Software Defined “X”

T he power of computing has been realized in two main directions, 1) The growth of hardware devices and systems 2) The enhancements in software technologies. The growth of hardware has branched out into two areas, specialized hardware for vertical focus and generic hardware with applicability in multiple areas. While the growth in the software arena also started in the same path the morphs that software technologies have taken are much faster and much more wider in scope. Hence we do see a faster growing software economy. The Software Defined “X” trend that we have seen has been evolving in the last decade started getting recognition with the Software Defined Radios (SDRs). SDRs, which offered capabilities to make the hardware radio frequency layer or layer 1 in the OSI stack controllable via software and offering the same hardware to latch onto multiple radio frequency channels led the way to more software defined technologies to be researched and invented. In this paper we would study the Software Defined Networking effort that has caused a major disruption in the networking world and how it addressed a big issue that has been lying dormant in this industry for more than two decades. The technological innovations applied to the Software Defined Networking segment helps build-out a wider industry application base, hence creating a level playing field for a larger yet targeted software application base helping the consumers get better choices to decide on their consumption needs.