The Open Networking Foundation (ONF), today announced what it claims is the industry’s first competition to create an open-source "OpenFlow Driver.”

It says the competition is open to the worldwide development community to create an interoperable open-source implementation of the latest OpenFlow standard. ONF intends the process to produce an OpenFlow driver that everyone from network equipment vendors and ISVs to operators, and larger open-source projects can use for easy transitions between different implementations of the OpenFlow protocol.

The winner of the “OpenFlow Driver” competition will be awarded one grand prize of US$50,000, says the ONF.

“ONF is committed to solving market needs in very practical ways,” said Dan Pitt, executive director of the Open Networking Foundation. “This competition is designed to encourage additional SDN innovation by seeking additional open-sourced technology solutions.

"We want this OpenFlow Driver to be of use for global developers of OpenFlow products, making it easier for them to build value around and easily update the OpenFlow protocol component with the latest ONF specifications as they evolve.”

The competition is open to all organizations and individuals worldwide interested in developing an OpenFlow driver that any developer can use in a controller or switch to maintain compatibility among switches and controllers. The contest will close on August 15, 2013.