An organization is modernizing its enterprise infrastructure by integrating a centralized network controller alongside legacy autonomous routing and switching equipment. Which two statements accurately highlight the operational and architectural differences between traditional networking and controller-based networking? (Select two.)
- In traditional networking, each network device independently maintains its own control plane to compute path decisions, whereas controller-based networking centralizes control plane intelligence to program network-wide policy.Answer
- Controller-based architectures use Southbound APIs, such as NETCONF or RESTCONF, to communicate configuration and operational states down to physical network devices.Answer
- CTraditional networking models rely on Northbound APIs to directly negotiate neighbor routing protocol adjacencies between adjacent access layer switches.
- DConfiguration management toolsets like Ansible and Puppet serve as Southbound API protocols that directly switch and route data plane packets across physical interfaces.
Answer
The two correct statements are that traditional networks rely on distributed control planes while controller-based networks centralize control plane intelligence, and that controller-based architectures leverage Southbound APIs (such as NETCONF or RESTCONF) to communicate down to physical network devices.
In traditional networking, each network device executes its own control plane algorithms independently (distributed control plane). In a controller-based architecture, control plane functions are centralized on the controller, which uses Southbound APIs (such as NETCONF or RESTCONF) to manage and program the underlying physical network devices.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Decoupling of Control and Data Planes & Interface Roles (SBI vs NBI)