software-defined wide area network (SDWAN)

• software-defined wide area network (SDWAN)


  Another emerging WAN technology
• Centralized approach of bringing all network communications from branch offices back to the centralized corporate office

  • Fine when all resources were in a centralized location
  • Challenges with adoption of cloud-based services such as Microsoft 365, Salesforce, and Amazon Web Services
• SDWAN


  Solves problems with how to police certain applications and assume bandwidth for other applications
• Network communications use the layers of the OSI model

  • Data plane: where data is moved
  • Control plane: where data flow is controlled
  • Management plane: where the administrator manages the control plane
• SDWAN


  • Decouples the control plane from branch routers and centralizes the control plane at the SDWAN controller
  • Control plane now decides based upon congestion or application response, not just path and getting packets routed fastest
• Control protocols


  Allow an administrator to centrally control policies for branch office routers to prioritize and route traffic over an existing Internet connection or leased line
• SDWAN


  • Application aware, can differentiate between application traffic and intelligently control the flow of information over an Internet connection
  • Can be combined with traditional technologies such as virtual private networks (VPNs) to maintain access to centralized resources
• Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE)


  A protocol used to create a virtual tunnel over the Internet or an internetwork<|>Only creates a tunnel between two routed points, does not provide encryption
• GRE tunnels


  Difficult to manage as more routers are added
• Multipoint Generic Routing Encapsulation (mGRE)


  Solves problems with scale and complication of configuration of GRE tunnels<|>Allows an administrator to configure multiple GRE paths throughout the enterprise and allows branch offices to create logical tunnels between each office
• Traffic over mGRE tunnels still needs to be encrypted for privacy