Internet2 President and CEO Dave Lambert will join Internet leaders this week to discuss the important role of research and education (R&E) in the development of Internet infrastructures using Software Defined Networking (SDN) and OpenFlow

The third annual Open Networking Summit will be held April 15-17, 2013 in the heart of the Silicon Valley and is billed as “The Premiere Event to Plug-In To SDN.” Lambert will discuss research, education, and industry collaboration in developing next-generation Internet technologies via the new Internet2 Network and Innovation Platform.

The new Internet2 ecosystem combines the first open, national-scale SDN and OpenFlow enabled development platform with the abundant bandwidth of the first transcontinental network deployment of 100G technology. The completion of the platform in 2012 positioned the national R&E infrastructure at the leading edge of innovation. It was designed to support Internet2 member initiatives that utilize the new environment to support application development, drive network innovation and advance global research in "Big Data" sciences.

Lambert will participate in the Summit’s “SDN for Service Providers” panel.  The panel also features Yukio Ito, senior vice president of Service Infrastructure at NTT Communications – an Internet2 member – along  with Jan Haglund, vice president, Product Area IP & Broadband at Ericsson.  Leading SDN journalist, Craig Matsumoto of Light Reading, will moderate the panel.

Lambert commented on the event: “Internet2 is pleased to participate in one of the great events for SDN development, founded by some of Internet2’s leading members. R&E has always been a primary incubator of new Internet technologies that are later developed commercially. We are excited about ongoing collaboration with industry in the development of SDN using OpenFlow, and believe this new paradigm will transform Internet technology and create global economies.”