For a long period of time, network automation only meant developing a script using a programming language such as Perl, TcL, or Python in order to execute tasks on different network platforms. This approach is known as script-driven network automation. But as the network becomes more complex and more service-oriented, new types of automation were required and started to appear, such as the following:
- Software-defined network automation: Network devices will have only a forwarding plane, while the control plane is implemented and created using an external software called an SDN controller. The benefit of this approach is there will be a single point of contact for any network changes and the SDN controller can accept those change requests from other software, such as an external portal, through well-implemented northbound interfaces.
- High-level...
