Heavy Networking 664: Semantic Networking – Science Project Or Networking’s Future?

Today’s Heavy Networking is a forward-looking episode about semantic networking. Semantic networking operates at the packet level and aims to make decisions on how to route packets based on more than just the destination address. The goal, according to an IETF draft on semantic networking, is to “facilitate enhanced routing/forwarding decisions based on these additional semantics to provide differentiated forwarding paths for different packet flows distinct from simple shortest path first routing.” One of the questions around semantic networking is how to add these semantics to a packet: by adding fields to an IPv6 header, adding more information to existing fields, or by adding semantics to the IP address itself. Our guests and guides to semantic routing are Adrian Farrel of Old Dog Consulting and Hannes Gredler, CTO at RtBrick. We discuss: * The definition of semantic routing * Semantic routing examples, including Source/Destination Address Routing (SADR) and Segment Routing * Why the industry might want semantic routing * Incorporating semantic routing into existing practices and standards * How to program routers to work with semantic information * Who actually wants this? * More Sponsor: InterOptic Fortune 500 companies choose InterOptic optical transceivers to minimize the risk of network failures and maximize IT savings. InterOptic’s transceivers are 100% guaranteed compatible with Cisco, Juniper, Extreme, Arista and others, and available at a fraction of the cost. Work with the optics experts at InterOptic! Go to interoptic.com/packet-pushers/ to find out more. Show Links: An Introduction to Semantic Networking – IETF Destination/Source Routing – IETF How To Submit Your Ideas To The IETF – Packet Pushers Adrian Farrel on LinkedIn Hannes Gredler on LinkedIn