A software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) is a network that is abstracted from its hardware, creating a virtualized network overlay.
Operators can remotely manage and quickly scale this overlay, which can span over large geographical distances. It is an application of software-defined networking (SDN).
An SD-WAN can connect several branch locations to a central hub office or cover multiple locations in a large campus such as a university campus. Because it is abstracted from hardware, it is more flexible and available than a standard WAN.
It relies on four central components:
Edge connectivity abstraction
WAN virtualization
Centralized management
Elastic traffic management
Features
Controller & Orchestrator
Orchestrator Orchestrates connectivity between NE-Edge devices and NE-Controller
Serves as the first point of authentication
Requires public IP address
All NE-Edge devices need to know the NE-Controller IP or FQDN
Zero Touch Provisioning
Multi-Tenant Support
Geo Mapping of Devices
On-Cloud / In-Premise deployments
Audit Logs
Configuration Backup and Restore
Central Configuration Management
Edge Devices WebUI/CLI access
Template Based Configuration
RBAC
NAC & WI-Fi Captive Portal
Real-time monitoring & Reporting
Notifications & Alerts
SLA Reports
Histograms
NE - OS
NE - OS is a IPv6 Ready Network Operating System with Enterprise features
Features
Customer was looking for centralized visibility, control & security over its network along with redundancy/fallback in last mile connectivity with SLA monitoring
Challenges
Inconsistent connectivity
No redundancy in WAN Network
No uptime SLA/reports
No traffic prioritization
No centralized visibility/control over the entire network.
No alert mechanism during incidents
Solution
Multi fabric/media supportable CPE with B/w aggregation/auto failover to avoid any
downtime
SLA Reports
QoS & Application/Traffic visibility
Encrypted VPN for end to end communication
Centralized visibility/control over the entire network