Accessing the Network
In the previous chapter, we looked into programmable networks and their history. One of the ideas we explored was Software-Defined Networking (SDN), where we saw why the separation between the data plane and the control plane was important. One important point of SDN was its architecture and how it separates the North Bound Interface (NBI) and South Bound Interface (SBI). In this chapter, we are going to explore how to access the network devices that can be interpreted as the SBI for SDN when OpenFlow is not available on the device.
As we have seen before, OpenFlow is not a widely adopted protocol, and its availability is limited to a few manufacturers and devices. Therefore, if you are planning to use SDN, you may need to use the available native methods to configure the devices.
Network access is not only used for SDN but also for a variety of software, such as network configuration, configuration audit, upgrade tools, and automation, among others. Additionally...
