-- Basic knowledge about some Network Artifacts --

As it had happened to any other DBAs out there, our roles have been evolving and mine hasn't been the exception. I recently have been more involved with Network architectures, I am sharing this information with you hoping that it can be useful.


VIP (Virtual IP): It is an IP that is not bound to a single physical interface.

LB (Load Balancer): Artifact that allows you to share network requests (following some algorithm) across multiple resources.

GSLB (Global Server Load Balancing): Allows you to route network traffic to multiple locations. It's main objective is to route your connection to the most efficient server available to you. 

GSS (Global Site Selector): This is a Cisco GSLB Product.

GTM (Global Traffic Manager): This is a F5 GSLB Product.


Broadcast: When you need to have more than two nodes see the traffic on the same subnet.

Unicast: Unicast is used when two network nodes need to talk to each other.

Anycast: With anycast you advertise the same network in multiple spots of the Internet, and rely on shortest-path calculations to funnel clients to your multiple locations. As far the network nodes themselves are concerned, they're using a unicast connection to talk to your nodes


Multicast: Is like a broadcast that can cross subnets, but unlike broadcast does not touch all nodes. Nodes have to subscribe to a multicast group to receive information.

------------------------------------------------------------
| TYPE      | ASSOCIATIONS     | SCOPE           | EXAMPLE |
------------------------------------------------------------
| Unicast   | 1 to 1           | Whole network   | HTTP    | 
------------------------------------------------------------
| Broadcast | 1 to Many        | Subnet          | ARP     |
------------------------------------------------------------
| Multicast | One/Many to Many | Defined horizon | SLP     |
------------------------------------------------------------
| Anycast   | Many to Few      | Whole network   | 6to4    |
------------------------------------------------------------