Stateless, Inc., the company reinventing network
connectivity, today announced that its Luxon dynamically programmable network
product is now leveraging Intel's Barefoot Tofino, the world's fastest
P4-programmable switch ASIC, in its software-defined interconnect (SD-IX)
platform. Luxon, combined with the Tofino P4-programmable switch, allows
developers and DevOps more flexibility to deploy traditional networking
functions, such as routing and encryption using software to support emerging
applications like multi-cloud connections, encryption everywhere and 5G.
Luxon's microservice network function infrastructure provides an ecosystem that
meets the demands of the new era of connectivity and enables innovation through
the creation of revolutionary network applications.
"Enterprises have grown accustomed to controlling
infrastructure through software in the cloud age, but the network has been
relatively slow to catch up to that trend," said Craig Matsumoto, senior
analyst, 451 Research. "Stateless Inc.'s move to add P4 programmable
switch technology to its Luxon platform provides high-level network control and
allows users to more easily build software-configurable networks."
Innovation fueled by modern cloud computing and software
design is driving next-generation interconnect requirements that surpass the
capabilities of existing networking devices. Despite the introduction of
technologies such as network function virtualization (NFV) to try to address
the needs of emerging technologies, existing devices are inflexible and lack
the full programmability needed by developer and DevOps teams.
"New interconnect requirements driven by emerging
network applications and functions are causing networks to undergo tectonic
shifts in how they are designed, built and operated," said Arkadiy
Shapiro, product line manager at Barefoot Networks, an Intel Company.
"Stateless' move to combine the power of its software-defined interconnect
platform with the agility of Barefoot Tofino's P4 programmability, elevates
networking capabilities and offers users a modern, fully-programmable network
functions platform."
The combination of Stateless' programmable microservice
ecosystem and the Tofino chip provides full programmability of network
functions spanning the data link through application layers. It allows true
machine-to-machine (M2M) control of lower layer byte-to-packet framing and
provides enhanced flexibility to meet today's networking needs.
Luxon features enabled by the Tofino P4 include:
- Horizontally scalable clusters;
- IPsec load balancing;
- Tenant-level elasticity; multi-tenancy;
- VXLAN parsing;
- Fine-grained quality of service (QoS); and
- Future proofing with new interface protocols and
algorithms.
The Tofino-enabled Luxon platform opens opportunities for
integration and compatibility between new and old networking topologies. The
platform will support the creation of networking applications that incorporate
new technologies and unlocks many new possibilities, including:
- Instant cloud connections on demand;
- Self-healing networks;
- Rapid prototyping;
- Intent-based connections; and
- The ability to dynamically adjust edge connections.
Intel's Barefoot Tofino is built using a
protocol-independent switch architecture and is P4- programmable. The
high-level, open-source programming language allows true programmability of
low-level packet processing to enable expanded network functionality for a new
generation of applications and microservices.
"We designed Luxon to be an
ecosystem-driven platform that enables innovation to be injected into networks
through the creation of revolutionary network applications," said Eric
Keller, CTO and co-founder of Stateless. "The combination of Luxon with
the Tofino switch gives us full access to programmatic control of the
foundational aspects of packet processing, in addition to allowing network packets
to be manipulated fully via software. These capabilities provide full network
control and allow developers and DevOps to build software-configurable networks
more easily."