Network control company Infoblox has launched LINCX, a fully programmable production-ready open-source software-defined networking switch.
In a statement Infoblox said LINCX, designed for creating systems that are flexible, highly available, and massively scalable, is now available as a free download from FlowForwarding.org.
The switch does not require any dedicated hardware. Instead, the software can run on any standard off-the-shelf physical or virtual Linux or Xen server, as well as on network “white-box” devices that cost as little as $300. Hardware switches, in contrast, typically cost tens of thousands of dollars, require expensive custom processors, and run proprietary software that can’t be accessed or modified by the user.
Built in one year at a cost of $one million, LINCX offers fully programmable deep packet inspection and protocol support.
Stuart Bailey, chief technology officer, Infoblox, and his research team developed LINCX as a contribution to the SDN community—not as an Infoblox product—to demonstrate how SDN makes it possible to quickly and inexpensively create powerful new technology that can disrupt traditional hardware-based networking.
“When SDN is fully established, there will be no more physical networking hardware. No switches, no routers, no load balancers, no WAN optimizers. Instead, data-center servers will run SDN software—allowing them to constantly re-balance their functions and workloads, as needed—and require only a mesh of Ethernet cables to connect among them.
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