Legal Disclaimer: The resource assets in this website may include abbreviated and/or legacy terminology for HPE Aruba Networking products. See www.arubanetworks.com for current and complete HPE Aruba Networking product lines and names.
Understanding SD-WAN
The SD-WAN Software-Defined Wide Area Network. SD-WAN is an application for applying SDN technology to WAN connections that connect enterprise networks across disparate geographical locations. solution includes a new set of devices called HPE Aruba Networking Gateways that inter-operate with HPE Aruba Networking Switches and Instant APs to provide a full-fledged WAN Wide Area Network. WAN is a telecommunications network or computer network that extends over a large geographical distance. architecture.
Based on the size of your branch setup, you can select the device combination that best suits your requirement:
- Medium to large branches—For branches that require more than 24 ports, you can use a combination of Branch Gateways and one or more HPE Aruba Networking switches at the branch site, with HPE Aruba Networking Gateways as VPN Virtual Private Network. VPN enables secure access to a corporate network when located remotely. It enables a computer to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if it were directly connected to the private network, while benefiting from the functionality, security, and management policies of the private network. This is done by establishing a virtual point-to-point connection through the use of dedicated connections, encryption, or a combination of the two. Concentrator (VPNC) at the data center.
- Small to medium branches—For branches that require less than 24 ports (including all WAN and LAN Local Area Network. A LAN is a network of connected devices within a distinct geographic area such as an office or a commercial establishment and share a common communications line or wireless link to a server. ports), you can deploy Branch Gateways at the branch sites, with HPE Aruba Networking Gateways as VPNC at the data center.
- Microbranches—For microbranches, you can deploy an Instant AP cluster at the branch site, with HPE Aruba Networking Gateway as the VPNC at the data center.
See Supported Devices for AOS-10 for information on HPE Aruba Networking Gateways that can be deployed as VPNCs.
Figure 1 shows a typical deployment topology of an HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-Branch with Branch Gateways and a microbranch with Instant APs:
Figure 2 Illustrates the communication flow between HPE Aruba Networking Central, branch sites, and data center.
Figure 2 HPE Aruba Networking Central and Cloud Communication
Figure 3 shows all elements in an HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-Branch and the SD-WAN data flow.
Figure 3 HPE Aruba Networking SD-WAN Data Flow
What are the Solution Requirements?
The HPE Aruba Networking Gateways are the most important components of the HPE Aruba Networking SD-Branch Solution. The SD-WAN Gateway portfolio includes HPE Aruba Networking Branch Gateways and the VPNCs.
At the Branch Site
The following are the components in a branch, along with the roles they play:
- —Function at the branch to optimize and control WAN, LAN, and cloud security services.
- Branch Gateways to detect and isolate rogue APs, and denylist rogue devices. —Function with
- —Function as VPN clients at branch sites. The client data traffic from these APs are aggregated by the VPNC located at the data center.
At the Data Center
You can deploy HPE Aruba Networking Gateways as VPNCs at the data center. For data center redundancy, you can deploy two VPNCs in the active-standby or active-active mode.
The following are the components operational at the data center:
—A VPNC functions as a VPN management system that aggregates data traffic from the branches and terminatesHPE Aruba Networking Virtual Gateways function as VPNCs.
—The headend gateway at the enterprise data center can be hosted as a virtual appliance. The virtualised instance enterprise data center gateway in public or private cloud is referred to as Virtual Gateway.For a list of supported Gateways, Switches, and APs, see Supported Devices for AOS-10.
In the Cloud
A valid HPE Aruba Networking Central subscription is required to avail cloud-based administration, management, configuration, and monitoring of SD branch components such as Branch Gateways, VPNCs, Instant APs, and HPE Aruba Networking Switches.