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Understanding Spanning Tree Protocols – STP, RSTP, MSTP
STP is the short form for Spanning Tree Protocol & RSTP (Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol), MSTP (Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol) are all advanced/ improved implementations of STP. In this article, we will try to understand the basic concepts of Spanning Tree Protocols and their implementation.
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What you ought to know before deploying an 802.11n Wireless Network
We all know that the IEEE 802.11n standard for Wi-Fi supports up to 600 Mbps for creating a wireless network. But are all 802.11n compliant devices same? Is the 600 Mbps throughput feasible as of today? What other network/ device considerations do we need to account for, to achieve maximum 802.11n throughput levels? These are some of the questions that will be answered in this article.
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What you need to know about SIP – Session Initiation Protocol
What is the right notation - IP Phones (or) SIP Phones? SIP, has become such a common protocol for voice communications over IP that we tend to think that SIP phones are IP Phones! What is so special about SIP that enabled it to beat the H.323 implementations of the biggest telecommunication companies? Let us find out, in this article.
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How IEEE 802.1x secures the Network edge
The Network Access to the IT network of any organization needs to be controlled right at the network edge - where the devices connect to the IP Network. In this article, let us look at an introduction to IEEE 802.1x protocol, the elements of 802.1x, advantages of 802.1x, role of 802.1x in the authentication of the network connectivity requests and why network switches needs to support this open standard protocol.
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Advantages and limitations of using sFlow for Network monitoring
This article is about the advantages and disadvantages of using sFlow technology for network monitoring and enabling basic level network security. We discuss about the multi-vendor support for sFlow, its hardware implementation, how it provides a 30,000 foot view of the whole network and many more advantages and limitations as well.
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sFlow and its Applications for Network Monitoring
In this article we look at what is sFlow, what are the components of sFlow, how sFlow helps big networks to monitor the network usage and security parameters through packet sampling and the various applications of sFlow technology in enterprise networks.
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An overview of SNMP – Simple Network Management Protocol
If there is a huge network - it needs to be managed! That's where SNMP comes in. With a plethora of network devices now supporting this protocol, it has become quite indispensable. In this article, we will see what is SNMP protocol, why and where it is used, components of SNMP protocol, introduction to SNMPv3 and its message structure, limitations of SNMP.
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What is a RADIUS server?
We all have heard a lot about the RADIUS server. We know it is sitting somewhere in the network, authenticating all the users. What exactly is this RADIUS server? How does it Authenticate, Authorize and Account for individual users and sessions? Let us find out in this article.
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An Overview of Syslog and Syslog Server
This article gives a short introduction to Syslog and Syslog server, how they help in monitoring of the network devices by storing and retrieving the logs generated by the network devices in a data base format, how messages are logged in a Syslog server, filtering rules in a Syslog server, options for alarm generation in Syslog server and the disadvantages of Syslog server.
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Quality of Service in Wireless Networks – WMM and WMM-SA
This article introduces the QoS mechanisms followed by a wireless network like WMM(Wireless Multi-Media) and WMM-SA(Wireless Multi-Media Scheduled Access) which are both standards based and help wireless networks to reliably enable real time and latency sensitive applications like voice and video by prioritizing them and transmitting them ahead of the normal data traffic like email, etc. Wireless Multi-Media (WMM): This is an IEEE standard (Subset of IEEE 802.11e) for QoS – Quality of Service in wireless networks. So, why is it so important, you may ask. It is, because it enables real time applications like voice and video on the wireless network by prioritizing those packets at the client level,…
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What is LDAP and why is it required for an organization?
This article presents a small introduction to LDAP - Lightweight Directory Access Protocol - explaining what it is and why you need to implement LDAP directory in an enterprise environment. It also elucidates the advantages of LDAP implementation for an organization.
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What is IPv6, what are its Conventions, Features and Advantages
This article is to explain what is IPv6, how does it differ from IPV4, what was the necessity to come up with IPv6, a basic IPv6 address and its compositions, some conventions of IPv6, some features of IPv6 and also the advantages of using IPv6 over IPv4.
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What is IEEE 802.11n, what are the advantages and challenges for 802.11n in Wi-Fi networks
This article explains the IEEE 802.11n standard for wireless (Wi-Fi) networks, what is the bandwidth supported by this standard, what is the distance covered by access points employing 802.11n, the advantages of 802.11n, what are the challenges faced by this standard, what steps must someone ensure before upgrading to 802.11n and if it is backward compatible with other earlier standards.
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Infiniband, IBoE and their advantages in High Performance Computing
This article is to introduce the Infiniband technology (which is commonly used in High Performance Computing for Inter Process Communication to enable server consolidation) and discuss the advantages of the Infiniband technology. We also take a look at the IBoE (Infiniband over Ethernet) technology which hopes to achieve IPC Consolidation.