A software-defined networking (SDN) consortium is forming - if that's the right tense - the lines may have already been drawn.

It's using the password "Daylight." It's supposedly got in mind an open source SDN controller. And it's supposedly got it in for VMware. At least that's the buzz around town.

It reportedly includes Cisco, IBM, HP, NEC and Citrix. Evidently Cisco is still ticked over its buddy VMware buying Nicira, the SNA and network virtualization start-up, last year.

According to SDNCentral, the only folks who seem to have noticed what's going on, the consortium's supposed to be modeled after the Apache and OpenStack Foundations.

SDNCentral says Cisco has kicked in the core controller functionality, including OpenFlow; Big Blue has contributed overlay-based network virtualization; HP's supposedly good for L2 network services; NEC has come up with virtual tenant networks and Citrix the service chaining.

It's reportedly Java-based, with high availability and clustering, and bound to be licensed on Apache 2 terms. It will start with data center networks.

SDNCentral expects the widget to be shipping by the end of the year, doubtlessly working on KVM and/or OpenStack. And, tellingly, the Daylight controller won't have any gateways to VXLAN or VMware/Nicira. It's apparently an open source alternative to VMware, or specifically to vSphere and Nicira and may first see the light of day around the Open Networking Summit next month.

See www.sdncentral.com/companies/spotlight-on-daylight-sdn-consortium-open-source-controller/2013/02/.