Computer Networking

Advanced topics in computer networking

BGP

BMP (BGP Monitoring Protocol, RFC 7854) is used to send monitoring data from BGP routers to network management entities.

Some more notable BGP Incidents:
1.YouTube Hijack (2008)
2.Belarus Telecom (2013)
3.Google Traffic Hijack (2018)
4. MyEtherWallet Hijack (2018)
5. Route Leak to China Telecom (2019)
6. Vodafone India BGP Leak (2021)

Existing Solutions (Yet Not Universally Adopted):
a) IRR (Internet Routing Registries)
b) RPKI (Resource Public Key Infrastructure)
c) BGP Filtering
d) Prefix Limits & Max Prefix Settings
e) Monitoring Tools (like BGPMon, RIPE RIS)

MPLS

Segment Routing

VxLAN

Load Balancing

Open-sourcing Katran, a scalable network load balancer

Multicast

Open vSwitch

Wireless Networking

2.4 GHz Channel Planning

Software Defined Networking

…

Tools

Simple MRTG

cityhawk/mrtg – It’s a simple docker image to run your mrtg.

Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV)

NFV: Understanding the concepts and technical foundations – Bruno Chatras (2018, pdf)

Proxy Servers

Varnish Cache
Varnish Cache is a web application accelerator also known as a caching HTTP reverse proxy. You install it in front of any server that speaks HTTP and configure it to cache the contents.

Content delivery networks (CDNs)

A cache server is a system that stores copies of content closer to the users. Instead of fetching data from a faraway source every time, like a video from a server across the ocean, a cache server delivers the content locally. This dramatically reduces loading times, saves bandwidth, and improves the user experience.

In Service Provider (SP) networks, cache servers are critical for both performance and cost optimization.

They reduce the amount of upstream traffic going to content providers and International transit links, which are expensive and often congested. By caching popular content locally, SPs can serve millions of customer requests faster and more efficiently.

A real-world example is Google Global Cache (GGC).

Google places cache servers directly inside Service Provider networks. When users watch YouTube videos or access Google services, most of the content comes from these local caches instead of Google’s central data centers. This lowers latency, decreases backbone traffic, and gives users a much smoother experience.

Other major players, such as Netflix (through Open Connect) and Facebook, also deploy similar models.

SSH port forwarding

SSH port forwarding

SSH Tunneling — The black magic for data science

Networking infrastructures and technologies

Deep Sea Diving: The State of Submarine Cable Technology

Network automation

source: https://networklessons.com/cisco/evolving-technologies/device-programmability

For network automation we need:

  • A programmatic interface for device configuration.
  • Separation between configuration and operational data.
  • Integrated error checking and recovery.

There are three network automation protocols that meet these requirements:

NETCONF is a protocol developed by IETF to “install, manipulate, and delete the configuration of network devices”. The goal of NETCONF is to make network automation easier. It uses XML for data encoding and Remote Procedure Call (RPC) for messages. It runs over SSH.

RESTCONF is protocol which works similar to a REST API. It maps a YANG specification to a RESTful interface and uses the HTTPS protocol for transport. You can use JSON or XML as data formats. RESTCONF is newer than NETCONF but not a replacement. It’s more of a lightweight option for engineers who are familiar with REST APIs. YANG data models can be found in the YANG git repository.

RESTconf

Automating the Testing of RESTCONF Agents

Control and Management of a Connected Car Using YANG/RESTCONF and Cloud Computing

An Introduction to Nornir

Nornir using an Ansible Inventory (Part1)

Nornir using an Ansible Inventory (Part2)

Cisco networking

Packet Tracer Cisco Commands list CLI Basic

Packet Tracer 7.2.1 – Router devices and WIC modules

Complete Guide on Cisco Router Configuration For Beginners

Configuration of SSH on Cisco Switch in Packet Tracer 2019

Top OSPF Interview Questions For CCNP CCIE

Zero Conf

Industry Specification Group (ISG) Zero Touch Network and Service Management (ZSM)
The pivotal deployment of 5G and network slicing has triggered the need for a radical change in the way networks and services are managed and orchestrated. Full end-to-end automation of network and service management has become an urgent necessity for delivering services with agility and speed and ensuring the economic sustainability of the very diverse set of services offered by Digital Service Providers. The ultimate automation target is to enable largely autonomous networks which will be driven by high-level policies and rules; these networks will be capable of self-configuration, self-monitoring, self-healing and self-optimization without further human intervention. All this requires a new horizontal and vertical end-to-end architecture framework designed for closed-loop automation and optimized for data-driven machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms.

Networking blogs

Packet Pushers blog