So what about applications specifically do network engineers need to know.

I was at Network Worlds ONX (SDN) conference and I heard for the nth time that network engineers need to learn how to communicate with our application developer partners.

Learn WHAT, never seems to be answered. So I came to the conclusion I would need to figure this out myself.

Clearly we are going to have to speak some common language and develop a way to map the design of an application into network characteristic we can provision (QoS, load balancing, security, traffic engineering etc.).

I think the knowledge is there (and been there for a while) so looking at the ancient texts may give me some answers

My first stop is the classic 8 myths of distributed computing

1. The network is reliable.
2. Latency is zero.
3. Bandwidth is infinite.
4. The network is secure.
5. Topology doesn't change.
6. There is one administrator.
7. Transport cost is zero.
8. The network is homogeneous

See below for some links. We can now begin a discussion as to did the application developer make any of these assumptions and are any of these issues in your network.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacies_of_Distributed_Computing

http://java.sys-con.com/node/38665

http://www.rgoarchitects.com/Files/fallacies.pdf

 

I also remembered that there are a number of different interaction models for applications

RPC: Short message the application is waiting for a response so latency important

Message queuing: I send a message and check back later, latency not as important

File transfer: a 1 way transmission care about available bandwidth and is the application written to consume the bandwidth.

Email?

Streaming

Not sure if data base calls are the same as RPC or different.

The point is that the interaction model between application components is key to what demands the application will have upon the network. So understanding the interaction models and mapping them to the sorts of network services are required to make those applications work seems a good place to start.

 

I am not sure if I need to go into the types of SOA, SOAP, XML etc. I am hoping that people smarter than me can begin to describe what the right information we need to have as network engineers.