Here’s our gathering of the week’s news bits around software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), and related topics.

... The transition to SDN might have caused a slowdown in service-provider router and switch sales, according to Infonetics principal analyst Michael Howard. Fourth quarter revenue for carrier routers and switches was $14.5 billion, down 4 percent from last year's fourth quarter, according to his numbers. That means the fourth quarter didn't see the usual budget flush, where companies spend the rest of their budgets to set a higher baseline for the following year. Howard thinks it's because many carriers are in trials or planning stages in preparation for implementing SDN.

... Deep packet inspection (DPI) specialist Qosmos outlined product plans for SDN and NFV. It starts with the Service Aware Module (SAM), which can be combined with various virtual switches to examine traffic. That's available in pilot projects, with commercial shipments due in the third quarter. Next comes a virtual DPI element, the VNFC with pilots in the second quarter and shipments in the fourth quarter. Later in the year, Qosmos plans to introduce a service chaining model.

…Infinera introduced a new line of products designed to simplify multilayer transport networks through automation. Products include a number of claimed “firsts:” the first superchannel FlexROADM (reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer), the first standards-based multilayer control plane for spectrum-switched optical networks (SSON), and the first 500-Gb/s flexible-grid superchannels for long-haul transmission.

…Pluribus Networks announced an analytics product based on its virtualized Freedom Server-Switch product line and Netvisor OS. Its new inNetwork Analytics is designed to maintain a record of more than 1 million application flows across the fabric and store more than 1 TB of historical data per switch. Pluribus’ selling point: inNetwork provides visibility into underlay and overlay networks without a monitoring fabric.

…Freescale introduced a new line of SDN software. Its SDN line includes VortiQa open network (ON) director and switch software, and it’s optimized to run on Freescale QorIQ multicore communications processors. VortiQa is compatible with the OpenFlow 1.3.X open standard and extends to cover protocols Layer 4 and above.

…NTT Communications this month is planning to launch its Arcstar Universal One Virtual Option service, which uses SDN virtual technology to create and control overlay networks via existing corporate networks or the Internet. Arcstar Universal One initially will be available in 21 countries including the U.S., Japan, Singapore, the U.K., Hong Kong, Germany, and Australia. NTT Com says it is the first company to offer such a service.

… Coho Data announced general availability of DataStream 1000, a scale-out storage offering that is part of the company’s bid to make enterprise storage behave more like cloud storage. Launched in beta late last year, DataStream 1000 combines commodity hardware with web-scale software that’s tuned for commodity PCIe flash technologies.

... CPlane announced a platform called Dynamic Virtual Networks (DVN), a form of network virtualization targeting OpenStack environments. It uses protocols including VXLAN to divide physical resources into virtualized resource pools.

… Finally, under the “software isn’t everything” category (quoting Greg Ferro's Ethereal Mind blog), Netronome launched a new line of NICs for SDN and NFV. The products include a suite of FlowNIC PCIe Gen3 cards designed to scale up to 200 Gb/s. Software is involved too, though, as there's the FlowEnvironment package that Netronome says delivers more than a 20X increase to virtual switching performance.