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LANs Local Area Networks

• DOVE (IBM DOVE)

  IBM Dove (Distributed Overlay Virtual Ethernet) is an architecture that allows a network engineer to abstract the physical network infrastructure from hypervisor hosts and make network changes in software rather than hardware. Continue Reading

• Is SDN a centralized or distributed network architecture?

  A software-defined network can have a centralized or distributed network architecture in the data center, LAN and WAN, depending on business needs. Continue Reading

• What is the difference between an overlay network and SDN?

  A software-defined network can be deployed as an overlay network to a physical network or natively as the primary network to improve flexibility. Continue Reading

• Does software-defined networking require special SDN switches?

  Software-defined networks do not require special SDN switches; instead, vendors offer a variety of SDN controllers, network fabrics and hardware. Continue Reading

• Where do network fabric and SDN technologies intersect?

  Networks can use a network fabric and SDN technologies together, and vendors' SDN architectures integrate them in a variety different ways. Continue Reading

• Definitions to Get Started

  • WAN (Wide Area Network)
  • VLAN (virtual LAN)
  • network switch
  • dynamic and static

  • FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
  • coaxial cable
  • OSI model (Open Systems Interconnection)
  • DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)

  View All Definitions

• Why you need a hybrid network while migrating to SDN

  While migrating to software-defined networking, hybrid SDN and traditional networks must support both physical and virtual switching environments.Continue Reading

• The role of northbound APIs in an SDN environment

  Northbound APIs on SDN controllers enable applications and orchestration systems to program the network and request services from it.Continue Reading

• SDN, network virtualization: Are they the same?

  Despite differences, SDN and network virtualization share common elements to direct network resources to VMs and segment or consolidate networks.Continue Reading

• Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF)

  Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) is the part of the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) that supports service data flow detection, policy enforcement and flow-based charging.Continue Reading

• Mininet

  Mininet is a software emulator for prototyping a large network on a single machine. Continue Reading

• Distributed Control Plane Architecture (DCPA)

  A Distributed Control Plane Architecture (DCPA) is a network architecture that makes it possible to allocate control protocol functions across multiple processor levels in the network system.Continue Reading

• Floodlight

  Floodlight is a Java-based OpenFlow controller.Continue Reading

• SDN technologies primer: Revolution or evolution in architecture?

  SDN can be implemented with a centralized controller or distributed architecture. In choosing SDN technologies, is a complete overhaul necessary?Continue Reading

• ODIN (Open Data Center with an Interoperable Network)

  ODIN (Open Data Center with an Interoperable Network) is a reference architecture that describes best practices for creating a flat, converged, virtualized data center fabric based on open industry standards.  Continue Reading

• Path Computation Element (PCE)

  Path Computation Element (PCE) is a network component, application or node that can apply computational constraints and compute a network path or route based on a network graph. The PCE has access to topology information for the entire network and ...Continue Reading