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Network Infrastructure Magazine | Wednesday, April 26, 2023
SDN will develop into a more responsive, completely automated, and highly secure technology. The software-defined mobile networking (SDMN) in the near future, will enable software-based control of the mobile network.
FREMONT, CA: Some network administration tasks became simpler as the world developed, but this was countered by the network's growing demand. For instance, using site-to-site or remote-access VPNs to combine on-prem and remote environments quickly became a necessity as more businesses pursued hybrid cloud models and work-from-home options. This further raised the workload on both networking devices and network managers.
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The traditional networking paradigm emphasises a distributed control plane, which means that each networking device in the company is required to carry out duties that are resource-intensive for central processing units.
SDN as a Modern Solution
The solution to creating policy-based networks is redefined in many respects by the ideas of Software-Defined Networking (SDN). SDN essentially creates a centralised control-plane architecture by separating the control plane from the data plane.
The Three SDN Planes
Control plane: The data plane refers to how a networking device physically forwards the packets/frames that it encounters.
Data Plane: The term data plane refers to the method through which networking equipment physically forwards the packets or frames it encounters.
Management Plane: Network administration can configure and administer network devices using the management plane.
A controller, which can be either a physical or virtual appliance, is often used to represent a centralised control plane. The controller takes care of all of this instead of each of the networking devices running their own dispersed processes. The controller, using the straightforward example of routes in a network, would have a view of the complete network and then push the necessary configuration to each router in order to establish communication. As a result, the network as a whole would have a centralised source of intelligence.
SDN and Security
However, when SDN is viewed through the lens of security, its actual value becomes apparent. Only the SDN controller needs to be configured with policies to segment distinct groups of endpoints; the controller will translate and push the configuration to the rest of the networking devices in accordance. In essence, using an SDN controller makes it possible to configure the network with business interests in mind as opposed to boring and tiresome IP addressing techniques as before.
There are numerous more advantages when implementing centralised intelligence in the network, including the following:
• Automatic device updates
• CPU usage for networking devices is decreased
• Enhanced networking device's processing speed
• Easier network management
• The effectiveness of quarantine
• Small-scale security monitoring
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