An expert in BGP (Border Gateway Protocol), IP/Internet Routing, TCP, Quality-of-Service, High Availability, Network Virtualization, System and Hardware Design, Chandra, who recently became Cisco Distinguished Engineer, which is considered a prestigious position inside the company. He explained to Deccan Herald the important milestones in the evolution of networks in the last decade.

Deccan Herald: Tell us about some of the major trends in networking in the last decade or so.

Chandra Appanna: The last decade has been a very exciting one for networking. Traditional Routing continued to show innovation and  as usage of networks grew in leaps and bounds; switching also came into its own and became very widely deployed, especially in large businesses and enterprises.

Networks also moved from BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) to MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching). MPLS was invented and it took off in service provider networks. Though voice services through IP networks have gained prominence and are being provided over the last four to five years, the work for this began about a decade ago.

In the last few years, video (traffic) is becoming a big part of networks, and engineers are innovating on how to handle it. During this time, we have also seen major growth in Network Virtualization, which is becoming a reality.

In the last few years, customers have been showing great interest in BGP High Availability and they wanted Cisco to work on a solution. It was very challenging because most of those who wanted to switch over to TCP connections from an active or standby connections also wanted that to be done over thousands of their existing networks and this needed extensive work on the various levels of the networking stack.

I lead a team that worked on this and evolved what is called “Non-stop routing” which would enable switching over various BGP sessions from active unit to a standby unit without taking it off.

DH: With increasing number of people depending on networks these days, do you think networks quality has improved?

CA: Yes, this is quite true. As networks started to grow, Cisco, which has come up with some of the widely used networking solutions, become more responsive to the demand. Engineers had a chance to directly interact with the users and were able to directly convert their requirements into solutions and incorporate into networks.

This process has made sure that networks improved along with the demands and kept pace with the kind of growth that has happened in terms of its deployment and usage.

When we speak of improved reliability of networks, we must also admit that its increasing growth has quite naturally made it vulnerable. But since we do an on-going work on networks, they continue to stay reliable. Don’t forget that a lot of businesses, including our own, depend on networks these days, and particular attention has therefore been given to keep improving its quality.

DH: In terms of hardware and capability, what is the difference between wired and wireless networks?

CA: In simple terms perhaps, wired networks have wires and wireless networks (such as Wi-Fi or WiMAX) work without them (on frequencies). As the method of connecting a device to the network basically differs. We see significant hardware differences. A PC, for example, has an Ethernet card which is basically electrical; a wireless connection uses radio frequencies to communicate. Since mobile devices with the capability to interact with the Internet are becoming popular, we would see wireless networks becoming more prominent.

Wireless networks allow for mobility and scaling – both of these are important advantages that make wireless very attractive.

DH: When we place databases in networked environment, does it help us manage data better?

CA: Networks enable contents of a disk to be accessed by a distant device. So, instead of having data locally (inside the hard disc of a PC) we have the alternative of storing it elsewhere and getting it when we want.

The concept has been in existence for a long time. Sun Micro Systems, for instance, had something called NFS or Network File Systems.

There have been a lot of ideas as to how networks can make storage more efficient. Though it is difficult to ascertain it, now I certainly think it helps in storage consolidation.

DH: Tell us something more about network virtualisation.

C A: Network Virtualisation is about having virtual networks on one physical network infrastructure. This is an extension of virtualisation in other aspects of IT; such as storage and servers.

It has lots of applications. In airports, for instance, instead of each airline having its own individual network, they may ask the airport to virtualise the existing network to save the cost of laying the physical network. Network Virtualization can support this without compromising on security or safety of their data.