NE-WAN Concept (Managed SD-WAN)

What is SD-WAN ?

SDWAN is software defined wide area network which is a virtual WAN architecture that allows enterprises to leverage any combination of multi transport services including MPLS, 3G/4G LTE and broadband internet services to securely connect users to applications, be it hosted on cloud adopted / Software as a Service (SaaS) or on-premise data centre environment.

Control plane

Refers to all the functions and processes that determine which path to use. Routing protocols, spanning tree, ldp, etc are examples.

• 1. Makes decisions about where traffic is sent
• 2. Control plane packets are destined to or locally originated by the router itself
• 3. The control plane functions include the system configuration, management, and exchange of routing table information
• 4. Control plane packets are processed by the router to update the routing table information.

NE-WAN Components

NE-WAN Controller - Multitenant, Single pane dashboard for complete life-cycle management, inventory management, real-time monitoring of all services, configuration push, networking and security across all sites and tenants from a web GUI

ZTP server - Zero-touch provisioning and end-to-end workflows simplify deployment. Helps to automate deployment at reduced cost. No need for manual configuring complex routing protocol and rules. Once the appliance is identified , configuration is push centrally from Ne-Wan Controller as an orchestrator.

Analytics Server - Scalable big data platform for real-time and historical insights, threat analysis , Application usage and network consumption. Extensive exportable reports detailing application , bandwidth usage, performance, threats for sites and tenants.

Data Plane

Refers to all the functions and processes that forward packets/frames from one interface to another at the edge level.

• 1. Also known as Forwarding Plane
• 2. Forwards traffic to the next hop along the path to the selected destination network according to control plane logic.
• 3. Data plane packets go through the router
• 4. The routers/switches use what the control plane built to dispose of incoming and outgoing frames and packets

NE-Edge - All the edge devices with NE-OS as operating system on various platform be it MIPS/ARM or X86 Platform Hardware, VMware Virtual Services or cloud instance on Azure or AWS are referred as Ne-Edge devices/vCPE. Runs Either a lighter or full version on of NE-OS depending on use case and demand. For more on Ne-Edge devices, please refer Edge Devices section