ITSU3009 Project 2

Python Network Automation

Systems Analysis Report

Abdul Muqeet :39305

Zeeshan Rafique :39045
Nouman Mushtaq :38748

Semester 8, 2020

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Table of Contents

Project Scope .................................................................................................................................. 3

Feasibility Analysis......................................................................................................................... 3

Risk Constraint Analysis ................................................................................................................ 4

Use case Diagrams & Descriptions ............................................................................................... 4

Reference ......................................................................................................................................... 5

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Project Scope
As the world is moving towards a digital era, the devices communication and interaction has
been increased. The digitization can be seen growing with a high pace and network is
getting crowded due to abundant devices connected with each other. This congested
environment give rise to major challenges to the network with respect to security and
reliability. The traditional network administration methods for configuration and security used
to be time-consuming, prone to cyberattacks and vulnerabilities which could be exploited by
the bad actors for their malicious purposes. The need therefore is to eliminate all these
overheads by programming the networking infrastructure in such a way that all these
parameters could be handled in an effective way to mitigate the risk of security and time
taking processes [1].
The trend of network automation emerged to enhance the efficiency level in overall
operations when it comes to deal with the software defined networks which are particularly
based on standard programming approaches and also on their scripting methods.
Collectively, these are used to control and monitor the network and its elements in a well-
organized, thoughtful and secure way. In this project, there are some network configuration
methods discussed employing python as programming language.
The advanced innovative solutions and their adoption all over the world to overcome the
slow and dependent processes has been penetrated into the real-world. The automation
need and processes are employed to eliminate the overhead in such a way that it does not
compromise on the cost, the reliability and security aspects of the network. The network
automation can help software houses and network management department of every
organization to look into the communication required in an automated manner while
mitigating the overheads efficiently.
By using the network automation techniques and methods, the operational efficiency will be
increased, equipment configuration time will be reduced to substantial level and network
maintenance will be ensured. Moreover, the network automation will enhance the network
security by identifying and mitigating the risk of cyberattacks and security breaches and
fixing the vulnerabilities beforehand. The overall network stability will be increased once
based on its configuration the whole network infrastructure will be automated.

Feasibility Analysis

The developments and their rapid adoption in the event driven automated networks have
made the workflows of organizations streamlined. Based on the scenarios that are usual part
of the networking system, the whole infrastructure is defined. The transformation is highly
feasible in the rapid advanced world where every module is getting digitized and totally
automated by the intelligent developed APIs. The feasibility therefore in today’s era is quite
at substantial level that can help develop a firm foundation of the overall automated
networking platform that enhances the productivity, security, efficiency and reliability of the
operations by eliminating the installation cost and time consuming operational aspect [6].
The day-to-day realistic operations are moving towards the BGP events that have automated
the security processes against the network hijacking as well as load balancing.

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Risk Constraint Analysis

In the network automation there are certain risk constraints that sometime correspond to
security and reliability. For instance, there are some threats related to the network
automation system that came out of box and pre-configurations does not align well with the
advanced cyberattacks approach. Some security breaches and buffer overflow attacks in the
network system are not handled before and occur in real time by the fraudulent entities
which cannot be handled in the automated system. The standard security aspects however
are all employed based on policies and techniques [5]. Second constraint correspond to the
changing regulatory requirements with respect to network and information security. The
security aspects in the automated system, does not align according to the regulatory
obligations due to which it is crucially important to take them into consideration to mitigate
the risk of regulatory fines and penalties.
Based on these risks, the network automation system will be designed that could mitigate
the security risks and regulatory constraints if they are all build by paying a devoted attention
into the compliance and policies that are required for a secure network to operate. In this
way, an abstract view is required which is studied and based on all these, the automated
network using python will be executed. This will help ensure compliance, data and
information security and secure connections in the automated network.

Use case Diagrams & Descriptions

The use case diagram is presented below that cover the major use cases of a network
automation system in which there are operations and common functions in a network
infrastructure. The first one is the network streamlined infrastructure that the network
automated operator will be doing by allocating resources efficiently and performing the
automation in an effective manner. The second use-case is configuration of device and
network modules. Based on network policies, rules and standards configuration is done by
the network automation operator in real-time. Looking into the rules and managing them
according to obligations for each incoming connections is part of network automation. The
security protocols and their operations for example in security management like ssh which
ensure authentication of each connection to ensure a controlled access on the network.
The network services which the communication nodes ask for are all managed by the
network automation operator based on the available services, their threshold and density to
provide it to nodes for streamline working. This step would decompose an overall complex
security standard and policies into extremely simple elements. Secondly, the services are
Integrated into the network and it is been deployed into the designed application
development process. All these use-cases of an automated network system are been used
that describe the overall infrastructure, working and operations within a network which are
automated to provide smooth services to the communicating nodes.

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The diagram gives a complete overview of the functions which are considered major when it
comes to automate the network. The responsibilities which were used to manage
traditionally before the advanced automated technology. Now all these operations have
become automated that does not require assistance from the humans to operate them and
all time-consuming operations which were standards and were often prone to human error
can now be solved efficiently taking into account all the necessary modules., attributes,
aspects and policies that contribute to the establishment of a complete networking model.

Reference

[1] P. Mihăilă, T. Bălan, R. Curpen, and F. Sandu, “Network Automation and Abstraction
using Python Programming Methods,” MACRo 2015, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 95–103, Jan. 2017.
[2] Edelman, Jason, Scott S. Lowe, and Matt Oswalt. Network Programmability and
Automation: Skills for the Next-Generation Network Engineer. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.", 2018.
[3] Chou, Eric. Mastering Python Networking: Your one-stop solution to using Python for
network automation, DevOps, and Test-Driven Development. Packt Publishing Ltd, 2018.
[4] Jambunatha, K., 2015, June. Design and implement Automated Procedure to upgrade
remote network devices using Python. In 2015 IEEE International Advance Computing
Conference (IACC) (pp. 217-221). IEEE.

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[5] Chen, Haiyan, et al. "Planning for Distributed Generation in Distribution Network with
Short-circuit Current Constraints [J]." Automation of Electric Power Systems 21 (2006).
[6] WANG, Hai-peng, Rong ZENG, and Jin-liang HE. "FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS OF GSM
APPLICATION IN REM OTE DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM FOR DISTRIBUTION
NETWORK [J]." High Voltage Apparatus 5 (2002).