It’s here. An SDN, End-to-End Visibility Solution. It has everything, that everyone’s talked about for SDN deployments: it’s flexible, scalable and cost effective.
Why is the time for SDN now? Because 5G networks are coming, and they are being driven by consumer demand for everything viral. Streaming, downloading and sharing videos is a way of life, being connected is not a convenience, but an expectation of consumers - regardless of whether they are traveling on a plane or subway, staying in a hotel or AirBnB, on lunch break at work or at a coffee shop.
With increased bandwidth demands and more complex applications the deployment of SDN solutions is now. We are proud to be part of a turnkey solution that guarantees visibility, is easy-to-deploy, and is cost effective.
I’ve been a long time advocate of software defined networking. It truly is the only way we are going to keep pace with emerging technologies. Video is the largest driver in this demand, now comprising more than 50% of our mobile data traffic. Last year, video traffic grew over 75% from smartphone traffic, according to a recent blog from Marachel Knight, senior vice president, wireless network architecture and design at AT&T.
5G differs greatly from 3G or 4G - It combines cloud infrastructure, a virtualized network core, intelligent edge services, and a distributed computing model that derives insights from the data generated by billions of devices. According to Asha Keddy, Vice President in the Platform Engineering Group and General Manager of Next Generation and Standards at Intel, “5G is much more than a G. It is much more transformative. With 5G, we will be moving from a user centric world to one of massive machine type communications where the network will move from enabling millions to billions of devices—an era that will connect these devices intelligently and usher in the commodification of information and intelligence.”
The infrastructure of yesterday won’t be enough for the demand that 5G will bring. And what about the innovations we can’t imagine yet that will come from the new technology? Part of the deliverability of 5G is reducing latency from the current 50 to 80 milliseconds to just a few milliseconds - improving the user experience and making intelligent networks possible.
The future is a combination of SDN and hardware solutions. The key to designing an End-to-End SDN Solution is to find the network fabric, bare metal switches, and network test access point solution providers that will work and scale to your future needs, without adding additional, unforeseen costs down the road.
SDN solutions need reliable data to ensure 100 percent visibility to both the control plane and the data plane. When architecting, start your SDN foundation with passive fiber optical TAPs to ensure all the data feeds the SDN solution.
Edge-core Networks and Big Switch Networks
Big Switch Networks packages technology components into fabric solutions, bringing Software Defined Networks (SDN) advanced feature sets at competitive price points. When packaging Edgecore Open Networking Switches into Open SDN Fabric Solutions, customers are now transforming the way production networks are deployed, operated and maintained.
For years, hyperscale data center operators have been enjoying the benefits of open networking: automated and accelerated provisioning of network capacity and services, greater control over the development of enhanced network services, flexibility to work with best-in-class suppliers, reduced network equipment expenses, and reduced operating expenses. Through partnerships such as this, open network solutions with Big Switch Networks, Edge-core Networks and Garland Technology have been deployed globally for 10G, 25G, 40G and 100G SDN data centers.
Looking to add SDN solution to your deployment, but not sure where to start? Join us for a brief network Design-IT consultation or demo. No obligation - it’s what we love to do!
If the inline security tool goes off-line, the TAP will bypass the tool and automatically keep the link flowing. The Bypass TAP does this by sending heartbeat packets to the inline security tool. As long as the inline security tool is on-line, the heartbeat packets will be returned to the TAP, and the link traffic will continue to flow through the inline security tool.
If the heartbeat packets are not returned to the TAP (indicating that the inline security tool has gone off-line), the TAP will automatically 'bypass' the inline security tool and keep the link traffic flowing. The TAP also removes the heartbeat packets before sending the network traffic back onto the critical link.
While the TAP is in bypass mode, it continues to send heartbeat packets out to the inline security tool so that once the tool is back on-line, it will begin returning the heartbeat packets back to the TAP indicating that the tool is ready to go back to work. The TAP will then direct the network traffic back through the inline security tool along with the heartbeat packets placing the tool back inline.
Some of you may have noticed a flaw in the logic behind this solution! You say, “What if the TAP should fail because it is also in-line? Then the link will also fail!” The TAP would now be considered a point of failure. That is a good catch – but in our blog on Bypass vs. Failsafe, I explained that if a TAP were to fail or lose power, it must provide failsafe protection to the link it is attached to. So our network TAP will go into Failsafe mode keeping the link flowing.
Single point of failure: a risk to an IT network if one part of the system brings down a larger part of the entire system.
Heartbeat packet: a soft detection technology that monitors the health of inline appliances. Read the heartbeat packet blog here.
Critical link: the connection between two or more network devices or appliances that if the connection fails then the network is disrupted.