow adoption on hardware forwarding targets such as ASICs, network processing units (NPUs) and network flow processors. During the first phase of the working group, members will also work to enhance testing and certification by establishing canonical Table Typing Patterns (TTPs), and simplify controller implementation by encouraging broad adoption of common TTPs.

"I am pleased to congratulate Curt Beckmann on his appointment as chair of the newly formed Forwarding Abstractions Working Group," said Dan Pitt, executive director of the Open Networking Foundation. "This working group will help us advance the adoption of SDN and the OpenFlow protocol, and active member companies within the group will help us simplify the OpenFlow framework for implementation on hardware forwarding targets."

In his role at Brocade, Beckmann focuses on enhancing OpenFlow to simplify support of complex forwarding behaviors on hardware platforms. The company's recent introduction of the world's first 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) OpenFlow product was in part due to Beckmann's work. He entered the networking industry as an ASIC architect in 1995, where he worked on 10/100 Mbps Ethernet switching and early Layer 3 gigabit switches. He moved on to manage and architect Fibre Channel storage virtualization and iSCSI/FCIP protocol-conversion system-on-a-chip ASIC designs. In April 2012, ONF presented Beckmann with an "Outstanding Initiative" award for his work on OpenFlow and SDN.

"Brocade's close involvement with the ONF and the Forwarding Abstractions Working Group demonstrates our commitment to drive standardization and market adoption of SDN," said Ken Cheng, vice president of Service Provider and Application Delivery Products at Brocade. "Curt Beckmann's appointment as chair of the FAWG is a testament to his technology expertise and his ability to drive innovation and consensus in the industry."

Earlier this year, Brocade outlined its [ strategy and vision for SDN ], and also announced integrated hardware-based OpenFlow support on Brocade^® MLX^® Series routers. Brocade was the first to deliver OpenFlow at wire-speed 100 GbE performance and in true Hybrid Mode OpenFlow, enabling customers to integrate SDN into their existing networks and concurrently support both OpenFlow and existing networks. Last month, Internet2^®, a member-owned advanced technology community, [ announced ] it will be deploying OpenFlow-enabled Brocade MLX routers as part of its newly upgraded 100 GbE Internet2 Network.

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