vManage Network Management System (NMS): The vManage NMS provides unified access via network management system (NMS) GUI. NMS GUI is used to configure and manage the full SD-WAN solution. It enables centralized provisioning and simplifies network changes.The Cisco SD-WAN solution has four main components and an optional analytics service:vManage Network Management System (NMS): This is a single pane of glass (GUI) for managing the SD-WAN solution. vSmart controller: This is the brains of the solution. SD-WAN involves both vEdge and cEdge routers.
1. Traditional WAN:Traditional network is based on completely hardware network devices which mostly rely on Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) for resilient and efficient network traffic flow. Number of hardware devices are installed along with proprietary circuits to route IP services to their intended clients. IT teams gives a lot great effort to manage the network as it involves layers of underlying hardware installed.
2. Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD WAN) : SD WAN stands for Software Defined Wide Area Network which is a software defined approach to manage Wide Area Network. In SD WAN software controls everything starting from connectivity to management and providing service. It is a virtual network approach which combines traditional WAN technologies, such as MPLS, LTE and broadband connections.
The Cisco SD-Access fabric is one of the main components of the Cisco Digital Network Architecture (Cisco DNA). Cisco DNA is the solution for the future of intent-based networking in Cisco enterprise networks. SD-Access provides policy-based network segmentation, host mobility for wired and wireless hosts, and enhanced security as well as other benefits in a fully automated fashion. Cisco SD-Access was designed for enterprise campus and branch network environments and not for other types of network environments, such as data center, service provider, and WAN environments.
A switch interface can have only one policy applied at a given time in each direction. You can apply the same policy for both inbound and outbound traffic or you can apply different QoS policy for both inbound and outbound traffic on a given interface.
QoS can be quantified by the following methods:
CoS: Class of Service. CoS is applied at Layer 2 or at frames level. A 3-bit value (known as priority bits) in the range of 0 to 7 is carried along the frames in a VLAN trunk. 0 represents the lowest priority, and 7 represents the highest priority.
IP Precedence: IP Precedence is a 3-bit value represented in the ToS (Type of Service) byte of Layer 3 IP packets. Here also, value 0 represents the lowest priority and 7 represent the highest priority.
DSCP: DSCP stands for Differentiated Service Code Point. DSCP consists of a 3-bit Selector, and a 3-bit Drop Precedence value. DSCP is backward compatible with IP Precedence, and works at layer 3.