N Is For Networking

Lenny Giuliano, Sr. Distinguished Systems Engineer at HPE Juniper Networks, joins Holly and Ethan for another round of multicast. Part two helps fill in details not covered in episode 50. They cover how multicast traffic also affects Ethernet frame addressing, and the key differences between IPv4 and IPv6 multicast. They also explain new hybrid multicast... Read more »

Today’s topic is Multiprotocol Label Switching or MPLS, a foundational technology that powers service provider networks and enterprise WANs all over the world. To help us break it down, we’ve invited James Bensley, a Network Tech Lead who’s spent fifteen years with MPLS. James explains what spurred the creation of MPLS and how it works... Read more »

Lenny Giuliano, Senior Distinguished Systems Engineer at HPE with deep multicast expertise, walks through multicast fundamentals. He contrasts multicast with unicast/broadcast and highlights real-world uses like finance and video distribution. He covers protocol basics (IGMP, PIM, RP, ASM/SSM), address scopes, RPF and tree construction, plus why multicast matters again for large-scale live streaming.

Today, Ethan and Holly provide an overview of firewalls. While cybersecurity is a separate discipline from network engineering, much of what happens in cybersecurity is interesting at the packet level, so there’s a good deal of overlap. It’s likely that as a network engineer, you’ll be managing, or at least dealing with, firewalls in your... Read more »

Quality of Service (QoS) is a huge topic with a punishingly large group of acronyms. Join Ethan and Holly as they help you build a mental framework of what QoS is and what it solves. Not only do they break down essential acronyms, they also discuss QoS fundamentals, define the major groups of QoS tools,... Read more »

Go beyond the basics to understand the mechanics that keep your default gateway from becoming a single point of failure. Ethan and Holly demystify Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP), which helps provide network redundancy. They break down everything from the VRRP election protocol to the protocol’s unique communication methods. They also look back at previous... Read more »

Ethan and Holly discuss the major differences between In-band and Out-of-band (OOB) management and the pros and cons of both. They explore how to implement a proper OOB network and critical use cases where OOB is required. They also explain the differences and roles of the data plane, the control plane, and the management plane.... Read more »

Get ready for a sneak peek into the future! The hosts dive into upcoming trends for 2026, with a focus on AI and foundational networking topics like BGP and QoS. They plan series that clarify complex subjects such as network management, firewalls, and load balancers. The discussion even touches on the peculiarities of multicast and the importance of MPLS. Listener questions spark insights on career transitions and the relevance of DMVPN in today's tech world, all while normalizing feelings of imposter syndrome among engineers.

Dive into the nuances of redundancy versus high availability in networking. The hosts clarify how high availability serves as a design goal while redundancy is a tool to achieve it. Learn about rapid failure detection with BFD, the pros and cons of active-active versus active-standby setups, and how business recovery expectations shape design decisions. They explore the role of AI in proactive failure detection and analyze the cost of outages, wrapping up with insights on balancing design trade-offs and budget constraints.

Holly and Ethan dive into the nuances of redundancy versus high availability, highlighting their importance in network design. They share real-world examples, particularly from hospitals and financial institutions, and discuss the common budgetary pushback. Techniques for achieving redundancy include active/standby setups and multi-node clusters. The conversation also touches on advanced concepts like anycast, DNS strategies, and WAN link design. Listeners can expect a tease for upcoming discussions on fragility and cost in network management.