History Of Virtual Private Networks Tracesâ€Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The History Of Virtual Private Networks Traces? Answer: Introduction Virtual networks are identified as virtual environments that offer an array of possibilities and plenty of flexibility. The network infrastructure is responsible for providing hardware and software environments at very low rates. According to experts, the virtual network system is a play area or a test space for trying new ideas safely. You dont have to worry about breaking anything in a virtual setting. Also, there are no inconvenient switch ports or wirings inside a virtual environment. Very little work has to be done configuring a host virtual system. Most of the tasks are achieved through emulation of the entire hardware entity and with network protocols that are carefully supported by the guest operating system. The only exception in virtual networks would be the NAT Adapter that works with the TCP/IP protocol. History of Virtual Networks The history of virtual private networks traces back to early 1996s. This was when Gurdeep Singh-Pall of Microsoft invented the Point to Point Tunneling Protocol alias (PPTP). The protocol was used to implement virtual private networks [1]. The protocol allowed users to establish secure internet connections. The connections allowed them to work safely from remote locations like home. This was an important milestone in the evolution of virtual private networks. In the next few years, VPNs changed drastically. There were several different types of virtual networks introduced with a variety of protocols. This includes the SSTP, PPTP, L2TP/IPSec and OpenVPN [2]. Some third party companies invested on virtual networks to host their private servers. These servers were protected using different types of encryption algorithms, ranging from asymmetric to hashing to symmetric. Today, virtual networks are completely diverse. More than two-third of the world uses virtual networks. They are a part of government surveillance teams, online security and the censorship board. Explanation of Virtual Networks The virtual networks are private connections that establish a relationship between people and devices in the internet. It can be used to connect several thousand users together. Experts consider the virtual networks as an internet, inside the main internet. It allows users to establish secure connections that are encrypted and carefully protected from prying eyes, hackers and cyber criminals [3]. The original virtual network was designed for big businesses. It was meant to reduce the chances of hacking and data loss. Today, virtual networks are used in many places. Virtual networks are quite similar to having your very own local network connection. It is a connection where devices can be used to access the internet easily. The network depends on a wide range of tunneling protocols that can hide the source with high-level encryption algorithms [4]. These algorithms make sure data is never lost from the network. Also, anyone unintended will not see the data. Geo-restriction and censorship are two important issues that drive the need for virtual network technologies. Censorship has a history that dates back to various problems in the social media. Also, the demand for efficient virtual networks became web-surfers [5]. Advantages and Disadvantages of Virtual Networks Advantages There are several benefits in defining virtual networks. First of all, the networks are very easy to define. This reduces the need for network hardware devices. With virtual networks, companies dont have to invest on hubs or cables [6]. Also, the organizations network will have very little dependencies on complicated hardware configuration. This makes centralized access easy and management a simple process. Two, it is possible to consolidate plenty of guest systems in virtual machines. All the guest systems can be consolidated to a single processor. This means, the cost and complexity in running separate hardware gets eliminated. Virtual networks dont have the maintenance issues found in traditional networks. Three, traffic outside the virtual networks dont have to be considered. As a result, the virtual networks are bound to secure, available and high in performance. Likewise, a considerable amount of transparency is achieved in these networks. Disadvantages An interesting problem with virtual networks is that unlike traditional servers, network devices are bound to engage in I/O intense activities. This includes the process of moving data across networks. These tasks need dedicated hardware devices. The demand for high speed packet forwarding and routing with encryption algorithms and load balancing are necessary. All these properties are highly silicon dependent. Virtual machines dont have dedicated hardware devices. That means, the above mentioned tasks should be performed by a general purpose processor. This will affect the overall performance of the system. Trying to implement firewalls, routers and switches virtually will burn the CPU cycles. In some cases, the CPU would have plenty of idle time. Trying to utilize all hardware devices effectively in a virtual environment is difficult. Though there are agents to help with load balancing and network usage, the entire process is an overhead and difficult to handle. Improvements done to Virtual Networks An important area that has experienced many improvements in the past few years would be virtual network management. Many protocols are designed to help with virtual network management. Simple Network management Protocol (SNMP) was founded to help data management in virtual networks [7]. The protocol runs in a separate virtual machine with a SNMP agent. The agent supports many management information base variables. The SNMP agent relies on a routine that is pre-defined. Details about this protocol are carefully documented in RFC 1493. The SNMP agent can be broken into smaller subagents. These agents are responsible for acquiring data from the switch. Additionally, they provide a programming interface for real information [8]. Conclusion Virtual networks are responsible for providing various resource sharing capabilities. This includes resources like storage and other devices. When the guest operating system doesnt require high network bandwidth, the process of sharing networking devices is wise. It would be better to share devices rather than establish dedicated resources. Also, network management becomes easy with virtual networks. Common techniques that are a part of virtual networks would be: channel to channel adapter connections and inter-user communication vehicle. These methods are responsible for creating virtual point to point connections between two IP addresses or systems. References [1] B.A. Forouzan, TCP/IP Protocol Suite. Pennsylvania: McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., 2005. [2] M. Gupta, Building a Virtual Private Network. Ohio: Muska Lipman/Premier-Trade, 2002. [3] B. S. Davie and Y. Rekhter, MPLS: Technology and Applications. Massachusetts: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers In., 2005 [4] B. Odiyo, Virtual Private Network. Available: https://it.uu.se/edu/course/homepage/sakdat/ht06/assignments/pm/programme/odiyo-dwarkanath.pdf [Accessed: Aug 28, 2017] [5] N. Duffield, P. Goyal, A. G. Greenberg and J. E. van der Merwe, "A flexible model for resource management in virtual private networks," ACM, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 95-108, Oct. 1999 [6] T. Braun, M. Gunter, M. Kasumi and I. Khalil, Virtual Private Network Architecture. Available: https://home.inf.unibe.ch/~rvs/research/publications/TR-IAM-99-001.pdf [Accessed: Aug 28, 2017] [7] J. D. Case, M. Fedor, M. L. Schoffstall, and C. Davin, "Simple Network Management Protocol," RFC 1157, May 1990. [8] W. Stallings, SNMP, SNMPv2, SNMPv3, and RMON 1 and 2. Boston: Addison Wesley, 1998.