Learning BGP Module 2 Lesson 4: Best Path – Video
This installment of Russ White’s BGP course discusses how the BGP protocol calculates the best path for a route. Topics include: -Routes to discard -Weighting -Shortest AS path -Origin type -Multi-Exit Discriminator (MED) -Oldest eBGP Path -Tiebreakers You can subscribe to the Packet Pushers’ YouTube channel for more videos as they are published. It’s a […]
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What is NFV – Network Function Virtualization
Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) was founded by the European Telecommunication Standard Institute (ETSI) with Industry Specification Group (ISG) which contains seven of the world’s leading telecom network operators.
A challenge of large-scale telecom networks is increasing the variety of proprietary hardware and launching new services that may demand the installation of new hardware. This challenge requires additional floor space, power, cooling, and more maintenance. With evolving virtualization technologies in this decade, NFV focuses on addressing the telecom problems by implementing network functions into software that can run on server hardware or hypervisors.
Furthermore, by using NFV, installing new equipment is eliminated and it will be related to the health of underlay servers and the result is lower CAPEX and OPEX.
There are many benefits when operators use NFV in today’s networks. One of them is Reducing time-to-market to deploy new services to support changing business requirements and market opportunities for new services.
Decoupling physical network equipment from the functions that run on them will help telecom companies to consolidate network equipment types onto servers, storage, and switches that are in data centers. In NFV architecture, the responsibility for handling specific network functions (e.g. IPSEC/SSL VPN) that run in one Continue reading
Bilateral Peering and Multilateral Peering
Bilateral Peering is when two networks negotiate with each other and establish a direct BGP peering session. In one of the previous posts, Settlement Free Peering was explained, in this post, both Bilateral and Multilateral Peering will be explained and both are deployment modes of Settlement Free Peering.
This is generally done when there is a large amount of traffic between two networks. Tier 1 Operators just do Bilateral Peering as they don’t want to peer with anyone, other than other Tier 1 Operators. The rest of the companies are their potential customers, not their peers.
Multilateral Peering
As mentioned above, Bilateral Peering offers the most control, but some networks with very open peering policies may wish to simplify the process, and simply “connect with everyone”. To help facilitate this, many Exchange Points offer “multilateral peering exchanges”, or an “MLPE”.
- An MLPE is typically an exchange point that offers a “route-server”, allowing a member to establish a single BGP session and receive routes from every other member connected to the MLPE.
- Effectively, connecting to the MLPE is the same as agreeing to automatically peer with everyone else connected to the MLPE, without requiring the configuration of a BGP session Continue reading
What is CDN – Content Delivery Networks?
Content Delivery Network companies replicate content caches close to a large user population. They don’t provide Internet access or transit service to the customers or ISPs but distribute the content of the content providers. Today, many Internet Service Providers started their own CDN businesses as well. An example is Level 3. Level 3 provides its CDN services from its POP locations which are spread all over the World.
Content distribution networks reduce latency and increase service resilience (Content is replicated to more than one location). More popular contents are cached locally and the least popular ones can be served from the origin
Why CDN – Content Delivery Networks are necessary?
Before CDNs, the contents were served from the source locations which increased latency, thus reducing throughput. Contents were delivered from the central site. User requests were reaching the central site where the source was located.
Figure 1 – Before CDN
With CDN Technology, the Contents are distributed to the local sites.
Figure 2 – After CDN
Amazon, Akamai, Limelight, Fastly, and Cloudflare are the largest CDN providers which provide services to different content providers all over the world. Also, some major content providers such Continue reading
It’s Time to Get Serious about Supply Chain Security
The industry needs standard practices, tools, and even processes that promote – and perhaps even reward – those who diligently participate in the effort to secure the software supply chain.Simplify and Standardize Mantra Encounters Reality
I’m usually telling networking engineers seriously considering whether to automate their networks to cleanup their design and simplify the network services first.
The only reasonable way forward is to simplify your processes – get rid of all corner cases, all special deals that are probably costing you more than you earned on them, all one-off kludges to support badly-designed applications – and once you get that done, you might realize you don’t need a magic platform anymore, because you can run your simpler network using traditional tools.
While seasoned automation practitioners agree with me, a lot of enterprise engineers face a different reality. Straight from a source that wished to remain anonymous…
Cloudflare Middle East & Turkey: a path to growth
This post is also available in عربي.
I am excited to announce that I have joined Cloudflare as Managing Director for the Middle East and Turkey (MET) region. Having worked in the domain of cyber security for more than two decades, I can see that Cloudflare is genuine in its mission of building a better Internet that is fast, safe and reliable for everyone. Being part of this journey that touches everyone’s life is surely an exciting thing to do, and I look forward to putting my experience in play towards successfully achieving this goal.
Cloudflare has been associated with delivering fast content over cloud in a most reliable and secure manner, accounting for at least 20% of the global Internet traffic. Cloudflare can cater for and support all types of organizations (businesses and public sector) including those with a social mission. The Middle East and Turkey as an emerging market is characterized by a relatively young population, with 70% of it being under the age of 30. This dynamic youth segment has an insatiable demand for both content and knowledge. To that extent, there has been a rapid uptake in Internet use, and digital transformation initiatives have significantly accelerated Continue reading
Learning BGP Module 2 Lesson 3: Messages And Updates – Video
Russ White’s BGP course continues with a lesson on messages and updates. Topics include: -BGP Open -BGP Reach -BGP MP-Reach -Address families -BGP Update -Update processing -TCP interaction You can subscribe to the Packet Pushers’ YouTube channel for more videos as they are published. It’s a diverse a mix of content from Ethan and Greg, […]
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It’s Time For Zero Trust Network Access With Zero Exceptions
Today’s digital and cloud-first businesses everywhere are struggling to get a handle on the risks associated with hybrid work and direct-to-app connectivity. For many businesses, Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) offers an opportunity to modernize and consolidate architectures while also providing a logical entrance into a broader Zero Trust journey.
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News Reports Say Broadcom Seeks VMware Acquisition
The two companies have little overlap. But combined, VMware might offer a way to manage Broadcom's remote devices and equipment in data centers.Network Break 383: Cyber Insurers Realize Customers Have Terrible Security; F5’s Big Vulnerability
This week's Network Break discusses a new threat containment feature from Rubrik to prevent companies from re-infecting themselves via compromised backups. F5 has released patches for a serious vulnerability in its Big-IP load balancer, cyber insurers raised premiums by as much 92% last year, and more IT news.Evolved on-prem networking with Netris
Network engineers, even those that have adopted a developer mentality, often struggle with getting to that next evolution of self-service in on-premises data centers. We have...
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Broadening Your Horizons, or Why Broadcom Won’t Get VMware
You might have missed the news over the weekend that Broadcom is in talks to buy VMware. As of right now this news is still developing so there’s no way of knowing exactly what’s going to happen. But I’m going to throw my hat into the ring anyway. VMware is what Broadcom really wants and they’re not going to get it.
Let’s break some of this down.
Broad Street
Broadcom isn’t just one of the largest chip manufactures on the planet. Sure, they make networking hardware that goes into many of the products you buy. Yes, they do make components for mobile devices and access points and a whole host of other things, including the former Brocade fibre channel assets. So they make a lot of chips.
However, starting back in November 2018, Broadcom has been focused on software acquisitions. They purchased CA Technologies for $19 billion. They bought Symantec the next year for $10 billion. They’re trying to assemble a software arm to work along with their hardware aspirations. Seems kind of odd, doesn’t it?
Ask IBM how it feels to be the dominant player in mainframes. Or any other dominant player in a very empty market. It’s lonely Continue reading