Cisco’s OpenFlow SDN killer : OpFlex
Cisco proposes OpFlex as alternative standard for software-defined networking and adds the protocol to its ACI programmable networking architecture.
OpFlex is intended to maintain control intelligence in the network infrastructure itself instead of centralizing it in a separate controller, which is the essence of the OpenFlow control/forwarding decoupling model. OpFlex will become Cisco’s favored southbound protocol.
▻http://www.lightreading.com/carrier-sdn/sdn-architectures/goin-south-cisco-offers-opflex-as-alternative-to-openflow-/d/d-id/708478?_mc=RSS_LR_EDT
OpFlex is intended to promote Cisco’s vision of “declarative control” of the network, where the policy manager dictates the network end state, and intelligent devices on the network execute that policy. Declarative control is the alternative to “imperative control,” as found in OpenFlow software-defined networks, where the centralized controller has all the intelligence and network devices are dumb.
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Cisco believes declarative control is superior to imperative control, which has a single point of failure in the centralized controller. Also, on imperative networks, upgrading device capabilities breaks compatibility with other devices on the network, which is not a problem on a declarative network
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strict OpenFlow model threatens Cisco in that it enables the potential use of so-called “white box” switches, rather than the expensive, specialized hardware that is Cisco’s bread and butter. So the more Cisco can do to promote declarative networks, the better off Cisco will likely be