Chapter 1. OpenDaylight Introduction

Due to its software architecture, OpenDaylight serves as a multi-protocol, modular and extensible platform. As next generation network designs and standards emerge, and while SDN and NFV frameworks are evolving, OpenDaylight provides the needed flexibility to support the growing business, applications and network needs. The SDN controller approach is particularly suitable for organizations for whom the network is their main business driver. A networking solution that “just works” is not enough for such organizations, because they need a robust, but flexible at the same time, design that satisfies diverse use-cases and is able to scale as their business grows.

Furthermore, OpenDaylight leverages a large community and ecosystem which we believe is key to keep it relevant and innovative, today and in the future.

OpenDaylight offers a model-driven approach to networking, which is all based on public APIs and protocols such as RESTCONF and YANG.

OpenDaylight is a crucial component in today’s virtualization stack, as well as a key for customers who want to deploy a fully open-source solution and avoid possible vendor lock-in.

OpenDaylight provides support for common OpenStack network virtualization requirements, while ensuring multi tenancy, security and isolation. Some feature highlights include:

While this version of Red Hat OpenDaylight within Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 is still limited to virtual (overlay) network management only, future versions will add support for various aspects of physical (underlay) network control and management. This could provide customers with more capabilities, as well as with enhanced monitoring and troubleshooting tools across the end-to-end network path, be it virtual or physical.

Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) deploying NFV are seeking a robust and open-source SDN solution as part of the Network Functions Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVi) layer. While Red Hat OpenDaylight with Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 lays the foundation for NFV, future versions will add more support for NFV-specific features such as accelerated datapath connectivity and service function chaining (SFC).