Session Border Controllers - More Than Just a Voice Firewall
The migration from Time-Division Multiplexing to the more flexible IP based SIP networks brought an unexpected security challenge. Session Border Controllers focused primarily on SIP and H.323 session security. More ...
Networking Routing Believability and Administrative Distance
If a network is running more than one routing protocol and a router receives two route advertisements from different routing protocols, which route advertisement does the router believe?. More ...
IPv6 Dynamic Address Allocation
As with IPv4, IPv6 addresses can be statically assigned. However, when it comes to dynamic addressing, IPv6 has a different approach. IPv6 uses the ICMPv6 Router Advertisement message to suggest to devices how to obtain their IPv6 addressing information. More ...
IP Addressing and Subnetting
Today, many different kinds of devices can communicate on a network. A network device might be a computer, a router, a printer, or any number of unusual devices. Every device on a network that uses the Internet protocol (IP) needs a unique IP address. More ...
Comparing IPv4 and IPv6 at a Glance
When examining the details of the IPv4 and IPv6 headers, there are some important differences between the two protocols. This article summarizes some of the differences. More ...
IPv6 Flow Label Field
The IPv6 Flow Label field is used to help identify all the packets within the same flow to ensure that all the packets receive the same type of handling by the IPv6 routers. More ...
Protocol Suites
Network protocols define rules for handling data and communicating in a particular networking environment. Individual protocols operate at specific layers in the OSI reference model. A protocol suite is a group of protocols designed to work together. More ...
Introducing OpenStack
OpenStack is one of the most popular cloud computing management packages. OpenStack provides a common platform for controlling clouds of servers, storage, network, and even application resources. OpenStack is managed through a web-based interface, a command-line interface (CLI), and an application programming interface (API). More ...
The OSI Physical Layer
The Physical layer (OSI layer 1) deals with the mechanical and electrical specifications of the network hardware. Layer 1 specifications define connectors, pin-outs, signal voltages, and related software. More ...
Internet Protocol versions IPv4, IPv5 and IPv6
Internet Protocol is the part of the TCP/IP protocol that is responsible for addressing packets. IPv4 uses a 32-bit address IPv6 uses a 128-bit address. This article describes how IPv4 are converted to IPv6 addresses. More ...
OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) Protocol
OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) protocol is a protocol that handles routing for IP traffic. Because it is based on an open standard, OSPF is very popular in many corporate networks today and has many advantages. More ...
Free eBook: IPv6 Addressing
All the IPv4 addresses are quickly being used up. The conversion to IPv6 is now underway. In this free eBook, Aaron Balchunas describes IPv6 and how to configure it to work along side IPv4. Learn which protocols will need to be updated to work with IPv6. Learn how to configure IPv6. More ...
What Is Fabric Networking?
The networking industry came up with the term 'Fabric' to describe networking technologies that allow switches to connect in a way to achieve a mesh topology. More ...
Classless IP Addressing
In the beginning, classful addressing was a great idea for keeping IP addresses organized. But as the Internet grew, and IP addresses became scarce, classful addressing was found to be too limiting. Classless IP addressing, known as Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) was released in September 1993. More ...
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Explained
In the early days of TCP/IP each device on a network had stored on its hard disk a configuration file that an administrator used to manually assign a static IP address. Today a network administrator is no longer required to maintain an IP and MAC address configuration file a server. Every device on a network is automatically assigned a unique IP address by Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). More ...
