Broadcom Open Switch APIs Drive Innovation in Network Infrastructure

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Open Compute Summit

News Highlights:

• Allows developers to customize, enhance and deliver differentiated solutions
• Designed to run on Broadcom's industry-leading StrataXGS^® Switches
• Enables new ecosystem of open applications using Broadcom switch hardware
• Supports suite of Broadview™ instrumentation tools to enable network monitoring and analytics

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today announced the availability of the Broadcom Open Network Switch Library (OpenNSL), a new software platform for Original Equipment Markers (OEMs), Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and network operators. OpenNSL is a software interface with a set of APIs that enable the development of new applications on top of Broadcom StrataXGS® switches, giving customers the flexibility to tailor their network equipment and meet unique infrastructure requirements. For more news, visit Broadcom's Newsroom.

With the OpenNSL software platform, Broadcom is publishing APIs that map Broadcom's Software Development Kit (SDK) to an open north bound interface, enabling the integration of new applications and the ability to optimize switch hardware platforms. This gives users the freedom to control their technology, share their designs and boost application innovation. Examples include network monitoring, load balancing, service chaining, workload optimization and traffic engineering.

"We have been working closely with our partners on the OpenNSL project and expect continued support and growth of the community on this initiative," said Ram Velaga, Broadcom Senior Vice President and General Manager, Network Switch. "Our software is designed to give developers direct access to Broadcom's rich feature set, enabling a higher degree of programmability and providing better control and management of the network."

Broadcom is working with leading software developers on new network applications based on the Broadcom OpenNSL APIs. In addition, Broadcom provides reference code for applications leveraging unique Broadcom switch functionality. The OpenNSL package supports a suite of network monitoring and analytics tools known as BroadView instrumentation. This BroadView instrumentation software is supported by Broadcom Tomahawk™ and Trident II™ switches and offers rich congestion monitoring with packet and flow visibility for the developer community. This enables a new class of innovation in fabric instrumentation agents and network orchestration controllers.

Industry quotes:

Ecosystem Partners
Najam Ahmad, Vice President of Network Engineering, Facebook
"The disaggregation of the network stack increases programmability and provides flexibility for better control and management of the network. Open access to the Broadcom SDK is a big win for the industry— it promotes an ecosystem of open technology development and provides people with more choice when building their network."

Kamala Subramaniam, Principal Architect, Microsoft
"We welcome Broadcom's OpenNSL as an advancement for the future of the open networking ecosystem. We're excited to collaborate with the company as they join the Open Compute Project (OCP) community's Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI) specifications to help innovate the next generation of networks."

Suzuki Hikaru, Head of Software Innovation Center, NTT
"We are very excited that the OpenNSL software package enables innovation on datacenter and carrier networks with direct access to Broadcom chipsets. The combination of OpenNSL and our open source effort, Ryu SDN Framework, enables new application and services. We continue to work closely with the SDN open source community."

Gregg Holzrichter, Chief Marketing Officer, BigSwitch
"We're really excited to support OpenNSL on our Open Network Linux (http://www.opennetlinux.org) project. Having an open API to the underlying packet forward hardware completes the big missing piece in the open networking ecosystem."

Availability
Broadcom's OpenNSL includes API documentation, a developer's guide and sample code and allows operator innovation on OEM and ODM switches.

Broadcom's OpenNSL platform is available on Broadcom GitHub.

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About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a FORTUNE 500® company, is a global leader and innovator in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom® products seamlessly deliver voice, video, data and multimedia connectivity in the home, office and mobile environments. With one of the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip solutions, Broadcom is changing the world by connecting everything®. For more information, go to www.broadcom.com.

Broadcom®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything^®, the Connecting everything logo, BroadView™ and Tomahawk™ are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Infrastructure

Related Links

http://www.broadcom.com