The Linux-based CloudRouter Project, which is working on code for an open source virtual router, released version 3.0 this week. It adds Linux Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) kernel enhancements and claims throughput in excess of 650 Gb/s on commodity hardware.

To demonstrate the 650 Gb/s throughput, CloudRouter used a Mellanox network interface card (NIC).

CloudRouter is rallying a community for an open source vRouter that can present a real threat to routing behemoths such as Cisco. And with its version 3.0, it’s now expanded its scope to support software-defined networking (SDN).

CloudRouter says it received community requests for higher performance to enable SDN deployments for both Layer 2 and Layer 3 connections. So the team incorporated new open source technology from the DPDK project to enhance network performance and support for 100-Gb/s Ethernet cards.

Version 3.0 ships with Open Network Operating System (ONOS) Drake 1.4 in addition to OpenDaylight Lithium. And four new open source projects have been added to the project, including an SDN exchange point, two new network traffic generators and analyzers, and a network monitoring utility.

IIX, the initiator of CloudRouter, is still its largest user, according to Jay Turner, who heads the project and is also the senior director of DevOps at IIX.