Hedge 156: Functional Separation in Network Design with Kevin Myers
Modularization is a crucial part of network design because it supports interchangeability, reduces the size of failure domains, and controls security domains. One critical aspect of modularization is functional separation, which argues for separating services onto specific physical and logical resources. Kevin Myers joins Tom Ammon and Russ White on this episode of the Hedge to discuss the theory and importance of functional separation in network design.
The Hedge 155: DNS Deployment in Real Life with Andreas Taudte
Network engineers normally use and support DNS as a service, but don’t tend to deploy, manage, and interact with DNS servers at an application level. For this episode of the Hedge, Andreas Taudte joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss the many lessons learned from planning and deploying DNS as a service.
Mean Time to Innocence is not Enough
A long time ago, I supported a wind speed detection system consisting of an impeller, a small electric generator, a 12 gauge cable running a few miles, and a voltmeter. The entire thing was calibrated through a resistive bridge–attach an electric motor to the generator, run it at a series of fixed speed, and adjust the resistive bridge until the voltmeter, marked in knots of wind speed, read correctly.
The primary problem in this system was the several miles of 12 gauge cable. It was often damaged, requiring us to dig the cable up (shovel ready jobs!), strip the cable back, splice the correct pairs together, seal it all in a plastic container filled with goo, and bury it all again. There was one instance, however, when we could not get the wind speed system adjusted correctly, no matter how we tried to tune the resistive bridge. We pulled things apart and determined there must be a problem in one of the (many) splices in the several miles of cable.
Hedge 154: Path Aware Networking Research Group
Applications generally assume the network provides near-real-time packet transmission without regard for what the application is trying to do, what kind of traffic is being transmitted, etc. Back in the real world, its often important for the network to coordinate with applications to more efficiently carry traffic offered. The Path Aware Research Group (PANRG) in the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) is looking at the problems involved in understanding and signaling the path characteristics to applications.
In this episode of the Hedge, Brian Trammel joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss the current work on path aware networking.
Hedge November Update
November update on upcoming shows and training. My upcoming training on Safari Books Online is here.
Hedge 153: Security Perceptions and Multicloud Roundtable
Tom, Eyvonne, and Russ hang out at the hedge on this episode. The topics of discussion include our perception of security—does the way IT professionals treat security and privacy helpful for those who aren’t involved in the IT world? Do we discourage users from taking security seriously by making it so complex and hard to use? Our second topic is whether multicloud is being oversold for the average network operator.
Hedge 152: Joel King on the network and DevOps
DevOps, SecDevOps, GitDevOps—stick DevOps on the end of anything, and it will sound cool, generation FOMO in thousands (maybe millions). What does DevOps really mean to network engineers, though? In this episode of The Hedge, we discuss examples of how the Three Ways, (described in Part One of The DevOps Handbook) of Flow, Feedback, and Continual Learning with Joel King, a leading light in this field.
On the ‘net: Privacy and Networking
The final three posts in my series on privacy for infrastructure engineers is up over at Packet Pushers. While privacy might not seem like a big deal to infrastructure folks, it really is an issue we should all be considering and addressing—if for no other reason than privacy and security are closely related topics. The primary “thing” you’re trying to secure when you think about networking is data—or rather, various forms of privacy.
Hedge 151: Cecilia Testart and the Value of the RPKI
If you advertise routes through a provider to the global Internet, you might be wondering if you should go through the trouble of registering in the RPKI and advertising ROAs. What is the tradeoff for the work involved in what seems like a complex process? Cecelia Testart joins Jeremy White and Russ White to discuss recent work in measuring the value of the RPKI.
Hedge 150: Micah Beck and Universal Broadband
What would the Internet look like—or what kinds of services would need to be developed and deployed—to make boradband class service available to every user? What could this kind of development do to drive entire societies forward? Micah Beck, from the University of Tennessee, joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss universal broadband on this episode of the Hedge.