Heavy Networking
Packet Pushers
Heavy Networking is an unabashedly nerdy dive into all things networking. Described by one listener as "verbal white papers," the weekly episodes feature network engineers, industry experts, and vendors sharing useful information to keep your professional knowledge sharp and your career growing. Hosts Ethan Banks & Drew Conry-Murray cut through the marketing spin to explore what works—and what doesn't—in networking today, while keeping an eye on what's ahead for the industry. On air since 2010, Heavy Networking is the flagship show of the Packet Pushers podcast network.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Nov 22, 2024 • 57min
HN 759: Deploying the BGP Monitoring Protocol (BMP) at ISP Scale
The BGP Monitoring Protocol, or BMP, is an IETF standard. With BMP you can send BGP prefixes and updates from a router to a collector before any policy filters are applied. Once collected, you can analyze this routing data without any impact on the router itself. On today’s Heavy Networking, we talk with Bart Dorlandt,... Read more »
Nov 15, 2024 • 56min
HN758: How Selector Built an AI Language Model for Networking (Sponsored)
John Capobianco, an expert in network automation and AI at Selector.AI, dives into the transformative role of AI in network operations. He discusses the development of bespoke AI models that enhance data analysis and decision-making. The conversation reveals how fine-tuned large language models can revolutionize network management with advanced features like customizable dashboards and autonomous root cause analysis. John also emphasizes the ease of integrating AI solutions for businesses without in-house expertise, making powerful network automation accessible to all.
Nov 8, 2024 • 49min
HN757: Building a DIY SD-WAN to Serve (Very) Remote Customers
On today’s episode, we chat with wireless ISP engineer Elijah Zeida. Elijah had an interesting connectivity challenge to solve for a remote mountain town that relies on a wireless connection for Internet access, and not much budget to solve it with. But he got it done by building his own SD-WAN using Mikrotik boxes and... Read more »
Nov 1, 2024 • 47min
HN756: Alkira Enhances Its Multi-Cloud Networking With ZTNA and Security (Sponsored)
Alkira provides a Multi-Cloud Networking Service (MCNS) that lets you connect public cloud and on-prem locations using a cloud-delivered, as-a-service approach. But Alkira offers more than just multi-cloud connectivity. On today’s sponsored episode of Heavy Networking, we dig into Alkira’s full set of offerings, which include networking, visibility, governance, and security controls such as firewalls... Read more »
Oct 25, 2024 • 1h 10min
HN755: Optimizing Ethernet to Meet AI Infrastructure Demands
Ethernet competes with InfiniBand as a network fabric for AI workloads such as model training. One issue is that AI jobs don’t tolerate latency, drops, and retransmits. In other words, AI workloads do best with a lossless network. And while Ethernet has kept up with increasing demands to support greater bandwidth and throughput, it was... Read more »
Oct 18, 2024 • 53min
HN754: Secure AI by Design with Palo Alto Networks (Sponsored)
AI is finding its way into more and more consumer and business applications. In particular, the widespread use of Generative AI raises a serious question: how secure is it? In this sponsored Heavy Networking episode we discuss security risks of AI tools and ways to mitigate those risks. Our guest is guest Rich Campagna, Senior... Read more »
Oct 14, 2024 • 1h 9min
HN753: Getting to Know Cisco’s Network Service Orchestrator (NSO)
On today’s episode, guest James Henderson joins the Packet Pushers to discuss Cisco’s Network Service Orchestrator (NSO). NSO’s role in network automation, its declarative management approach, and the challenges it presents are some of the things James shares with the hosts. They also cover operational requirements, deployment challenges, and performance considerations, in addition to discussing... Read more »
Oct 4, 2024 • 58min
HN752: How Digital Twins Enable Smarter Network Ops, Troubleshooting (Sponsored)
Our topic today is digital twins. Sponsor Forward Networks offers software that creates a “mathematically accurate” copy of your network, be it on prem or in the cloud. We talk about what “mathematically accurate” actually means, and how a digital twin can support network operations including change control, network automation, visibility, and troubleshooting. We also... Read more »
Sep 27, 2024 • 53min
HN751: Top Tips for Building A CCIE-EI Lab
Mason Reimert, a CCIE expert, shares his journey in preparing for the Cisco CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure lab exam. He offers practical strategies for hands-on lab work with emerging technologies like SD-WAN. Mason dives into the importance of API understanding, resource management, and virtualization tools. He emphasizes the transition from traditional CCIE to the Enterprise track, all while highlighting best practices for setting up a robust lab environment. Engaging with the CCIE community is also discussed as a valuable resource for aspiring candidates.
Sep 13, 2024 • 52min
HN749: Expand Your Network Labs With Containerlab and Clabernetes
On today’s episode, we cover open source Clabernetes, a tool that allows you to run Containerlab on Kubernetes. Containerlab provides a CLI for orchestrating and managing container-based networking labs. It starts the containers, builds a virtual wiring between them to create lab topologies of your choice and manages the lab’s lifecycle. We discuss the answer... Read more »
