The majority of corporates or services rely highly upon networking infrastructure which supports core functionalities of IT operations for the organization. Therefore the health of the networking infrastructure should always be kept intact and monitored for any possible issues that may pop up any sooner or later. The purpose of monitoring is not only limited to hardware faults or the bugs in embedded software but could also be applied to take care of security vulnerabilities or if not at least to avoid possible attacks. The networking infrastructure though secured mostly suffers from the bot and DDoS attacks which are usually not detected as suspicious since they target the resource allocation system of the network devices which could be normal in some cases of heavy utilization. Well, there is a catch for this, most of the time this resource allocation is not likely to cause storms in multiple devices and hence could easily be tracked through the time domain to detect any anomalies.

Communication networks have evolved drastically in the last decade. Whereas networks largely used to provide dumb connectivity pipes interconnecting its end users, current network technology is tightly interconnected with the cloud, leading to a plethora of advanced services, a drastic increase in network usage, and strongly evolved data and control planes. Software-based functionality is now deeply changing the nature of both the control and data plane of our networking infrastructure through SDN and NFV technology respectively. This has introduced tremendous programmability and flexibility but also a range of uncertainties in the performance, security and management of our networks. Less functionality is now specified in standardized protocols or hardcoded in our data plane hardware.

How close to reality is 5G, the highly touted next-generation mobile networking infrastructure? Many providers are already touting trials of network services that employ limited 5G radio spectrum on top of 4G core networking infrastructure. Real-world applications running on fully implemented 5G networks should start appearing around 2020. It's why tech-savvy leaders at large enterprises are working 5G capabilities into their IT roadmaps, especially where cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT), and machine learning/artificial intelligence fit into the 5G architecture. It's important to understand 5G's potential, and where it will intersect with your industry, business model, and processes, sooner rather than later.