Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN)

SD-WAN technology helps organizations achieve operational savings by enabling remote configuration of new locations rather than requiring engineers to be on site. Many vendors offer zero-touch provisioning, where onsite engineering expertise is optional, other than the ability to connect a device to the appropriate internal and external links and power up the device. Once online, the device will call “home” (whether that’s the headquarters or a cloud configuration service) to gather and download the configuration details.

An SD-WAN offers traditional routing and policy control features including basic application identification, policy controls, stateful network controls and a virtual private network (VPN). It prioritizes applications, has remote configuration capabilities and should have a predictable performance experience for users. SD-WANs have highly resilient remote office connectivity.

SD-WAN is a component of the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) security model which integrates multiple security services in a cloud-native platform.

The SD-WAN test reports provide a comprehensive, independent evaluation of SD-WAN solutions, highlighting unique features and valuable insights into performance, reliability, and capacity under various real-world conditions. Key findings, comparative graphics, response times and a detailed scorecard provide guidance to IT practitioners into how these products performed under various test conditions.

The testing combination of devices consisted of a high availability pair at the head-end, corporate headquarters representing Branch 1, a regional office (Branch 2), and a retail outlet (Branch 3). Each use case was tested for traffic content, throughput, transport, and impairments to see how the SD-WAN performed. The rating is calculated using a scale from 0 to 800 based on Management, Routing & Access Control, Stability & Reliability, and the Mean Opinion Score (MOS).

A MOS score of 4.41 out of 4.53 represents the maximum achievable MOS for VoIP/video, while any score below 3.5 represents a significantly degraded voice call/video stream. (Audio uses a G711 codec, which produces a maximum achievable MOS of 4.41.)

Keysight provided its CyPerf, BreakingPoint and Network Emulator tools to test performance, TLS functionality, stability and impairment.