Skip to main content

Software-Defined Networking (SDN)

-

 What is SDN?

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a network architecture approach that enables the network to be intelligently and centrally controlled, or ‘programmed,’ using software applications. This helps operators manage the entire network consistently and holistically, regardless of the underlying network technology.

The SDN Architecture is:

DIRECTLY PROGRAMMABLE

Network control is directly programmable because it is decoupled from forwarding functions.

AGILE

Abstracting control from forwarding lets administrators dynamically adjust network-wide traffic flow to meet changing needs.

CENTRALLY MANAGED

Network intelligence is (logically) centralized in software-based SDN controllers that maintain a global view of the network, which appears to applications and policy engines as a single, logical switch.

PROGRAMMATICALLY CONFIGURED

SDN lets network managers configure, manage, secure, and optimize network resources very quickly via dynamic, automated SDN programs, which they can write themselves because the programs do not depend on proprietary software.

OPEN STANDARDS-BASED AND VENDOR-NEUTRAL

When implemented through open standards, SDN simplifies network design and operation because instructions are provided by SDN controllers instead of multiple, vendor-specific devices and protocols.






SDN Architecture


There are four critical areas in which SDN technology can make a difference for an organization.

VIDEO
Chalk Talk - Software-Defined Networks (SDN)

1) Network programmability: SDN enables network behavior to be controlled by the software that resides beyond the networking devices that provide physical connectivity. As a result, network operators can tailor the behavior of their networks to support new services, and even individual customers. By decoupling the hardware from the software, operators can introduce innovative, differentiated new services rapidly—free from the constraints of closed and proprietary platforms.

VIDEO
Chalk Talk - Software-Defined Networks (SDN)

2) Logically centralize intelligence and control: SDN is built on logically centralized network topologies, which enable intelligent control and management of network resources. Traditional network control methods are distributed. Devices function autonomously with limited awareness of the state of the network. With the kind of centralized control an SDN-based network provides, bandwidth management, restoration, security, and policies can be highly intelligent and optimized—and an organization gains a holistic view of the network.

3) Abstraction of the network: Services and applications running on SDN technology are abstracted from the underlying technologies and hardware that provide physical connectivity from network control. Applications will interact with the network through APIs, instead of management interfaces tightly coupled to the hardware.

4) Openness: SDN architectures usher in a new era of openness—enabling multi-vendor interoperability as well as fostering a vendor-neutral ecosystem. Openness comes from the SDN approach itself. The open APIs support a wide range of applications, including cloud orchestration, OSS/BSS, SaaS, and business-critical networked apps. In addition, intelligent software can control hardware from multiple vendors with open programmatic interfaces like OpenFlow. Finally, from within the SDN, intelligent network services and applications can run within a common software environment.

A key advantage of SDN technology is the ability for network operators to write programs that utilize SDN APIs and give applications control over network behavior. SDN allows users to develop network-aware applications, intelligently monitor network conditions, and automatically adapt the network configuration as needed.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Design Thinking

-
Image
  What is Design Thinking (DT)? Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that teams use to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test. It is most useful to tackle ill-defined or unknown problems and involves five phases: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test.   Importance of Design Thinking “Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer's toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.” - Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO Design thinking  fosters innovation . Companies must innovate to survive and remain competitive in a rapidly changing environment. In design thinking, cross-functional teams work together to understand user needs and create solutions that address those needs. Moreover, the design thinking process h elps unearth creative solutions.          Design thinking offers  p
Read more

Android 15: mobile operating system

-
Image
  Google's next major Android update, Android 15 (Vanilla Ice Cream), is expected in May 2024. It brings new features like native satellite connectivity, high-quality webcam mode for PCs, and improved optimisation for foldable phones.   Google releases a new major update to Android every year, its operating system that powers the world’s most popular smartphones from the biggest brands. This year, the search engine giant will likely launch Android 15 alongside new hardware at  Google I/O 2024  on May 14. Going by the current trend,  Android 15  will bring a ton of new features, with many powered by Generative Artificial Intelligence. Here are 10 new features that Google is introducing with the Android 15 release. 01 Android 15: A new name and logo Android 15 will be the name of the next major Android OS release, which comes with a new logo inspired by space and rockets, similar to the Android 14 logo. Android 15 is internally known as Vanilla Ice Cream, following the tradi
Read more

Micro Frontends

-
Image
  What are Micro Frontends? The term  Micro Frontends  first came up in ThoughtWorks Technology Radar at the end of 2016. It extends the concepts of micro services to the frontend world. The current trend is to build a feature-rich and powerful browser application, aka single page app, which sits on top of a micro service architecture. Over time the frontend layer, often developed by a separate team, grows and gets more difficult to maintain. That’s what we call a  Frontend Monolith . The idea behind Micro Frontends is to think about a website or web app as  a composition of features  which are owned by  independent teams . Each team has a  distinct area of business  or  mission  it cares about and specialises in. A team is  cross functional  and develops its features  end-to-end , from database to user interface. However, this idea is not new. It has a lot in common with the  Self-contained Systems  concept. In the past approaches like this went by the name of  Frontend Integrat
Read more