Shulou(Shulou.com)06/02 Report--

I. the dispute between SD-WAN and MPLS

Before the advantages of software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) providing software-defined network (SDN) to traditional hardware-based networks, multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) was the choice of many enterprises, a protocol for efficient network traffic, with two or more points, similar to switches and routers, located between layers 2 and 3 (sometimes referred to as layer 2.5) Packet forwarding techniques and tags are used to make data forwarding decisions, and tags are applied between layer 2 (data link) and layer 3 (network) headers.

The following explains SD-WAN and MPLS in detail from the advantages and disadvantages.

II. Advantages and disadvantages of MPLS

When talking about "SD-WAN and MPLS", first consider one of the most important aspects of MPLS: the reliable transmission of data packets. MPLS usually provides excellent quality of service in avoiding packet loss and maintaining the most important traffic for the business, and this reliability is particularly important for maintaining the quality of real-time protocols such as IP Voice (VoIP).

The above tags actually isolate the packets, so the transmission of the MPLS is reliable. MPLS providers can also assign higher priority to some network traffic, and the network path is predetermined, so packets travel only along the path they point to, which leads to the predictability of traffic within the network.

As enterprises add distributed branches and applications migrate to the cloud, the users of the application and the application itself can be anywhere in the world. In order to provide users with LAN-like performance, enterprises have begun to rely on private access lines that use MPLS. Through private VPN connections, MPLS service providers provide 99.999% uptime and SLA, ensuring latency, packet delivery, and availability. Therefore, each branch office has a MPLS link to the main office and uses it to access all enterprise data and applications.

Although MPLS has high transmission performance, due to the lack of sufficient competition in the MPLS market and the manual workload needed to build MPLS circuits, the cost is very high, which is also the biggest disadvantage of MPLS. Today's consumers are increasingly concerned about multimedia content that takes up bandwidth, such as video and augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR), but the high cost per megabit required by MPLS is out of reach. Finally, the MPLS network does not provide built-in data protection, which, if not executed properly, can make the network vulnerable to vulnerabilities.

MPLS's distributed site deployment takes a long time and involves a large number of manual configurations, configuring the network structure at the site and the underlying network requires skilled staff, any small changes in service delivery need to be reconfigured at every step, and site and connection links are monitored and analyzed separately to discover pressure points in the network. This undoubtedly increases the cost of manpower.

All these factors have prompted companies to look for alternatives to MPLS.

III. Advantages and disadvantages of SD-WAN

Continuing the discussion of SD-WAN and MPLS, SD-WAN has many advantages over the traditional MPLS network. It is expected that software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) will bring about changes in the future of the enterprise business. According to Gartner's latest forecast, 30 per cent of companies have deployed SD-WAN in their branch offices by the end of 2019. SD-WAN 's market forecast is also enough to cause a sensation in the online world. According to the latest survey by IDC, SD-WAN infrastructure is growing at a CAGR of 40.4% and is expected to reach $4.5 billion by 2022. These trends have sparked a heated debate about how SD-WAN compares to proven MPLS technologies and how to do so. Promise to solve the inherent challenges faced by the enterprise. The purpose of this article is to illustrate a range of challenges facing MPLS consumers and how SD-WAN can help them overcome these challenges.

The core value proposition of SD-WAN is that it is expected to have a great impact on the entire enterprise network ecosystem. With SD-WAN, geographical boundaries can be deleted and key advantages such as visibility, scalability, performance and intelligent control can be enhanced.

Unlike MPLS, SD-WAN has no bandwidth loss. Customers can easily upgrade by adding new links without making any changes to the infrastructure or network. The biggest selling point of SD-WAN is the ability to cost-effectively mix and match network links based on content type or priority. Internet broadband and 4G LTE are cheaper than MPLS, so customers can choose these links of SD-WAN for certain types of priority traffic.

The main advantage of SD-WAN is security. Enterprises prefer a network architecture that integrates security, policy, and coordination, while SD-WAN covers these basic networks through a unified secure connection, where companies can benefit from end-to-end encryption across the entire network, including Internet, and all devices and endpoints are fully certified with scalable key exchange capabilities and software-defined security.

Another significant advantage of SD-WAN is unified management. SD-WAN to upgrade multiple devices, or you can change policies, SD-WAN no longer requires any trained IT personnel to configure and monitor each site, the IT team can create profile templates that define policies, and can configure multiple devices or sites using the same template. Zero-touch configuration in SD-WAN simplifies and simplifies site deployment and management.

4. SD-WAN and MPLS: it is up to you to decide

From cost to flexibility / flexibility, ease of use / deployment to improved security, the benefits of SD-WAN are hard to deny. According to IDC, more and more service providers are adopting SD-WAN for a variety of reasons. However, private-based networks such as MPLS will always be in demand, especially in organizations with specific connectivity requirements. When the company mentions "SD-WAN and MPLS?" When it comes to this problem, they need to weigh the pros and cons and decide what is the most important based on their own network environment needs.

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