Heiliger said the open nature of the organization is part of what motivated him to get involved with the ONF. The openness of IP fed the rapid innovation that happened in IP networks, and Facebook would not have been possible without open-source software, he said. "Innovation is not possible without openness," Heiliger said. Proprietary software was too constraining to allow the rapid innovation that has gone into creating the social-networking service.

Likewise, proprietary firmware in networking gear today constrains network operators, forcing them to integrate each vendor's technology into the network.

"If I want to have a network management system, I have to figure out how to program my network management system to access the Cisco box versus a Juniper box, versus some other third-party box," Heiliger said.

Likewise, the firmware in networking gear today constrains network operators, forcing them to build "wrappers" in their management software for devices from different vendors, Heiliger said. For example, to make sure a packet traverses the network with a certain quality of service, administrators need to make sure that the variables on a wide variety of gear are set correctly. They should be able to have that packet sent in the desired way without regard for the underlying network, he said.

"I don't want to have to worry about it. I want another intelligent piece of software to have to worry about it," Heiliger said.