The 4D Network

I think we can all agree networks have become too complex—and this complexity is a result of the network often becoming the “final dumping ground” of every problem that seems like it might impact more than one system, or everything no-one else can figure out how to solve. It’s rather humorous, in fact, to see a lot of server and application folks sitting around saying “this networking stuff is so complex—let’s design something better and simpler in our bespoke overlay…” and then falling into the same complexity traps as they start facing the real problems of policy and scale.

This complexity cannot be “automated away.” It can be smeared over with intent, but we’re going to find—soon enough—that smearing intent on top of complexity just makes for a dirty kitchen and a sub-standard meal.

While this is always “top of mind” in my world, what brings it to mind this particular week is a paper by Jen Rexford et al. (I know Jen isn’t on the lead position in the author list, but still…) called A Clean Slate 4D Approach to Network Control and Management. Of course, I can appreciate the paper in part because I agree with a Continue reading

2020 Forrester Wave – Get Your Copy

Network Break 295: Arista CloudEOS Edge Joins Multi-Cloud Portfolio; Juniper Announces AI-Powered WAN Assurance

Network Break 295: Arista CloudEOS Edge Joins Multi-Cloud Portfolio; Juniper Announces AI-Powered WAN Assurance

Today's Network Break podcast explores a new multi-cloud offering from Arista, Juniper's WAN Assurance service that leverages Mist AI, and Marvell's Ethernet ASIC line. We also discuss financial results from Juniper, A10 Networks, and F5, plus a space networking update and more.

The post Network Break 295: Arista CloudEOS Edge Joins Multi-Cloud Portfolio; Juniper Announces AI-Powered WAN Assurance appeared first on Packet Pushers.

I Say The Largest Microservices Platform In the World Is The Internet

Hear me out

The post I Say The Largest Microservices Platform In the World Is The Internet appeared first on EtherealMind.

The Week in Internet News: U.S. Lawmakers Skewer Big Tech Firms

Attacking the big guys: During an antitrust hearing, U.S. lawmakers – both Democrats and Republicans – heaped criticism on Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google about their market power, the Washington Post reports. “Our founders would not bow before a king. Nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy,” said Representative David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat. Republicans complained about alleged anti-conservative bias in online services, while many Democrats talked about how the companies’ market power was being used against competitors, NPR says.

Encryption laws vs. the economy: Laws in Australia creating law enforcement access to encrypted communications are hurting the tech sector in the country, tech giant Atlassian told lawmakers there, the Guardian reports. The anti-encryption laws have discouraged talent from working in Australia and may limit economic growth during the post-COVID-19 recovery, the company said.

Paying for news: Also in Australia, the government there has released the world’s first draft law to force Google and Facebook to pay traditional news media to publish their material, Al Jazeera reports. Under the plan, the tech companies would have to negotiate with Australian media companies to use their content.

Jailed for TikToking: An Egyptian court has ordered two-year Continue reading

MUST READ: SR(x)6 – Snake Oil Or Salvation?

I wanted to write a “SRv6 makes no little sense” blog post for a long while, but there were always more relevant topics to focus on. Fortunately I won’t have to write it anytime soon; Ethan Banks did a fantastic job with SR(x)6 - Snake Oil Or Salvation?. Make sure you read it before attending the next “SRx6 will save the world” vendor presentation.

Measuring USB with bpftrace

File usb-bw.b:

#include <linux/usb.h>

interval:s:1 {
  printf("--------------------------\n");
  print(@total);
  print(@sum);
  clear(@sum);
  clear(@total);
}

kprobe:__usb_hcd_giveback_urb {
  $urb = (struct urb*)arg0;
  $dev = $urb->dev;
  @total = stats((uint64)$urb->actual_length);
  @sum[$dev->descriptor.idVendor,
       $dev->descriptor.idProduct,
       str($dev->product),
       str($dev->manufacturer)] = stats((uint64)$urb->actual_length);
}

Example run with a USB stick idling (appears to be probed once every two seconds), and starting and stopping some GNURadio sniffing with an USRP B200 at 10Msps:

$ sudo bpftrace usb-bw.b
Attaching 2 probes...
--------------------------
@total: count 317, average 20, total 6641

@sum[9472, 32, USRP B200, Ettus Research LLC]: count 315, average 20, total 6597
@sum[4871, 357, USB Mass Storage Devie, USBest Technology]: count 2, average 22, total 44

--------------------------
@total: count 6807, average 20, total 136552

@sum[9472, 32, USRP B200, Ettus Research LLC]: count 6807, average 20, total 136552

--------------------------
@total: count 8507, average 20, total 170852

@sum[9472, 32, USRP B200, Ettus Research LLC]: count 8505, average 20, total 170808
@sum[4871, 357, USB Mass Storage Devie, USBest Technology]: count 2, average 22, total 44

--------------------------
@total: count 979, average 20, total 20288

@sum[9472, 32, USRP B200, Ettus Research LLC]: count 979, average 20, total 20288

--------------------------
@total: count 2141, average 7319, total 15670428

@sum[4871, 357, USB Mass Storage Devie, USBest Technology]:  Continue reading

Nutrition Innovations You Shouldn’t Miss

With the passage of time, the entire world continues to change – bringing about different innovations that were previously never known to humans. These innovations arise in various fields and are extremely noteworthy, because not only do they contain benefits, but they are also extremely convenient as compared to older measures.

Similar is the case for nutrition. Previously, to gain different health benefits and strength in various areas, one would have to combine a number of different fruits, vegetables, or any type of food and combine them together to get some form of nutrients for the body. However, these ways would consume an immense amount of time.

There is no doubt that in today’s world, the only thing everyone is short on is time. For this reason, some natural health brands are known for bringing about various nutrition innovations over the years, which can boost your health to a great extent.

These are the latest innovations, which you need to incorporate into your lifestyle so that you can feel more energized and healthier, each step of the way!

Improve Your Sleep Cycle

One of the greatest fight’s humans have with themselves is with their inner need for sleep. The time Continue reading

Hosting KVM Apps Inside IOS XE Virtual Service Container

Transferring pictures with DStar

I’ve successfully experimented with sending pictures using the data portion of D-Star.

I did it in multiple ways, starting with the simplest and ending with the longest path (though not most complex).

Equipment is an Android phone, a Kenwood TH-D74, and an ICom IC-9700.

Simplex

First I did it the simplest way, using simplex between the radios.

You install the ICom RS-MS1A app (sigh, yes that’s the kind of useful naming scheme they have). You’d think this app is needed for the ICom radio, but no. The IC-9700 has Picture mode built in. I used this app for the Kenwood D74.

You start the app, select “Others (Bluetooth)”, and select the D74.

On the D74 you need to:

1. Press 1 to go into VFO mode
2. Select the right frequency
3. Set the mode to digital (DV/DR)
4. If it’s DR, switch it to DV in the digital menu.
5. In the digital menu, switch it to DATA

Annoyingly, unlike the native picture mode in the IC9700, setting DATA mode on the D74 will not allow any voice transmission at all.

On the IC9700, just set the right frequency, switch to DV mode, and select Picture from the menu.

I won’t go into detail Continue reading

Commit to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Every Day

The world is waking up
Protesting in the name of Black Lives Matter.
Reading the book “White Fragility”.
Watching the documentary “13th”.

The world is waking up to the fight against racism and I couldn’t be happier!

But let’s be clear: learning about anti-racism and being anti-racist are not the same things. Learning is a good first step and a necessary one. But if you don’t apply the knowledge you acquire, then you are not helping to move the needle.

Since the murder of George Floyd at the hands/knees of the Minneapolis police, people all over the world have been focused on Black Lives Matter and anti-racism. At Cloudflare, we’ve seen an increase in cyberattacks, we’ve heard from the leadership of Afroflare, our Employee Resource Group for employees of African descent, and we held our first ever Day On, held on June 18, Cloudflare’s employee day of learning about bias, the history and psychological effects of racism,, and how racism can get baked into algorithms.

By way of this blog post, I want to share my thoughts about where I think we go from here and how I believe we can truly embody Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Continue reading

Tribal Priority Window extended to September 2 – but it’s still not enough time to connect Indigenous communities to a critical lifeline

While Indigenous communities across the US battle some of the most brutal COVID-19 mortality rates in the country, they’ve simultaneously raced against the clock to take advantage of a once-in-a-generation opportunity to access and manage their own broadband.

The Tribal Priority Window is an unprecedented opportunity for eligible US Tribes to apply for 2.5GHz spectrum leases ahead of the federal auction. Targeted at the most digitally underserved communities in the US— where only half of housing units have access to broadband— the Window is intended to enable rural Tribes access to Internet service and the development of services to narrow the digital divide. The application process posed significant challenges to Tribes who already struggle with poor connectivity. The digital format, coupled with COVID-19 realities, has hampered their ability to file applications within the deadline.

Due to the insurmountable obstacles posed by the pandemic, Tribes and nearly 100 organizations have called on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Congress to extend the Tribal Priority Window by 180 days.

In response, the FCC has granted them just 30 additional days to file their applications. In its order, the FCC says that this extension is due to the unusual Continue reading

Using sFlow to monitor dropped packets

Fast Friday – Mobility Field Day 5 Edition

I’ve been in the middle of Mobility Field Day 5 this week with a great group of friends and presenters. There’s a lot to unpack. I wanted to share some quick thoughts around wireless technologies and where we’re headed with it.

• Wireless isn’t magic. We know that because it’s damned hard to build a deployment plan and figure out where to put APs. We’ve built tools that help us immensely. We’ve worked on a variety of great things that enable us to make it happen easier than it’s been before. But remember that the work still has to happen and we still have to understand it. As soon as someone says, “You don’t need to do the work, our tool just makes it happen” my defenses go up. How does the tool understand nuance? Who is double-checking it? What happens when you can’t feed it all the info it needs? Don’t assume that taking a human out of the loop is always good thing. Accrued knowledge is more important than you realize.
• Analytics give you a good picture of what you want, but they don’t turn wrenches. All the data in the world won’t replace a keyboard. You need to Continue reading

Heavy Networking 532: Scrapli Is A Netmiko Alternative

Heavy Networking 532: Scrapli Is A Netmiko Alternative

Scrapli is a Python screen-scraping client for network devices to help enable automation. Today's Heavy Networking dives into Scrapli with two of its creators, Carl Montanari and Dmitry Figol. We discuss its origins, support for network OSs, how it differs from Netmiko, and more.

The post Heavy Networking 532: Scrapli Is A Netmiko Alternative appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Network Complexity Series

A while back Nick Russo developed a video series on network complexity for the Network Collective membership community. Today we’re releasing this content free for all to consume. This is fantastic content that helps quantify how complexity impacts network performance and network design. Thanks to Nick Russo for continually providing such fantastic content to the networking community.

You can find the documents referenced in the case study videos at the publications page on Nick Russo’s website.

The post Network Complexity Series appeared first on Network Collective.

The HashiCorp Consul Service Comes to Microsoft Azure

The release of HashiCorp’s push to widen the scope of its managed services offerings on the cloud. The GA release of HCS on Armon Dadgar, co-founder and CTO of HashiCorp, said the Azure HCS release is part of HashiCorp’s shift to a more managed-services business model. “We are transitioning from being a desktop software vendor to becoming more of a cloud software vendor,” said Dadgar. Dadgar said HashiCorp opted for Azure since there is a lot of overlap between the kinds of customer organizations HashiCorp and Microsoft tend to focus on. The launch Continue reading

Weekend Reads 073120

More than 4.7 million sources in five countries — the US, China, South Korea, Russia, and India — were used to level distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against victims in the second quarter of 2020, with the portmap protocol most frequently used as an amplification vector to create massive data floods, security and services firm A10 Networks says in its threat report for the second quarter.

Thousands of people graduate from colleges and universities each year with cybersecurity or computer science degrees only to find employers are less than thrilled about their hands-on, foundational skills. Here’s a look at a recent survey that identified some of the bigger skills gaps, and some thoughts about how those seeking a career in these fields can better stand out from the crowd.

Three standards for email security that are supposed to verify the source of a message have critical implementation differences that could allow attackers to send emails from one domain and have them verified as sent from a different — more legitimate-seeming — domain, says a research team who will present their findings at the virtual Black Hat conference next month.

We’ve tried to use GUI to simplify the YAML file. But Continue reading