In this chapter, we covered the OSI model and reviewed network protocol suites, such as TCP, UDP, and IP. They work as the layers that handle the addressing and communication negotiation between any two hosts. The protocols were designed with extensibility in mind and have largely been unchanged from their original design. Considering the explosive growth of the internet, that is quite an accomplishment.
We also quickly reviewed the Python language, including built-in types, operators, control flows, functions, classes, modules, and packages. Python is a powerful, production-ready language that is also easy to read. This makes the language an ideal choice when it comes to network automation. Network engineers can leverage Python to start with simple scripts and gradually move on to other advanced features.
In Chapter 2, Low-Level Network Device Interactions, we will start to look at using Python to programmatically interact with network equipment.