Control plane
(also control packets)
Control plane definition
A control plane is an element of a network that is responsible for managing networking devices and infrastructure, networking routing and drawing the network topology. It provides orchestration and management for an enterprise’s cloud environment. In the control plane, factors like configuration baselines, user access, and role access are provisioned.
In addition, the control plane provides configuration updates and determines which path the traffic will use to get from the source to the destination. Control planes are also responsible for creating a routing table. And since control planes are so important, they are constantly attacked by hackers, which can result in huge losses in data, resources, and business-critical applications.
Methods to improve control plane security
- Traffic encryption.
- Developing data backups and recovery plans.
- Constant cloud environment monitoring.
- Monitoring user account behaviors.
Control plane examples
- Routing protocols. A routing protocol is a layer management protocol that specifies how routers communicate with one another to distribute information. Some routing protocols that serve as control plane examples include EIGRP, OSPF, BGP, and PIM packets.
- Network management protocols. A network management protocol is an internet protocol that collects and organizes information about devices on IP networks. These include the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) and the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).
- Application layer protocols. An application layer protocol defines how app processes pass messages to each other while being on different systems. These include SMTP, FTP, TFTP, and HTTP.