An Investigation of Software Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) for Optimizing Multi-site Enterprise Networks

Abstract: Enterprise networks are becoming increasingly complex, posing challenges for traditional WANs in terms of scalability, management, and operational costs. Software Defined Networking (SDN) and its application in Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN) offer solutions by decoupling the control plane from the data plane, providing centralized management, enhanced flexibility, and automated provisioning. This research investigates the challenging application of SD-WAN to optimize traditional multisite enterprise networks. Experimental scenarios are designed in which SD-WAN is implemented on a traditional multi-site network topology with complex architecture, then followed by comprehensive evaluations of its performance across various critical aspects, including hardware status, transmission performance, and security.