Network Virtualization using Extreme Fabric Connect

Network Virtualization Using Extreme Fabric Connect
© 2019 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. 9
Introduction
Over the years, campus and data center networks have had to dramatically evolve to keep up with new
trends in the industry. Multi-tenancy requirements, once a prerogative of carrier networks, are becoming
more common in large enterprises, particularly in outsourcing environments, while privately owned data
centers increasingly need to handle network virtualization. The Internet of Things (IoT) is pervasively
becoming a reality, which increases the need for network virtualization at the edge and raises security
concerns due to the increased attack surface. Video surveillance is becoming an essential component for
property management and physical security in every industry sector, while video telephony and video
streaming are becoming ubiquitous. Efficient support of IP multicast is key in delivering both.
Software Defined Networking (SDN) is much-touted as the holy grail for solving network manageability
challenges that every organization should aspire to. However, SDN has come to mean different things to
different people and translates into a multitude of product offerings and features from analysts and
network suppliers.
The phrase “network fabric” has also become an over-hyped buzz word with the expectation that a fabric
makes the network behave as a logical entity capable of configuring itself without requiring endless tuning
and maintenance by experts.
Historically, virtualization and multi-tenancy have long been requirements in carrier networks. The MLPS
networking technology, which relies on a complex layer of protocols, was developed to meet these
requirements. Understandably the industry at large has over the years been busy re-packaging and
elaborating those complex networking technologies for the enterprise market. Hence it is not unusual to
see MPLS positioned for large enterprise backbones and Ethernet VPN (EVPN) solutions claiming to be “IP
fabrics” increasingly for enterprise-owned large data centers. Ironically, for many of those vendors, the
terms “fabric” and SDN are being used to disguise overlays and automation of the underlying complexity of
the resulting heavily loaded protocol stacks via provisioning scripts, which ultimately shortchange the
original goals of SDN.
Yet the enterprise network market has needs and requirements that were never a challenge for carrier
networks. IoT is driving the need for networks that can be hyper-segmented and elastically stretch and
secure IoT devices. While video surveillance and some data applications require IP multicast, which is
scalable and can be separated into virtualized domains, neither of which can be easily done with MPLS- and
EVPN-based solutions.
Also, carrier networks are ultimately revenue-generating assets that can justify the higher levels of
complexity and can be staffed by skilled personnel accordingly. The same is not true in the enterprise space
where the network is viewed as an operational cost that enables the enterprise to achieve its business
goals.
At Extreme Networks, we have a focus on the needs of enterprise customers - a network solution that is:
• Simple to implement
• Easy to manage and troubleshoot
• Natively secure
• Robust and resilient
• Able to adapt to changes without downtime
• Standards-based
• Able to interact with and migrate from traditional protocols
• Efficient for any L2, L3, or IP multicast based applications
• Dynamic - users and applications can be automatically and elastically assigned to service enabled
virtualized networks
• Cost-effective by using a single networking infrastructure