Over the years, the internet has been growing in reach and maturity. However, this growth came with challenges to the traditional Wide Area Network (WAN), including service outages, congestion on the network, and packet delays and losses. This led to the need for a new technology to address those challenges, leading to the sd-wan architecture (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) birth.

The new network utilized the software-defined technology where communication is via overlay tunnels and the underlying infrastructure. This way, the enterprise’s networks are extended to cover a wider geographical area. The network is also secure as it is encrypted when within internal organization locations. To achieve the network’s full potential, a virtual sd-wan architecture is created to overlay the underlying infrastructure regardless of whether it is a private or public connection. There is a management console within which company policies and priorities are configured. This ensures traffic is governed by policies, preferences, and other parameters.

Four significant concepts guide how requests are processed within the communication network. They are:

1. The type of traffic requested– There are predefined applications destined for traffic. Each time a request is made, the application’s services are searched.
2. How the request is handled– Not all requests are accepted. This principle is a determinant of whether a bid is accepted or blocked. If a request is received, the next thing is to assess the viable option to deal with the request.
3. The best path to handle the request– Once the above stage is complete, the best approach to address the appeal is determined. This step takes into consideration various other things, including the network priorities.
4. Where the traffic is directed to– The process of determining where the traffic goes is governed by the network’s configuration. This ensures that the application picked matches the request and that the process occurs within the shortest response time possible.

The network has reduced to a large extent the hustle involved in creating a company’s communication network as well as the management and monitoring. In addition, the new network has made it possible for the direction of the traffic related to an enterprise’s communications to be managed from a central place.