Software Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualization (SDN/NFV)

In this course, students learn Software Defined Network architecture and the important protocols related to SDN implementations. This course thoroughly explains what SDN is, how it works, and then does a deep dive into the SDN protocols themselves. SDN can both manage and control physical network elements as well as Network Function Virtualization, allowing network professionals to deploy and maintain a clean integration between cloud environments and the physical network itself. Often we are asked by network personnel to teach them what the network looks like when it enters the cloud. This is why the study of Network Function Virtualization is a natural progression in this type of study, so we have included both SDN and NFV in one course. This course will clarify what happens at the cloud boundary and then look into the virtual network within the cloud itself. If you are already a networking professional and you take a look at what is going on inside the cloud, you will learn that there is no reason not to take all those good ideas and implement them outside the cloud. The networking control layer as you may currently understand it, will change radically with SDN. We will show you that the change is both amazing and powerful. In this course, you will build, configure, and deploy the most popular network functions, routing, bridging, and OpenFlow switches along with requisite protocols. You will integrate these components with an emulated physical environment and perform verification testing. The cloud environment will be represented with a *very* deep dive into OpenStack Neutron and Neutron-compute.