News Release

This news release is jointly delivered by Hitachi Metals, Ltd. and NTT DATA Corporation. Please be informed that you may receive duplicate delivery of this release.

May 20, 2014

Hitachi Metals to Get into Full Swing Its Joint Technical Development with NTT DATA
-Joint Development of OpenFlow 1.3-Compatible SDN Solutions for Telecommunications Carriers-

Hitachi Metals, Ltd.
NTT DATA Corporation

Hitachi Metals, Ltd. (headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Chairman and CEO: Kazuyuki Konishi; hereinafter referred to as "Hitachi Metals"), and NTT DATA Corporation (headquarters: Koto-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Toshio Iwamoto; hereinafter referred to as "NTT DATA") are scheduled on May 20 to get into full swing their joint technical development of SDN solutions for telecommunications carriers that will realize the integration and unified administration of multiple networks, on the basis of the combination of Hitachi Metals's APRESIA^®*1 Ethernet*2 switches and NTT DATA's Virtual Network Controller SDN*3 controller.
The two companies commenced their joint research on SDN solutions for telecommunications carriers in 2013 and have conducted joint verification together with major telecommunications carriers. Utilizing the expertise they obtained through those activities, they have now decided to get into full swing the technical development to create SDN solutions that can be more valuable for telecommunications carriers.
Hitachi Metals and NTT DATA are aiming to complete the development of the solutions and introduce them into commercial networks by 2015.

Telecommunications carriers nowadays are offering wide-ranging services, including VPN (Virtual Private Network) services designed for establishing private networks in a virtual manner, LTE*4 large-capacity mobile broadband communications services, and cloud services. Providing such a wide variety of services, however, requires telecommunications carriers to configure and operate different networks on a service-by-service basis. The resulting increases in capital investment involved in every creation of a new service and the costs required for operations and maintenance have become major challenges for the companies.
Recently, SDN, which can realize the integration and unified administration of multiple networks, has become a focus of attention as a technique to overcome such circumstances. While Hitachi Metals has provided the APRESIA series of Ethernet switches to telecommunications carriers, NTT DATA has marketed their SDN controller, Virtual Network Controller, since 2011. The two companies commenced their joint research on SDN in 2013 and have conducted joint verification together with major telecommunications carriers. Utilizing the expertise they obtained through those activities, they have now decided to get into full swing the technical development to create SDN solutions that can solve the challenges telecommunications carriers are facing today.

SDN solutions featuring the following advantages are to be developed by utilizing Hitachi Metals's APRESIA and NTT DATA's Virtual Network Controller in combination.


Advantages of the solutions to be developed:

• An integrated network can be configured by accommodating multiple services in the same network and controlling and managing them from an SDN controller in a unified way, which will also contribute to the reduction of costs for capital investment as well as operations and maintenance.
• An integrated network is configured with services that are assigned with an identifier suited to the traffic characteristics by detecting flows of individual services on the basis of OpenFlow*5 1.3. In this version, large numbers of functions for telecommunications carriers such as PBB*6 and MPLS,*7 which are techniques used for configuring telecommunications carrier networks, have been incorporated.

Advantages of Hitachi Metals's APRESIA (currently applicable to the Apresia 26000 and Apresia 12000 series)

• OpenFlow 1.3 has been implemented on 100G Ethernet switches for telecommunications-carrier use.
• Many different APIs*8 (including OpenFlow 1.3) have been prepared to improve compatibility with all kinds of controllers.
• A hybrid controlling method has been adopted, in which SDN-based centralized control and autonomous distributed control based on conventional switching functions are used in combination.
• High-speed failure detection and recovery, burst frame*9 detection, different types of counters used for measuring, for example, transmitted/received packets and discarded packets, and many other different features have been incorporated to realize telecommunications-carrier-grade products.

Advantages of NTT DATA's Virtual Network Controller

• Fully compatible with OpenFlow 1.3 including telecommunications standards used in carrier networks
• High-quality software applicable to carrier-scale networks, featuring high subscriber ratio and scalable architecture
• Many different OpenFlow 1.3-compatible switches are supported, including OSS*10 software switches.

Hitachi Metals and NTT DATA are aiming to introduce the solutions into commercial networks by 2015.

Related links

Web page introducing APRESIA:
http://www.apresia.jp/en/index.html

Web page introducing the Apresia 26000 series:
http://www.apresia.jp/en/products/sp/ap26000/index.html

Web page introducing Virtual Network Controller:
http://opensol.jp.nttdata.com/solutions/sdn/product/casper

• *1 APRESIA is a registered trademark of Hitachi Metals, Ltd.
• *2 Ethernet is a registered trademark of Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
• *3 SDN is an abbreviation for "Software-Defined Networking," which is a concept of software-controlled networks.
• *4 LTE is an abbreviation for "Long Term Evolution," which is a standard of high-speed data communications for cell phones.
• *5 OpenFlow is a network control function designed for controlling networks by software.
• *6 PBB is an abbreviation for "Provider Backbone Bridge," which is a technique that can realize wide-area Ethernet networks.
• *7 MPLS is an abbreviation for "Multi-Protocol Label Switching," which is a technique designed for high-speed packet transfer.
• *8 API is an abbreviation for "Application Programming Interface," which is a method for using functions provided by hardware or software.
• *9 A burst frame denotes traffic indicating a prominent flow rate instantaneously.
• *10 OSS is an abbreviation for "Open Source Software," which is a type of software that anyone can improve or redistribute.
• * Other names of products, companies, and organizations are trademarks or registered trademarks of the companies.

For more information, please contact:

??Media Enquiries Public Relations Department NTT DATA Corporation Tel: +81-3-5546-8051 Corporate Communications Office Hitachi Metals, Ltd. Yoshihara hmcc.sa@hitachi-metals.com

??About This Joint Research: System Platforms Sector NTT DATA Corporation Nagasono, Kikuta, Kojima Tel?F+81-50-5546-2301 Business Planning Dept. Information Systems Product Business Unit Cable Materials Company Hitachi Metals,Ltd. Mizutani, Takahashi Tel:+81-3-6381-1439