What is SD-Wan?
Software-defined WAN is a new approach to network connectivity that lowers operational costs and improves resource usage for multi-site deployments, allowing network administrators to use bandwidth more efficiently and ensure the highest possible level of performance for critical applications without sacrificing security or data privacy.
With SD-WAN, remote sites are connected over low-cost Internet links secured by VPN. MPLS-like reliability is provided through multiple uplinks with load balancing capabilities, intelligent path control, and automatic failover.
How does the magic happen?
- Dynamic path selection: Traffic path chosen per-application based on loss, latency, and jitter
- Traffic distribution over multiple pathways (Internet, cellular) with built-in load balancing and automatic fail-over capabilities
- Network topology never changes (because it’s an overlay network), the only thing that could change is the ability to reach the next hop
What are the downsides?
- Routing protocols compute best path for a given destination, not a given application
- Best path computations are not influenced by real-time events such as lossy links or link congestion
- In general, lower bandwidth links are not used to carry traffic (since they are not computed as the best path)
How can LMJ/Forte help with your SD-WAN requirements?
We are happy to engage in reviewing your requirements and providing technical consulting and hardware recommendations to maximize the benefits of your SD-WAN deployment.
