Addresses in a Networking Stack

After discussing names, addresses and routes, it’s time for the next question: what kinds of addresses do we need to make things work?

End-users (clients) are usually interested in a single thing: they want to reach the service they want to use. They don’t care about nodes, links, or anything else.

End-users might want to use friendly service names, but we already know we need addresses to make things work. We need application level service identifiers – something that identifies the services that the clients want to reach.

Simple or Complex?

A few weeks ago, Daniel posted a piece about using different underlay and overlay protocols in a data center fabric. He says:

There is nothing wrong with running BGP in the overlay but I oppose to the argument of it being simpler.

One of the major problems we often face in network engineering—and engineering more broadly—is confusing that which is simple with that which has lower complexity. Simpler things are not always less complex. Let me give you a few examples, all of which are going to be controversial.

When OSPF was first created, it was designed to be a simpler and more efficient form of IS-IS. Instead of using TLVs to encode data, OSPF used fixed-length fields. To process the contents of a TLV, you need to build a case/switch construction where each possible type a separate bit of code. You must count off the correct length for the type of data, or (worse) read a length field and count out where you are in the stream.

Fixed-length fields are just much easier to process. You build a structure matching the layout of the fixed-length fields in memory, then point this structure at the packet contents in-memory. From there, Continue reading

Cisco-F5 partnership yields secure, multisite load balancing technology

Cisco and F5 have extended their partnership with new technology that lets enterprises balance large amounts of traffic between multiple sites to ensure availability and improve application performance.Specifically, the companies are meshing Cisco’s ACI Multi-Site/Multi-Pod package with F5’s Big IP DNS software to help customers more effectively utilize resources distributed across multiple locations, according to Yousuf Khan, vice president of technical marketing with Cisco’s enterprise and datacenter networking group.ACI is built on Cisco’s intent-based networking technology, which gives customers the ability to implement network and policy changes on the fly and ensure data delivery. ACI Multi-Site typically lets two geographically dispersed data centers link via L2/L3 networks and offers consistent policy enforcement across both sites. The Multi-Pod technology lets multiple groups of equipment within the individual data centers network with each other.To read this article in full, please click here

Cisco-F5 partnership yields secure, multisite load balancing technology

Cisco and F5 have extended their partnership with new technology that lets enterprises balance large amounts of traffic between multiple sites to ensure availability and improve application performance.Specifically, the companies are meshing Cisco’s ACI Multi-Site/Multi-Pod package with F5’s Big IP DNS software to help customers more effectively utilize resources distributed across multiple locations, according to Yousuf Khan, vice president of technical marketing with Cisco’s enterprise and datacenter networking group.ACI is built on Cisco’s intent-based networking technology, which gives customers the ability to implement network and policy changes on the fly and ensure data delivery. ACI Multi-Site typically lets two geographically dispersed data centers link via L2/L3 networks and offers consistent policy enforcement across both sites. The Multi-Pod technology lets multiple groups of equipment within the individual data centers network with each other.To read this article in full, please click here

BrandPost: How AI and ML Strengthen Networks

The explosion of interest in AI in 2023 has been primarily driven by the widespread availability of Generative AI, but Network Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have been at work for far longer. In this article, we're highlighting three interesting use cases to build a clearer picture of what’s happening now and where we’re going.1. AI Enhancing Network End-User ExperienceAI is being utilized to help NetOps teams manage the network end-user experience. This involves using AI and ML for efficient data collection, processing, and selection to rapidly identify and expose the most relevant information. AIOps allows network operators to correlate events across the tool stack and other data sources within your network, identify root causes and recurring issues across different environments, and assign collaboration projects for the appropriate operators and teams.To read this article in full, please click here

BrandPost: How AI and ML Strengthen Networks

The explosion of interest in AI in 2023 has been primarily driven by the widespread availability of Generative AI, but Network Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have been at work for far longer. In this article, we're highlighting three interesting use cases to build a clearer picture of what’s happening now and where we’re going.1. AI Enhancing Network End-User ExperienceAI is being utilized to help NetOps teams manage the network end-user experience. This involves using AI and ML for efficient data collection, processing, and selection to rapidly identify and expose the most relevant information. AIOps allows network operators to correlate events across the tool stack and other data sources within your network, identify root causes and recurring issues across different environments, and assign collaboration projects for the appropriate operators and teams.To read this article in full, please click here

The New UXL Foundation’s Has a Bold Blueprint for Open Acceleration

Heterogeneous computing is clearly here to stay but now’s the time to get down to brass tacks and start addressing standards, portability, and other elements common to maturing technologies.

The post The New UXL Foundation’s Has a Bold Blueprint for Open Acceleration first appeared on The Next Platform.

The New UXL Foundation’s Has a Bold Blueprint for Open Acceleration was written by Nicole Hemsoth Prickett at The Next Platform.

Heavy Wireless 011: How You Can Participate In The Wi-Fi Awards 2023

The Wi-Fi Awards is an industry effort to recognize excellence and achievements in the wireless community. There are award categories for companies, products, and individuals. Award recipients are determined by a committee and by community votes. Today's Heavy Wireless explores the origins of the Wi-Fi Awards, discusses different award categories and the importance of recognizing individuals. We also discuss the nomination and selection process, and how listeners can nominate candidates.

Heavy Wireless 011: How You Can Participate In The Wi-Fi Awards 2023

The Wi-Fi Awards is an industry effort to recognize excellence and achievements in the wireless community. There are award categories for companies, products, and individuals. Award recipients are determined by a committee and by community votes. Today's Heavy Wireless explores the origins of the Wi-Fi Awards, discusses different award categories and the importance of recognizing individuals. We also discuss the nomination and selection process, and how listeners can nominate candidates.

The post Heavy Wireless 011: How You Can Participate In The Wi-Fi Awards 2023 appeared first on Packet Pushers.

BrandPost: AI and the business of IT transformation

By: Trent Fierro, Blog Contributor.While digital transformation is a heavily discussed topic, the idea that IT organizations must think differently and adapt to change is rarely mentioned. There’s an expectation that the person with 10 to 15 years of experience using CLI commands will embrace the cloud, templates, and AIOps (AI for IT operations) without hesitation. That they will jump at the chance of using something new and exciting. Wrong!IT transformation involves technology advancements, people, and a new way of looking at processes and outcomes. What this means is that a network refresh usually turns into a discussion on how modern technology helps the team deliver a better user experience. Everyone from the CIO on down is looking for efficiency, and oddly, a way to preserve some form of normalcy.To read this article in full, please click here

BrandPost: AI and the business of IT transformation

By: Trent Fierro, Blog Contributor.While digital transformation is a heavily discussed topic, the idea that IT organizations must think differently and adapt to change is rarely mentioned. There’s an expectation that the person with 10 to 15 years of experience using CLI commands will embrace the cloud, templates, and AIOps (AI for IT operations) without hesitation. That they will jump at the chance of using something new and exciting. Wrong!IT transformation involves technology advancements, people, and a new way of looking at processes and outcomes. What this means is that a network refresh usually turns into a discussion on how modern technology helps the team deliver a better user experience. Everyone from the CIO on down is looking for efficiency, and oddly, a way to preserve some form of normalcy.To read this article in full, please click here

Full Stack Journey 082: Inside Talos Linux – The Distro Built For Kubernetes

Today's Full Stack Journey dives into Talos Linux, a "fit-for-purpose OS" designed for running Kubernetes. Host Scott Lowe speaks with Andrew Rynhard about Talos Linux and Sidero Labs, the company behind the Talos open source project. They discuss how Talos differs from other distributions, the concept of machine Linux, how Talos is designed for Kubernetes, and more.

The post Full Stack Journey 082: Inside Talos Linux – The Distro Built For Kubernetes appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Network observability tools promise benefits, but obstacles hinder results

Many IT organizations see the value of using network observability tools to improve end-user experience, increase innovation, and speed problem resolution, but IT pros also believe obstacles could hamper a broader adoption of the technology. Complex networks represent a challenge when IT pros need to gain visibility into each component and stop along the path an application travels from user request to service delivery. With private and cloud networks intertwined with corporate networks and the Internet, there are often gaps in visibility, which makes it more difficult to prevent and spot problems, according to new research from SolarWinds.To read this article in full, please click here

Network observability tools promise benefits, but obstacles hinder results

Many IT organizations see the value of using network observability tools to improve end-user experience, increase innovation, and speed problem resolution, but IT pros also believe obstacles could hamper a broader adoption of the technology. Complex networks represent a challenge when IT pros need to gain visibility into each component and stop along the path an application travels from user request to service delivery. With private and cloud networks intertwined with corporate networks and the Internet, there are often gaps in visibility, which makes it more difficult to prevent and spot problems, according to new research from SolarWinds.To read this article in full, please click here

New! Rate Limiting analytics and throttling

New! Rate Limiting analytics and throttling
New! Rate Limiting analytics and throttling

Rate Limiting rules are essential in the toolbox of security professionals as they are very effective in managing targeted volumetric attacks, takeover attempts, scraping bots, or API abuse. Over the years we have received a lot of feature requests from users, but two stand out: suggesting rate limiting thresholds and implementing a throttle behavior. Today we released both to Enterprise customers!

When creating a rate limit rule, one of the common questions is “what rate should I put in to block malicious traffic without affecting legitimate users?”. If your traffic is authenticated, API Gateway will suggest thresholds based on auth IDs (such a session-id, cookie, or API key). However, when you don’t have authentication headers, you will need to create IP-based rules (like for a ‘/login’ endpoint) and you are left guessing the threshold. From today, we provide analytics tools to determine what rate of requests can be used for your rule.

So far, a rate limit rule could be created with log, challenge, or block action. When ‘block’ is selected, all requests from the same source (for example, IP) were blocked for the timeout period. Sometimes this is not ideal, as you would rather selectively block/allow requests to Continue reading