FREMONT, CA: SD-WAN's growth is altering the edge router market, according to surveys and reports. SD-WAN promises to reduce the cost and complexity of WANs, while enhancing the performance of real-time applications.

For a technology distributor, software-defined networking (SDN) in a wide area network (SD-WAN) has changed the dynamics of connectivity. As SD-WAN growth persists on mounting, the question of them replacing edge routers has become more prominent than before. SD-WAN brings a lot of brainpower internally to organizations at the center of their network so that technologies can be incorporated without having to rely on edge devices.

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An edge router is a hardware application that sits at different margins of a LAN. In majority of the cases, organizations keep an internet edge, in addition to a WAN edge. The function of an edge router is to connect to exterior assets outside of the LAN to direct data in and out.

SDN is the idea of unscrambling the data plane from the control plane. Generally speaking, the data plane sends packets of data from one network device to the next. The control plane operates as the intelligence source that decides optimal paths for data packets and how they will flow between the source and destination apparatuses. In SDN, the core control plane supplies end-to-end channel visibility, which incorporates additional gains in choosing the most proficient data path. Therefore, when plotted against conventional edge routers that maintain data-path intelligence on a hop-by-hop basis, SD-WANs function differently by enabling organizations to build a virtual, private network.

Edge Router to Lead in SD-WAN Growth:

In a conventional WAN, edge devices have to communicate with the core as it needs the use of hardware, like switches and routers, creating a lot of moving parts. SDN, however, greatly simplifies that process as it takes the hardware out of the scenario and automates the course of configuring WAN edge routers.

While SDN is still in its early years, SD-WAN is what customers are looking forward to. Customers want better internet connectivity at remote locations and organizations, to provide them with proper application optimization, are installing the ultimate solution for users to save money and reduce complexity.