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Interoperability is one of the greatest selling points around for just about any piece of software or hardware. The knowledge that a new system of any sort will work well with what's currently in place can be a great calming measure to those concerned about bringing in new material. Coriant (News - Alert) is set to join in a new demonstration of interoperability itself, bringing out a couple of platforms to help demonstrate interoperability in an Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF (News - Alert)) setting.

More specifically, Coriant—who's known for its metro-to-core packet solutions in optical networking—is set to bring in the Transcend SDN Transport Controller and the hiT 7300 Multi-Haul Transport Platform. The two will be put to use, reports note, in a software-defined networking (SDN) transport application programming interface (T-API) demonstration to take place this fall.

Coriant won't be the only one on hand, as a set of other vendors and carriers alike will be on hand, likely to help demonstrate that interoperability. Firms from China Telecom (News - Alert) and China Unicom to SKT and Verizon, among others, are all set to join in and provide a little extra help to get the interoperability testing up and running.

As for the demonstration itself, it will be overseen not only by the OIF but also the Open Networking Foundation (ONF), a joint effort to help bring commercial SDN to more operations via extensive T-API testing. Reports note that this interoperability test will be based on demonstrations from 2014 that started to make SDN standardization possible.

Coriant's vice president of product management in both optical and NMS, Stefan Voll, commented “We are excited to take part in this global interoperability initiative as the industry takes a significant step forward toward realizing the operator and end-user value of SDN in real-world operational environments. The validation of these open APIs lays the foundation for a new breed of applications and services powered by advanced SDN programmability and automation.”

While SDN has delivered quite a bit of value on some fronts, it's sometimes seen as second-rate against its cohort, network functions virtualization (NFV), which has seen a lot more use in the field as companies put it into action over SDN, which is a bit more specialized. There are many uses for SDN, however, and interoperability demonstrations like this can help exhibit these uses, making SDN more attractive to potential users. That improves the likelihood of use in the field, and opens up some new potential markets for a field that's somewhat under-recognized against its cohorts.

Interoperability demonstrations have a great potential to draw interest in a field, and for SDN, it could certainly use some fresh interest. There's a lot to like about SDN, and seeing it put to use may be just what some needed to get behind it properly.