Comprehensive Strategies for Enhancing SD-WAN: Integrating Security, Dynamic Routing and Quality of Service Management

Abstract

Software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN) change how networks are operated to be more flexible, cost-conscious and efficient than traditional VPNs. However, significant challenges face the successful deployment of SD-WAN because of vulnerabilities in security, consistent quality of service (QoS) compliance and seamless connectivity for hybrid and multi-cloud environments. This paper discusses the most important ones: approaches to implementing IPsec encryption and zero trust framework security for the protection of SD-WAN networks. It further mentions connectivity solutions through other sophisticated routing mechanisms, such as segment routing (SR) and path computation element (PCE), with more emphasis on latency and scalability issues. QoS issues are addressed, notably jitter management, packet loss and latency reduction through dynamic path selection and traffic optimisation. The findings advocate the ability of SD-WAN to change the parent enterprise networks while consolidating continuous monitoring, optimisation and update with recent technology. Future work is set to explore the techniques within the deep learning community applicable in better resource allocation and scalability in SD-WAN implementations.