One year at Plexxi and the Future of Networking

It’s almost time to celebrate my one-year work anniversary with Plexxi, coming up next month. When I began here I set out with a grand vision set on building a simply better network. I’m grateful to the entire Plexxi team for their commitment and hard work to make many of our goals a reality. I believe that today we are better and stronger as a company. We have meaningful industry partnerships like our distribution agreement with Arrow, groundbreaking product developments and more financing to make our goals and growth plans a reality.

Last week I spoke with Chris Talbot, a writer at FierceEnterpriseCommunications and had the opportunity to reflect on my time with Plexxi so far. Chris and I discussed what led me to join Plexxi, why I believe in what we’re doing and why we’re pioneering a new path for networks that is going to lead the industry for years to come.

We are making great strides and I’m excited about the momentum we have going for us right now and what the future holds. You can find Chris’ article, “The Future of Networking is Photonic Underlays” here. Let me know what you think.

The post Continue reading

Docomo’s vEPC Is Nearing Launch With Ericsson, Fujitsu, & NEC

The NFV project looks ready to launch by March, Docomo tells the SDN & OpenFlow World Congress.

HP Is Shipping Unicorns Now: 10GBASE-T SFP+ Module

Dawnray SFP+ module. Photo found here.

Can myriad wireless networks connect as one fast, secure system?

Getting the innumerable wireless networks the military and some commercial enterprises to communicate just doesn’t work in many cases, creating serious communications and security problems for warfighters and others interacting with those networks.+More on Network World Gartner: IT should simplify security to fight inescapable hackers+Researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are looking for ways to change that problem with a new program called Dynamic Network Adaptation for Mission Optimization (DyNAMO).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Can myriad wireless networks connect as one fast, secure system?

Getting the innumerable wireless networks the military and some commercial enterprises to communicate just doesn’t work in many cases, creating serious communications and security problems for warfighters and others interacting with those networks.+More on Network World Gartner: IT should simplify security to fight inescapable hackers+Researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are looking for ways to change that problem with a new program called Dynamic Network Adaptation for Mission Optimization (DyNAMO).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Gathering network device versions with Ansible using SNMP

Until there is a universal standard which states how to access network devices I believe SNMP is the best option when it comes to determining what a device actually is. While SNMP’s glory days might be long gone, if there in fact were any. There are still some instances where SNMP is more handy than the modern APIs we have now. All network devices respond in the same way to SNMP queries. This can be compared to a REST API where you have to know the URL of the API before you can target a device. Even with SSH which is also a standard the implementation differs between various vendors, while this doesn’t matter if you are connecting to the device manually it does if you are using a script. Looking at Netmiko a Python library for SSH, you have to specify device vendor and class when you connect. This is because SSH doesn’t work the same with Cisco devices, compared to HP devices, as prompts and paging work differently. However with SNMP it always works the same, sure all vendors have specific MIBs that they use. But general queries for standard MIBs work the same. Using a standard MIB Continue reading

NEC/NetCracker Channel Brings SDN, NFV Resources for CSPs

SDxCentral is delighted to reveal the new NEC/NetCracker channel! Visit the NEC/NetCracker channel to learn more about the partners's latest solutions for the network virtualization and SDN space.

Worth Reading: Thoughts on the Open Internet

I’m sure we’ve all heard about “the Open Internet.” The expression builds upon a rich pedigree of term “open” in various contexts. For example, “open government” is the governing doctrine which holds that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective public oversight, a concept that appears to be able to trace its antecedents back to the age of enlightenment in 17th century Europe.

I would normally place worth reading items in the right column, Geoff has written a six part series about the open Internet that’s worth reading. I’ve put links to each piece here.

Thoughts on the Open Internet – Part 1: What Is “Open Internet”
Thoughts on the Open Internet – Part 2: The Where and How of “Internet Fragmentation”
Thoughts on the Open Internet – Part 3: Local Filtering and Blocking
Thoughts on the Open Internet – Part 4: Locality and Interdependence
Thoughts on the Open Internet – Part 5: Security
Thoughts on the Open Internet – Part 6: Final Thoughts

The post Worth Reading: Thoughts on the Open Internet appeared first on 'net work.

Worth Reading: Open Switch Software

Facebook, NTT and Big Switch plan on Friday to demonstrate a combination of open source software that can be used to run a working networking switch — a step forward in creating open source alternatives to proprietary networking hardware and software. —via Light Reading

The post Worth Reading: Open Switch Software appeared first on 'net work.

HL: The Degree or the Certification?

The post HL: The Degree or the Certification? appeared first on 'net work.

PQ Show 59 – Docker Network Plugin Architecture

While attending an influencers event at Intel in Portland, Oregon I got into a discussion with Kelsey Hightower @kelseyhightower and Keith Townsend @ctoadvisor on the nature of Docker networking and its plugin architecture.

The post PQ Show 59 – Docker Network Plugin Architecture appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Telecom Opens Up To Containers

Service providers are starting to embrace container technology to deliver more dynamic, distributed applications

Gathering network device versions with Ansible using SNMP

Until there is a universal standard which states how to access network devices I believe SNMP is the best option when it comes to determining what a device actually is. While SNMP’s glory days might be long gone, if there in fact were any. There are still some instances where SNMP is more handy than the modern APIs we have now. All network devices respond in the same way to SNMP queries. This can be compared to a REST API where you have to know the URL of the API before you can target a device. Even with SSH which is also a standard the implementation differs between various vendors, while this doesn’t matter if you are connecting to the device manually it does if you are using a script. Looking at Netmiko a Python library for SSH, you have to specify device vendor and class when you connect. This is because SSH doesn’t work the same with Cisco devices, compared to HP devices, as prompts and paging work differently. However with SNMP it always works the same, sure all vendors have specific MIBs that they use. But general queries for standard MIBs work the same. Using a standard MIB it’s possible to identify the manufacturer of a device and often it’s version. Continue reading

Riverbed Unleashes A Hungry “Project Tiger”

“The future of the WAN is NOT . . . a router.”

These bold words were spoken by Riverbed’s Josh Dobies in a presentation to the delegates at Networking Field Day 10 this August, as a lead in to the first public announcement of “Project Tiger.”

Anatomy of a Tiger

Riverbed explained that the SteelHead appliances perform WAN optimization in sites with highly contended bandwidth. The SteelFusion appliances offer both “hyperconverged infrastructure” and WAN optimization. For sites that have plenty of bandwidth, however, there’s no Riverbed product you can put there and that–for Riverbed at least–is a problem. Riverbed’s proposed solution? Ironically, it’s an appliance that can act as a WAN router, but with some rather unusual features.

Key Technical Takeaways

The headline features of Project Tiger as I see it, are:

• New SteelOS™ modular operating system (replacing RiOS)
• Containerization technology, used for the SteelOS modules
• Service-Chaining capability
• Riverbed SD-WAN features
• Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP), with policy and configuration managed centrally in SteelCentral™
• BGP and OSPF to exchange routes with adjacent MPLS CE routers, for example.

Surprisingly absent from that list, however, is WAN Optimization. Despite being Riverbed’s core competency, this is not a feature of the Project Tiger appliance. Because Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: Huawei 5G hits 3.6 gigabits per second in field test

For anyone questioning the feasibility of super-high speed 5G networks—faster than wired is today—due to come on stream in 2020, be assured, tests have been completed that apparently indicate that the tech can actually work. China-based equipment maker Huawei has announced that it has, along with Japan’s largest Mobile Network Operator NTT DOCOMO, concluded a large-scale, non-lab field trial of 5G.Peak speeds Peak speeds reached 3.6Gbps Huawei says in a press release on its website. For comparison Verizon’s 4G LTE broadband in the U.S. has “peak download speeds approaching 50Mbps,” according to Verizon on its website.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft details takedown requests in expanded transparency report

In response to growing government demands for data, tech companies have been detailing those requests in transparency reports that elaborate on what gets done when government agencies come calling for users' data.Microsoft just released the latest incarnation of its data on Wednesday, including a new report on requests to get information taken down from the company's services.  Those requests, unsurprisingly, are focused on Bing, since it's the Microsoft service most responsible for displaying data to the public. That said, takedown requests came for includes other services, too, such as MSN and OneDrive.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Is the office desk phone obsolete?

It's found in every modern business, on every desk. It's powerful enough to connect even the most geographically distant workers, and yet, it strikes fear into the hearts of many millennial workers. It's the desk phone, and despite the prevalence of text messaging, collaboration apps and video conferencing, rumors of its demise have been greatly exaggerated."Maybe the desk phone is headed for retirement, but it's not there yet. There's still a significant portion of the workforce that prefers using their office phone to conduct business and mission-critical calls," says Curtis Peterson, senior vice president of operations at telecommunications provider RingCentral.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What SoftBank’s Service Portal Tells Us About Tail-f & Cisco

Tail-f sticks to its multivendor roots and declares a YANG revolution.

CCNA – Operation of IP Data Networks 1.3

We move on to the next topic:

1.3 Identify common applications and their impact on the network

When you work in networking, it’s important to have an understanding of how applications work and what are their characteristics. Is it sensitive to packet loss? Is it sensitive to jitter? What ports does it use? Let’s have a look at some of the common applications that you need to be aware of for the CCNA certification.

HTTP

HTTP is the most important protocol on the Internet. The major part of all traffic from the Internet is HTTP. With sites like Facebook, Youtube, Netflix, this will not decrease in the future, rather web traffic will dominate even more. HTTP is normally run on TCP port 80 but it’s possible to run it on custom ports as well. Because HTTP runs over TCP, it is not very sensitive to packet loss and it does not have strict requirements for delay or jitter. However, people still don’t have a lot of patience for a web page loading and if there is a lot of packet loss, it may affect streaming services such as Netflix or services where downloading/uploading of files is done. From a Continue reading

The Lack of Historic Knowledge Is so Frustrating

Every time I’m explaining the intricacies of new technologies to networking engineers, I try to use analogies with older well-known technologies, trying to make it simpler to grasp the architectural constraints of the shiny new stuff.

Unfortunately, most engineers younger than ~35 years have no idea what I’m talking about – all they know are Ethernet, IP and MPLS.

Just to give you an example – here’s a slide from my SDN workshop.