Yokogawa Solution Service Corp., a subsidiary of Yokogawa Electric Corp., installed a software-defined networking (SDN) solution at four paper plants in Japan that are operated by group companies of Oji Holdings (the Oji Group).

According to Yokogawa, this installation marks the first-ever plant-wide implementation in Japan of SDN, a software-based technology that enables the creation of virtual network environments. As part of the project, Yokogawa assessed the company’s IT infrastructure and designed and deployed SDN-based networks at these facilities.

Software-based SDN technology enables flexible implementation of virtual networks for each individual application, linking network devices using the same physical network. This facilitates the integrated management, implementation and reconfiguration of networks. It also helps reduce the required number of network devices and the amount of wiring that needs to be performed, saving operating and management costs.