AI, LLMs and Networking
Bill Gates recently described the development of AI as a creation as fundamental as the microprocessor, the personal computer, the Internet, and the mobile phone. He is most likely right. OpenAI found that around 80% of the U.S. workforce could have at least 10% of their work tasks affected by the introduction of large language models (LLMs). For those in …
Time to Ditch the Definition of SDN
While at a stoplight looking at the random news feeds on Linkedin I ran across a post of a recent blog post by the ONF and the subsequent conversation where my friend Ivan Pepenlnjak commented. So I threw in my two cents and quickly regretted it because Linkedin has an amazing ability to frustrate me as it updated the comment …
The Network Iceberg
The impact of compute virtualization on the data center network has been profound. There are more virtual ports then physical ports. That simple measurement overshadows any other disruption in networking. We arrived at this transformation as a result of significant adoption of OS virtualization. The next revision of compute virtualization is the application. The last significant bastion of efficiency is to …
New Opportunity at Red Hat
Exciting times are upon us. I have humbly accepted a job at Red Hat on the Open Daylight dev team working with some incredible people at Red Hat and just as special folks in the community. I just wanted to pop up a brief post letting my friends in the community know where I am heading. I will miss my …
Install Open vSwitch v2.0 from RPM on RedHat Fedora
This post is for installing OVS from RedHat RPM binaries. If you want to build Open vSwitch from source please see this post. Open vSwitch v2.0 introduces some really important features, at the top of the list is multi-threaded support in vswitchd. This will increase flow instantiation rates significantly into the upstream kernel module. A rough guess would be from …
Installing Mininet, OpenDaylight and Open vSwitch
The easiest way to get started with a quick SDN lab image is using the Mininet image that is now managed by the ONLAB which is part of the ONRC. They do a nice job keeping the images maintained. Ideally the will incorporate ODL into the image soon since the ODL GUI is great for folks to get started with …
Eliminating VLANs and Fragility in the Underlay with Network Virtualization
This post is not intended to participate in the vendor Overlay vs. Underlay vs. Open OS vs. closed NOS but rather a network centric look at some things I am considering. The simple answer is routing scales and bridging doesn’t in my experience. As I look back at the first decade in my career I spent operating and designing Ethernet …
SDN Product Rundown from September
What an exciting time to be in networking. This past month of September has been a blur of SDN product announcements and emerging strategies. At the top of the heap was the NSX announcement from a software company in Vmware that encapsulated Nicira’s SDN push. I am an unabashed Casado fan boy so whatevers. Humility and genius is lightning striking …
The Cisco ONE SDN Controller
Cisco announced the ONE controller at Cisco Live last summer. The ONE has been in Beta for a few months now. There is still plenty of fragmentation around what SDN is and what it should solve. One generally accepted concept is the way we operate networks today, is showing signs of age. The announcement of OpenDaylight this week, pretty much …
Installing OpenStack Grizzly with DevStack
DevStack is a scripted OpenStack installer maintained for developers to prototype and debug. It is also handy for operators to proof concepts and test new services and configurations. This is a good starter for folks new to OpenStack to help understand how to install and operate OpenStack. Some folks have been asking about multi-node DevStack deployment using nova network, so …
SDN Dominates NFD#5
SDN was the soup dajoure at Networking Field Day #5 and rightfully so. My friends are not only talented bloggers, but also some of the best architects, engineers and operators in the networking field. The networking industry has gone without significant innovation since at least MPLS and arguably Ethernet. Our network architectures are snapshots of the cold war. Every device …
Big Switch Introduces Switch Light
Big Switch took a step towards rounding out their portfolio with introducing plans to release a software switching software to integrate into ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) and vendor hardware switches. The “thin switching” software is made up using the FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) Indigo project from Stanford University and Project Floodlight. Just as various vendors have used Open …
Be The Steamroller Not The Road
I always chuckle when I hear SDN or OpenFlow “bigots”. I find that it is normally vendors being flippant towards SDN in general are from a handful of camps: When people spend time to understand that OpenFlow is merely an open messaging protocol to instantiate flow based forwarding. Flow based forwarding integrates L4 into forwarding decisions. L4 adds rudimentary application …
The Good and Bad of Wireless
The Good and Bad of Wireless :A while back, I posted some numbers on campus 802.11 growth. Wether cellular or 802.11, the numbers are big. The numbers show in the 802.11 campus which reflects smart phones, tablets, laptops and soon to be glasses and watches painted all over people. In networking, customer growth typically linearly correlates into the need for …
Hybrid OpenFlow Using The Normal Action
Hybrid OpenFlow Using The Normal Action: When a new technology is introduced in networking, it is not uncommon for most to transition that new technology into their network for test/dev or production by starting with small chunks at a time. Hybrid OpenFlow deployments will used by many of us as a place to start with SDN with fairly low risk …
