What is SD-WAN? Why and How it is Used? – Explained

With the arrival of cloud computing and the internet, SD-WAN has developed and been advancing rapidly to create a secure, efficient, flexible, easy to use and cost effective data network. SD-WAN stands for Service Delivery Groups – and is an industry standard designed to support large-scale distributed networks. It is useful for businesses that are adopting or expanding their internal or third party applications to ensure optimal productivity and increased business capacity. SD-WAN enables organizations to consolidate their internal network without affecting existing applications.

The SD-WAN service is composed of several different components. These include a Wide Area Network (wide area network) service, Local Area Networks (LANs) using Wide Area Networks (WAIs), Distributed Servers (DS), and Network Fabric Interconnects (NCIC). SD-WAN allows users to connect to external data devices such as printers, scanners, disk drives, and keyboards even if they are physically located in different areas. In addition, SD-WAN supports secured private networks or a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

An SD-WAN service can provide fast reliable performance, high bandwidth, security and manageability. With the help of WAN Optimization, traffic can be managed as per requirement. Traffic management includes controlling of source as well target addresses. Through Traffic Consolidation, traffic is managed on a per host basis.

There are several components that make up an SD-WAN. Some of these are WAN Optimization, Wide Area Network management, Local Area Networks, Distributed Servers and Network Fabric Interconnects. There are a number of WAN and LAN adapters available in the market. These include: Ethernet card, Fast Ethernet, Fiber Optics, ISDN, ISTP, ATM, Packet Radio, USB, PCMCIA, USB Modem and Telephone line adapter

Wide Area Network (WAN) is a type of local area network that interconnects two or more local nodes for voice or data network. This service is offered through hardware such as routers, switch and Wlan card. On the other hand, Local Area Network (LAN) is a connection made between computers within a small area. It is used for high speed and reliable data connection over a private network.

An SD-wan is usually installed on the computer or server that runs a virtual private network. The software is then installed or configured on the client computer. It then creates a virtual private network that is accessible by users. It offers various features such as port forwarding, security management, bandwidth control, and internet control. Some of the main features include compression, QoS, auto discovery, support for the latest standards in XML and HTTP, secure wireless connection and application level services.

In SD-wan, the internet protocol is used as the main transport layer. It makes the efficient use of the existing packet communication technology to transfer large amounts of data. To make the internet protocols efficient and stable, several services such as SMTP, POP3, IMAP and FTP are used. A web interface is also available to provide a graphical user interface to control the system.

SD-wan is used in different enterprise networking and manufacturing environments such as air conditioning systems, refrigeration networks, industrial and food processing plants. It can be used for application-level data transmission over wide area networks. It also provides a secure communications environment. The network has the ability to reduce costs and boost productivity. It can also be used in conjunction with centralized and enterprise-wide networks for multi-tasking, application sharing and system management.

There are different benefits of using SD-wan. The primary benefit is that it supports internet protocol suite, which includes SSL, TCP/IPsec and Linux LAMP. This enables the use of multiple interfaces for various devices. This will help in reducing the software licensing costs. It is also used for VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) solutions and in conjunction with STUN (Socket layer on Universal Service Provider) it can prevent overload of network resources, resulting in a decrease in the cost of network operation.

SD-wan’s filtering capability can block any unwanted IP packets. It can also block any malicious device or computer while transmitting over the network. It provides a high degree of security for the whole network. It can reduce the downtime of the network, as it will prevent any unauthorized connection to the internet. SD-wan can be configured to allow or deny specific IP addresses, domain names or sub-domains. It can also control wireless LAN and WAN traffic.

To make SD-wan more secure, one can enable port forwarding in the Network configuration. Port forwarding will enable the use of port numbers that are specified by the client computers. The advantage of this setting is that it creates a private network. It is usually associated with a private network adapter. One can also block all incoming traffic to and from the computer or server using the block list feature of SD-wan. Blocking is usually used to prevent the access of malicious programs and applications to the computer system.

Also Read:SD-WAN vs MPLS – Difference, Pros, Cons and Right Choice