WAN Automation Engine (WAE) Overview

Cisco's WAN Automation Engine (WAE) is first Predictive Software Defined Networking Platform designed for Wide Area Networks (WANs).

With Cisco WAE you can have better control of your WAN to:

• Enable high-value applications to automatically tune the WAN.
• Determine in near real time the end to end demand matrix using measured data from the network and rapidly adjust network configuration to meet the demands of the current-state.
• Fulfil end use customer demands via automation. When placing demands, examine what the impact will be, and potential failures that may affect the demand or cause congestion on the network.
• Tactical optimization capabilities to relieve local congestion, strategic optimization capabilities to relieve chronic network congestion issues.

WAE Architecture and Modules

WAE is server software that sits on the network and communicates with WAN elements via its Collector and Deployer modules.

• Collector - the Collector Module collects information on your WAN topology and traffic. The collector provides multi-vendor support by leveraging key industry standards such as BGP-LS. The Collector APIs provides access to raw data on your WAN topology and traffic.
• Plan - the Plan Module holds the current state and the simulated state of your WAN. It also keeps archive copies of these plans. You access the Plan data via the Topology APIs.
• Optimization and Prediction - the Optimization and Prediction Module provides a series of algorithms that allow you to optimize and plan your WAN. You access the Optimization and Prediction functions via the OPM API's that include Traffic Engineering, Optimization and Predictive Analysis APIs.
• Calendaring - the Calendaring Module gives you the ability to schedule WAN activities in the future. These include Bandwidth Calendaring or Configuration scheduling. You access the Calendaring Module functions via the Calendaring APIs that allow you to reserve bandwidth and to schedule configuration changes.
• Deployer - the Deployer Module gives you the ability to programming the network devices that make up your WAN. You access the Deployer Module via the Deployer APIs that include path creation, path deletion, and path changes.
• Analysis - the Analysis Module gives you the ability to get a near-real-time view of the traffic trend, health or ad-hoc reports on the WAN. You access the Analysis Module via the Analysis APIs that includes the ability to get historical trending data.

Use WAE to Visualize, Analyze, and Program Your WAN

WAE and MATE are a powerful set of tools that allow you to better manage your WAN. MATE is a desktop tool from Cisco that works hand-in-hand with WAE.

MATE Live (Coming Soon) communicates with your WAE server to allow you to visualize your WAN. MATE Live allows you to:

• explore your WAN infrastructure using filters, sorting, and drill down to gain insight.
• visualize hotspots in your WAN and with a global context.
• report on and analyze traffic trends over time.

MATE Design communicates with your WAE server to allow you to analyze your WAN and make informed decisions about optimization. MATE Design allows you to:

• evaluate the traffic within your WAN topology.
• predict any ramifications of traffic changes that might occur.
• consider risk assessment when you plan your WAN.
• reclaim unused bandwidth from your WAN.

When you use your WAE Server with MATE, your WAE Server becomes even more powerful allowing you to automatically control your WAN by executing the changes that you visualized and designed with MATE. When used with MATE, WAE will allow you to:

• quickly fulfill customer demands with automatic WAN programming.
• enable high value applications to automatically tune the WAN.
• rapidly adjust network configuration to current-state demand matrix.