SD-WAN Overview

Before we delve deeper, it is important to know what SD-WAN is. SD-WAN stands for Software-Defined Wide Area Network. As the name suggests, SD-WAN utilizes a software mechanism as defined in the policy to make path selection decisions as opposed to routing protocols. SD-WAN consists of hardware devices and software implemented across a highly distributed system. It uses software instead of routers to direct digital traffic.

SD-WAN can leverage any physical type of connection to forward traffic across. Commonly, SD-WAN will use private network connections such as MPLS, Metro Ethernet, dedicated fiber Ethernet, point-to-point wireless, or private satellite and cellular connections. Public connectivity to the internet across 4G, 5G, broadband, or satellite connections is used on an equal basis as all connections are securely tunneled with equal levels of encryption and treated as insecure. In this way, both public and private network paths are treated as VPNs and all...