Data traffic control generally follows a static set of rules with assigned network priority levels – from best effort for web and email to the highest levels reserved for signaling and real-time media. In the past, QoS traffic classification worked well by following these best practices. But being static, these rules do not handle customizations well or adjust dynamically to changing conditions.
With the rise in the amount of video traffic on the network, coupled with the necessity to react in real-time to business changes, enterprises today are in need of an automated means to dynamically manage QoS priorities even if these priorities do not completely follow best practices. What can network managers do to ensure that their network is constantly evolving to support their business?
QoS dynamism through network programming
What such enterprises need is a way to program network devices on the fly in order to prioritize one type or even a particular application’s traffic over another. One way to accomplish this would be to reconfigure all the devices in the network, but this would require widespread changes and potentially cause unnecessary disruptions. A more intelligent way would be to program specifically just the devices along the path from source to destination to meet the required QoS objectives.
At the last Cisco Live, Wipro demonstrated DLane – their application designed to prioritize business traffic along any path from its source to destination. DLane is part of a larger Wipro initiative around IoT and in particular fleet management for the mining industry.
DLane identifies the operator who needs to monitor data streaming from the fleet onto a SAP/HANA cloud in their datacenter. This data is intermittent in nature, which is to stay, it is not flowing all the time, but when it is flowing, the operator needs to access the cloud with the highest priority.
DLane uses Cisco DNA Center’s platform capabilities to program the network devices in real time to ensure the policy changes for the priority is enforced in the network. Once the system notifies DLane that priorities needs to be changed, DLane identifies the traffic path and uses DNA Center open APIs to configure the devices necessary in the path to recognize and prioritize the operator’s access to the datacenter.
Watch Ramesh NG, Director and Practice Head, Software Defined Networking at Wipro explain and demonstrate their use of network programming through DNA Center.
“We use Cisco DNA as the enabler for our enterprise customers”, says Ramesh, “DNA Center is transforming the way we approach and design software defined access. Its open APIs allow us to enforce policy and push configuration into devices as required by business. This level of customization helps us serve our customer better and differentiates us from others.”
Conclusion
With DLane, Wipro has created a notification driven tool triggered by business needs that applies QoS policy automatically and dynamically. It exemplifies just one of the innovations that DNA Center open platform helps bring to reality.
Discover this solution and others from our DNA Center open platform partners and see how they are redefining the future of networking.
Do more
Learn DNA Center APIs: https://developer.cisco.com/dnacenter/
Learn how to create new revenue opportunities through service innovation: https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/cloud-systems-management/dna-center/nb-09-idc-open-platform-analyst-rpt-ctp-en.pdf
See how intent-based networking sparks business innovation: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/enterprise-networks/intent-based-networking-business-innovation.html
