SCHEDULE
Upcoming Pearson Class: Modern Network Troubleshooting
On the 26th of January, I’ll be teaching a webinar over at Safari Books Online (subscription service) called Modern Network Troubleshooting. From the blurb:
The first section of this class considers the nature of resilience, and how design tradeoffs result in different levels of resilience. The class then moves into a theoretical understanding of failures, how network resilience is measured, and how the Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) relates to human and machine-driven factors. One of these factors is the unintended consequences arising from abstractions, covered in the next section of the class.
The class then moves into troubleshooting proper, examining the half-split formal troubleshooting method and how it can be combined with more intuitive methods. This section also examines how network models can be used to guide the troubleshooting process. The class then covers two examples of troubleshooting reachability problems in a small network, and considers using ChaptGPT and other LLMs in the troubleshooting process. A third, more complex example is then covered in a data center fabric.
Upcoming Class: How the Internet Really Works
Join me for How the Internet Really Works on the 27th! This four hour live webinar on Safari Books Online:
… de-mystifies the overall structure and “moving parts” of the global Internet. The class begins with a user connecting to a web site, and the process of translating the name of the service the user is seeking to a logical location (a server) where the service is actually located. From there, the path of the packets between the user and the server is traced, exposing each of the different kinds of providers that carry the packet along the way.
Schedule 0923
Here’s a preview of what I’m working on for those who are interested:
- September 2023: (this Friday) How Routers Really Work, a three-hour live webinar at Safari Books Online through Pearson
- October 2023:
- How the Internet Really Works a four-hour live webinar at Safari Books Online through Pearson; this is newly formatted and reorganized version of the two sessions I used to do
- I’m speaking at a small theological conference on AI and ethics in Cary, NC
- November 2023:
- The new CCST book should be released
- I have recorded a network basics video series that should be released in late 2023 or early 2024
- January 2024:
- What Coders Need to Know about Networks, a new course, co-authored with an engineer from Akamai; a three-hour live webinar at Safari Books Online through Pearson
- I’ll be teaching a course in network engineering at the University of Colorado for the spring semester
- February 2024: A new three-hour live webinar on infrastructure interviewing skills at Safari Books Online through Pearson
- March 2024: BGP Policy, a three-hour live webinar on Safari Books Online through Pearson
- April 2024: Troubleshooting, a reformatted and rebuilt three-hour live webinar at Safari Books Online through Pearson
There will probably be other odds and ends thrown in there, or the schedule might change between now and then. I have courses planned for May and June at Safari Books Online through Pearson, and I’m building two new three-hour courses for July and August of next year.
As for the Hedge, this is what we have coming up:
- 196: Ethernet Update with Peter J
- 197: Old Engineering Book Quotes (1)
- 198: Nephio with Wim Hendricks
- 199: Clark B on network automation
- 200: The Internet and civil governance with George Michaelson
We’re always in the process of recording new episodes of the Hedge and looking for new guests and topics—if you would like to come on and talk about something, let me know.
Upcoming Training: How Routers Really Work
Have you ever wondered exactly how a router moves a packet from input to output interface? Or what the difference between is between a router’s and host’s operating system? Or why forwarding engines are built in classes, and one forwarding engine cannot “do it all?” Join me on the 22nd at 1pm ET for How Routers Really Work, a three-hour tour through router guts. I’ve replaced about 10% of the slides since the last time I taught this course.
If you register, you can watch the recording at a later date.
Upcoming BGP Policy Course
This coming Friday I’m teaching a course in BGP policy over at Safari Books Online. It’s three hours of straight-up BGP policy goodness. From the description:
This course begins by simplifying the entire BGP policy space into three basic kinds of policies that operators implement using BGP—selecting the outbound path, selecting the inbound path, and “do not transit.” A use case is given for each of these three kinds, or classes, of policies from the perspective of a transit provider, and another from the perspective of a nontransit operator connected to the edge of the ‘net.
Upcoming Training: BGP Policy
On July 21st I’ll be teaching BGP Policy over at Safari Books Online. From the description:
This course begins by simplifying the entire BGP policy space into three basic kinds of policies that operators implement using BGP—selecting the outbound path, selecting the inbound path, and “do not transit.” A use case is given for each of these three kinds, or classes, of policies from the perspective of a transit provider, and another from the perspective of a nontransit operator connected to the edge of the ‘net. With this background in place, the course will then explore each of the many ways these classes of policy may be implemented using local preference, AS Path prepending, various communities, AS Path poisoning, and other techniques. Positive and negative aspects of each implementation path will be considered.
My courses are going through a bit of updating, but I think August and September will be How the Internet Really Works, followed by an updated course on troubleshooting. I’m incorporating more tools into the course, including (of course!) ChatGPT. Watch this space for upcoming announcements.
Upcoming Course: Data Center Fabrics
On the 18th and 22nd (Thursday and Monday) I’m teaching the two-part series on Data Center Fabrics and Control Planes over at Safari Books Online. This is six hours total training covering everything from Clos fabrics to eVPN.
If you register for the course you can access a recording at a later date. From Safari:
This class consists of two three-hour sessions. The first session will focus on the physical topology, including a short history of spine-and-leaf fabrics, the characteristics of fabrics (versus the broader characteristics of a network), and laying out a spine-and-leaf network to support fabric lifecycle and scaling the network out. The first session will also consider the positive and negative aspects of using single- and multi-forwarding engine (FE) devices to build a fabric, and various aspects of fabric resilience. The second session will begin with transport considerations and quality of experience. The session will then consider underlay control planes, including BGP and IS-IS, and the positive and negative aspects of each. Routing to the host and the interaction between the control plane and automation will be considered in this session, as well. EVPN as an overlay control plane will be considered next, and finally the relationship between security and control plane design will be examined.