NETWORKING TRENDS

Thinking of the last 24 hours, the chances are that one might have had several moments of uninterrupted connections with services, people, information, devices, and apps. The digital mesh surrounds everyone which makes it possible for the emergence of continuous and ambient experiences. Human life is increasing becoming connected to their devices, other people, and a wide range if things. Smart machines have become smarter while a new IT reality has been evolving with the available technology architectures and platforms to support the connections between people and their devices. This is the trends in the way people are networking and relating to their devices. This paper will research and report on network design and management trends over the last three years in the areas of wireless, network security, and software-defined networking (SDN).

Introduction

            Computer networking has evolved past a push technology while trying to establish its value and use cases to a generation of people asking for more. This is the same generation of people showing the importance of the digital enterprise and other trends such as cloud computing. Computer networks in the areas of wireless (Wi-Fi), software defined networking (SDN), and network security can play a meaningful purpose in achieving the required agility in computing and automation. However, these areas of computer networking keep on evolving setting up a new trend. This has provided access to new platforms and services to people. Additionally, the evolution has integrated these diverse trends in the area of computer networking into a coherent whole. The last three years have been an exciting time for computer networks and the wireless (Wi-Fi), SDN, and network security are on the leading edge of the significant and potentially disruptive trends in computer networking.

Networking Trends in Wireless

            Wireless communications and connections have undergone several changes over the last two years. The changes in the wireless technology are also quickly, but it depends on whether one runs a business where an increase in the speed of the Wi-Fi can greatly increase the productivity as well as service to the customers. Therefore, the advances in the Wi-Fi technology should be watched as closely as possible. Below are the specific trends in the area of wireless networking (Comer, 2015):

Wireless Speeds

            WiGig also referred to as 802.11ad, is the new wireless (Wi-Fi) communication protocol. 802.11ad has the immense capability of connecting at theoretical speeds of more than 10Gbps while using the 60GHz radio band. Currently, the latest 802.11ac has the capability of connecting at more than 1Gbps using the 40GHz radio band. While in the corporate setting this new speeds of the wireless can potentially be applied to monitor buildings using HD video cameras capable of sending their signal through the wireless connection as opposed to a wired connection.

Wireless Security

            Wireless security threats have evolved and grew more sophisticated. Therefore, it has become important for organizations and individuals to secure their wireless connection systems. The threats to wireless (Wi-Fi) communications and devices also continue to top the list of the security challenges evidenced by the number of wireless exploits which is rising. There are some known and significant vulnerabilities on the wireless platform. These wireless security vulnerabilities can take a long time to patch thus providing tempting targets for cyber attackers and hackers (Yassine, Rahimi, & Shirmohammadi, 2015).

Network Security

            Network security space has been through many technological changes in the recent past. New mobile operating systems and use of personal devices in the network has complicated the challenge of securing the network. However, enhancements and improvements in the network infrastructure connecting networking devices within or from one network to another network have made all these developments possible thus increasing network security (Pathan, 2016).

Network Perimeter

            The perimeter of the network as has been known does not exist anymore. The traditional paradigm of network security of securing the perimeter of the network so as not to allow malicious users from accessing the network has undergone some significant changes. The explosive use of the devices connecting to the networks and their mobility aspects has made the security of the network perimeter extremely a challenging task. As much as that is the case; network developers have combined gateway, intrusion detection and intrusion prevention (IDS/IDP), and firewall into one thus changing ways in which the network perimeter looks like. This has made the network perimeter more dynamic than ever and more complicated than a static set of centralized ingress points. However, as the network perimeter undergoes some important changes, it is real and more important to protect. That should be retained in remembrance as a design principle and should always protect the network against being opened.

Network Monitoring (Network Management)

            IT continues to undergo some significant changes to address important needs of businesses and employees. The way in which IT has been consumerized has uncoupled network users the desktop while cloud and virtualization have made the servers agile. The ways in which networks are monitored and managed has become proactive and not just reactive. Network administrators are now able to detect network problems before they occur thus saving a business time, headaches, and money. Network administrators use powerful and reliable network analyzers thus avoiding performance bottlenecks, detect trends in bandwidth, and reduce costs of operating networks in various ways. Businesses and individual users have been using PRTG which is a popular and affordable network analysis tool. The tool enables network administrators to easily monitor LAN bandwidth as well as manage the network the way they want. PRTG supports NetFlow, SNMP, and packet sniffing. Therefore, the tool displays network data in graphs and tables which can be read easily and which administrators can export as reports or access through browser whenever they want (Whitmore, Agarwal, & Da Xu, 2015).

Trends in SDN

            SDN has impacted tremendously on the way IT, data center, and network staffs think about network connectivity into the network. This has happened within the last three years thus making SDN an exciting prospect. Although SDN has grown and impacted on the networks in the organization, there are expectations that it will experience further growth within the next couple of years (Loo et al., 2016).

An Open SDN

            Network operators have demanded open SDN and not the popular vendor-supplied SDN. While this has been availed, OpenFlow SDN products have made open SDN a default choice for many network owners. The conversation regarding the comparison of open and proprietary SDN continues but network owners have become increasingly aware of the advantages of leveraging open SDN solutions for the businesses and individual users. They have continued to deploy open SDN wherever it is possible. Additionally, developers have launched several OpenFlow products recently which increase the often embedded southbound protocol.

Combination of SDN and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)

            NFV has brought about the flexibility and widespread of network virtualization. However, it has not been alone since it has included SDN. The combination of NFV and SDN has greatly virtualized the network computing functions while housing it in a commodity server within the data center. This combination, in the last three years, has imposed behavioral changes in the network. The combination and the way they work are based on the model of separate control and forwarding within the network. SDN now supports virtual network functions of WAN optimization, load balancing, and ACLs (Loo et al., 2016).

Conclusion

            There are no indications that the recent growth and trends in the network are the end. Computer networking is a technological phenomenon, and its growth happens every day. The growth and trends will continue as long there is demand for the services of computer networks. The demand for networking devices and services is not expected to dwindle anytime soon which makes it a possibility that networking trends and growth will continue now and in the future. However, there is a need for growth and development of the devices and equipment used to support networks. The details discussed here are not the only line along which networks have evolved. There are many others such as hardware, network management tools, and virtualization. The trends have happened over the last three years and is still happening thus presenting an exciting progress to the future.

References

Comer, D. E. (2015). Computer networks and internets. Prentice Hall.

Loo, J., Mauri, J. L., & Ortiz, J. H. (Eds.). (2016). Mobile ad hoc networks: current status and       future trends. CRC Press.

Pathan, A. S. K. (Ed.). (2016). Security of self-organizing networks: MANET, WSN, WMN,            VANET. CRC press.

Whitmore, A., Agarwal, A., & Da Xu, L. (2015). The Internet of Things—A survey of topics and            trends. Information Systems Frontiers, 17(2), 261-274.

Yassine, A., Rahimi, H., & Shirmohammadi, S. (2015). Software defined network traffic measurement: Current trends and challenges. IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement          Magazine, 18(2), 42-50.

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at Melda Research in help writing nursing research paper if you need a similar paper you can place your order for customized papers.