8) Modern Network Environments

These flashcards cover key concepts from the CompTIA Network+ N10-009 course, including Software-Defined Networking (SDN), SD-WAN, VXLAN, Zero Trust architecture, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and IPv6 transition technologies.

Software-defined networking (SDN)

An innovative networking paradigm that decouples the network control and forwarding functions, enabling network management through software applications.

SD-WAN

A specific application of software-defined networking (SDN) technology applied to WAN connections used to connect enterprise networks over large geographic distances.

Data plane

The SDN plane responsible for packet forwarding.

Control plane

The SDN plane which manages network traffic and policies.

Application plane

The SDN plane which hosts network applications and services, leveraging the control plane to execute high-level tasks.

Application Aware

SD-WAN technology that intelligently identifies applications and prioritizes traffic based on business requirements to ensure bandwidth and path reliability.

Zero-Touch Provisioning

A feature allowing for the remote deployment of network devices with minimal manual intervention by automatically downloading configuration settings from a central location.

Transport Agnostic

The flexibility of SDN to use various connectivity types, such as MPLS, broadband, or LTE, or a combination thereof.

Central Policy Management

Centralized management that allows network administrators to set policies and configure all SDN devices from a single interface.

VXLAN (Virtual Extensible Local Area Network)

A network virtualization technology that extends Layer $2$ segments over an underlying Layer $3$ network to enhance scalability in cloud computing.

Data Center Interconnect (DCI)

The use of VXLAN to stretch Layer $2$ networks across geographically dispersed data centers, enabling seamless mobility of virtual machines.

Layer 2 Encapsulation (VXLAN)

The process of encapsulating Ethernet frames within UDP packets, allowing scalability from the traditional $4096$ ($12\text{ bits}$) VLAN limit to $16.78\text{ million}$ ($24\text{ bits}$) VLANs.

Zero Trust

A security model based on the principle of "never trust, always verify," requiring strict identity verification for every person and device regardless of network location.

Policy-Based Authentication

A requirement within Zero Trust where all users are authenticated and continuously validated using multifactor authentication (MFA), biometrics, and behavioral analytics.

Authorization in Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA)

A dynamic, context-aware process granted on a per-session basis that takes into account identity, location, device health, and data classification.

Least Privilege

The principle that users, systems, and programs are granted only the minimum levels of access or permissions needed to perform necessary tasks.

SASE (Secure Access Service Edge)

A framework that integrates comprehensive WAN services and security functions directly into the network fabric to support distributed workforces.

SSE (Security Service Edge)

A framework focusing on centralizing cloud-provided security services like secure web gateways, cloud access security brokers (CASB), and zero trust network access (ZTNA).

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

The practice of managing and provisioning computing infrastructure through machine-readable definition files rather than physical hardware configuration.

Configuration Drift

When an environment’s current state deviates from its intended state due to manual changes or updates.

Dynamic Inventories

A feature of IaC where infrastructure resources are automatically discovered and managed based on real-time data.

Source Control

A system integral to IaC for tracking changes, collaborating, and maintaining the integrity of the code that defines infrastructure.

Version Control

Systems that keep track of modifications in a database, allowing developers to revert to earlier versions of code to fix mistakes.

Central Repository

The single source of truth in source control systems where all code changes are stored, allowing for secure collaboration.

Conflict Identification

A source control feature that automatically detects when multiple team members make changes to the same part of the code to prevent overwrites.

Branching

A feature of source control that allows developers to diverge from the main line of development to work independently on new features or bug fixes.

IPv6 Addressing

The most recent version of the Internet Protocol using $128\text{-bit}$ addresses to provide a virtually unlimited address space.

Tunneling

A method used to transmit IPv6 packets over an existing IPv4 network infrastructure by encapsulating them within IPv4 packets.

Dual Stack

A network configuration where devices run both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols simultaneously to facilitate a gradual transition.

NAT64

A network address translation technology that translates IPv6 addresses into IPv4 addresses and vice versa to facilitate communication between the two.