Datacenter Networking

Question 1

What is Software Defined Networking (SDN)

Answer 1

control plane (what to send) is separated from data plane (actual forwarding) , allowing programmatically changing network behavior

Question 2

Network Function Virtualization (NFV)

Answer 2

Software implementations of network functions so that they can be abstracted, replicated, and isolated

Question 3

What is OpenFlow

Answer 3

Open protocol for managing SDN

Question 4

What is ToR router

Answer 4

stands for top of rack router

Question 5

Clos topology

Answer 5

Three stage circuit switching topology when full crossbar switching is not feasible

Question 6

Fat-tree network

Answer 6

Tree network where branches near top have higher throughput links (fatter pipes)

Question 7

IOPS

Answer 7

input/output operations/sec

Question 8

Network fabric

Answer 8

Combination of network interconnects, switches and routers within a data center

Question 9

Bisection bandwidth

Answer 9

Bandwidth between any two parts of a network

Question 10

B4

Answer 10

Google private WAN with very high bandwidth, and low latency spanning half the globe

Question 11

Infiniband

Answer 11

Network protocol for switched network fabrics designed for high througput and low latency

Question 12

Resource stranding

Answer 12

Execess resource in on area due to a bottleneck while there is demand elsewehre

Question 13

Merchant silicon

Answer 13

production hardware from other vendors