What Is Intent-Based Networking (IBN) and How Does It Work?

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, network infrastructure has become a critical pillar supporting business operations. However, with the exponential growth in data traffic and the proliferation of connected devices, traditional network management approaches are facing unprecedented challenges. Against this backdrop, Intent-Based Networking (IBN) has emerged as a revolutionary method of network management, garnering significant attention across the industry.

What Is Intent-Based Networking (IBN)?

Intent-based networking (IBN) represents a state-of-the-art technology concept focused on integrating advanced intelligence and desired network states to streamline network configuration and resolve issues autonomously.

With the increasing number of users, devices, and distributed applications, networking environments have become significantly more intricate. IBN shifts from a traditionally hardware-focused, manually operated network to a controller-driven system that encapsulates business objectives and translates them into automated, uniformly enforced policies. The aim is for the network to perpetually oversee and fine-tune its performance to ensure the achievement of the intended business results.

How Does It Work?

Intent-based networking (IBN) improves upon the principles of software-defined networking (SDN) by using a network controller that serves as the main control hub for network activities. These controllers are vital for network abstraction, enabling IT professionals to manage the network as a single, unified entity. Networks managed by these controllers—including those in access, WAN, data centers, and cloud—work together and spread their benefits throughout the enterprise, helping to drive digital transformation. IBN’s closed-loop system includes several key components to ensure it can meet and support your business or IT goals:

• Translation: Capturing and converting user intentions into actionable policies for the network.

• Activation: Deploying these policies across both physical and virtual network infrastructures using automation.

• Assurance: Using analytics and machine learning to continuously monitor the network, ensuring that the intended outcomes are achieved and business goals are met.

The Advantages of Intent-Based Networking

Intent-based networking offers notable advantages over traditional and software-defined networking, primarily by saving time:

• Less Manual Effort: Automatically converts commands into actions and adjusts settings without human intervention.

• Quicker Issue Resolution: Continuously monitors and uses machine learning to instantly resolve performance problems.

• Maintained Compliance: Constantly self-corrects to stay aligned with set policies.

• Enhanced Security: Part of the monitoring that the intent-based network is constantly doing is looking for threats, even in encrypted traffic. Security breaches are immediately identified and contained.

• Improved Analytics: Provides valuable performance and security insights for better decision-making.

• Faster Goal Achievement: Rapidly translates business objectives into optimal configurations, saving significant planning and setup time and boosting ROI (Return On Investment) .

PicOS® Switches Enables Intent-Based Networking

PicOS® is an advanced networking solution that empowers modern enterprises through innovative features like CrossFlow™, which sets new standards in networking technology. Unlike the traditional hybrid Layer 2/Layer 3 switches, where ports either operated with the conventional L2/L3 stack software or were managed by a SDN controller, CrossFlow™ allows each switch port to simultaneously support both L2/L3 traffic and SDN traffic.

For example, in a large enterprise such as a major retailer, PicOS® switches allow for dynamic policy insertion without impacting network traffic. If suspicious activity is detected, the security team can deploy a security policy change across the switches at the affected location. This allows the network to either drop, mirror, or redirect traffic from the compromised MAC addresses to a security analytics platform seamlessly. This happens without any interruption to the ongoing network services, a capability made possible by PicOS®’s CrossFlow™ technology.

Conclusion

Intent-Based Networking (IBN) is redefining network management in the context of today's complex and dynamically changing digital landscape. Solutions like PicOS® further complement IBN by enabling innovative features like CrossFlow™, which enhance network flexibility and responsiveness. By shifting from manual, hardware-focused approaches to automated, controller-driven systems, IBN integrates advanced intelligence and policy enforcement, thereby aligning network performance with business objectives seamlessly.