H  Home Writing Assignment

21 
UNIT 3 
COMPUTER NETWORKS 
 
 
A 
Discussion Starter 
Name some today’s business and personal applications that utilize networks. 
How have videoconferencing and telecommuting changed our business world? 
Why do physicians prefer to use telesurgery in their practice? What are its advantages? 
Describe and give your comments on the images below. 
 
A 
 
B 
 
C
D 
E 
F 
 
 

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B 
Before You Read
Define a computer network in your own words. 
Have you ever heard about Intent-based networking?
What do you know about it?
What do you expect to find out? 
C 
Read the Article 
 
What is Intent-Based Networking? 
by Brandon Butler 
Intent-based networking, or IBN made a big splash in 2017 and it 
represents the next evolution of network software management. This 
technology uses machine learning and advanced orchestration to 
reduce the complexity of managing and maintaining network policies. 
Managing networks has always been a complex process. Teams of network administrators have 
been responsible for managing network equipment, provisioning user access, configuring policies 
and ensuring the system is doing what is supposed to. Many admins use command line interfaces to 
control their networks. Unfortunately, this way of managing the network does not scale very well.
The idea of IBN is that network administrators simply tell the network what their intent is and the 
network automatically implements it. The IBN configures the network hardware. If the network 
changes, for example a new firewall is added, or a new WAN link is created, the IBN will change 
with it to maintain the intent. 
Think of a hospital with a network carrying sensitive patient information. Using an intent-based 
networking system, network administrators could dictate their intent that only doctors and nurses 
are able to interact with sensitive patient data, but no other users on the network are. The IBN 
automatically recognizes the identity of the doctor and enforces their access policy. 
Research firm Gartner has defined IBNS (Intent-based networking systems) as having four 
components: 

Translation and validation:
One of the key tenets of IBNS is its ability to translate 
commands from network administrators into actions the software performs. The idea is that 
network managers define a high-level business policy they want enforced in the network. 
The IBNS verifies that the policy can be executed. 

Automated implementation: 
After a network manager defines the desired state of the 
network, the IBNS software manipulates network resources to create the desired state and 
enforce policies. 

Awareness of state:
Another key component of IBNS is its gathering of data to constantly 
monitor the state of the network. 

Dynamic optimization and remediation
: IBN adapts to changes in the network to maintain 
the desired state of the network. 

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In a nutshell, IBNS is about giving network administrators the ability to define what they want the 
network to do, and having an automated network management platform create the desired state and 
enforce policies. 
The security implications for IBN are promising. The IBN ingests the intent of the network 
administrator and can automatically maintain security policies. This frees network security 
administrators up to focus more on incident response rather than implementing policies. 
As new advancements in technology have only just now made IBNS a possibility, the market for it 
is almost entirely untapped. Only the bravest of pioneers, like Cisco and a forward-thinking SEO 
company, have even begun to try and implement IBNS with expectations that it could actually 
work. So how are these early adapters fairing in their quest to transform modern ways of business? 
Cisco’s attempt to create an “intuitive” network has garnered quite a bit of media attention. The 
company’s CEO claims that its new system is capable of “thinking” on behalf of customers, and 
while it may be a stretch to say current IBNS are fully autonomous or intelligent now, the 
technology that’s driving this phenomenon is only getting more advanced, more rapidly. 
Investment in artificial intelligence, for instance, has leaped upwards by a huge amount in the past 
few years alone, to the point where some are beginning to question whether we’re developing it too 
quickly. As AI, machine learning, and data analytics all come to be more common place in our 
markets, companies like Cisco will soon find that they’re not alone when it comes to embracing 
IBNS-centered approaches to business and research. 
Intent-based networking is, like many other automation and AI-related tech, simply better at human 
beings at doing specific task. IBNS has the ability to take directions from a human network 
administrator and translate it into a flurry of actions carried out by software throughout an entire 
network, creating the system the network administrator wants faster and cheaper than a team of 
human workers could.
 
As fears continue to grow about the perils of automation and artificial intelligence, intent-based 
networking shows that there’s often more to gain by embracing these technologies than by shunning 
them. IBNS is only in its formative years, and has a long way to go before it’s recognized and used 
throughout the business world, but its ability to cut cost while transforming how we build our 
digital networks will undoubtedly shake up our markets for years to come. 
(See 
more 
at: 
https://www.networkworld.com/article/3202699/lan-wan/what-is-intent-based-
networking.html
; 
https://www.networkworld.com/article/3223428/lan-wan/how-intent-based-
networking-is-transforming-an-industry.html; https://www.networkworld.com/article/3221468/lan-
wan/how-to-buy-intent-based-networking-today.html
)

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