Summary and Quiz

In this lesson, we’ll summarize what we have learned about the networking services provided by AWS. Also, we’ll test our knowledge through a quiz.

Summary

Here is a summary of key takeaways from the Networking section:

• Fundamentals of networking: Let’s look at some of the fundamental concepts in networking:

  • Internet Protocol (IP): This defines a set of rules to address and route traffic on the internet. 

  • IPv4 and IPv6: IPv4 is a 32-bit address represented in four octets, while IPv6 uses a 128-bit address represented in hexadecimal notation, providing a much larger address space.

  • Classful IPv4 addressing: IPv4 addresses are divided into network and host parts, with Class A, B, and C addresses defining different network and host bits combinations.

  • Limitations of classful addressing: Classful addressing has limitations such as inefficient IP allocation and limited network design flexibility.

  • Subnet mask: A subnet mask is a binary representation indicating the network and host portions of an IP address used by routers to determine network boundaries.

  • Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR): CIDR addresses the limitations of classful addressing by allowing variable-length subnet masks (VLSM) and more flexible IP allocations.

  • CIDR notation: This includes the IP block followed by a slash and the number of selected network part bits, allowing for efficient network allocation and routing.

  • Subnetting: This enables dividing large network address spaces into smaller subnetworks, improving network routing efficiency.

• Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): They are the foundation of AWS infrastructure, providing isolated, secure, and customizable cloud spaces. AWS creates a default VPC in each Region, pre-configured with default subnets, route tables, internet gateways, and security settings, simplifying resource launching. However, we can launch a custom VPCs and subnets.

• Route tables: They guide network traffic within a VPC, determining where traffic from instances should be routed.

• Internet Gateway: It facilitates communication between instances within a VPC and the internet. It serves as a gateway for outbound and inbound traffic flows.

• NAT Gateways: NAT enables multiple devices to share a single public IP address, providing security and conserving IPv4 addresses. A NAT gateway is a managed AWS service facilitating outbound internet connectivity for instances in private subnets while maintaining security.

• NACLs: These are stateless firewalls working at the subnet level, controlling ingress and egress traffic.

• Security Groups: These are stateful firewalls operating at the EC2 instance level in the AWS environment.

• VPC Connectivity: AWS offers multiple ways to connect multiple VPCs or on-premises resources:

  • VPC Peering: It enables us to connect different VPCs securely, allowing their resources to communicate as if they were within the same VPC. It utilizes the AWS global network, ensuring that communication happens through private IP addresses and never goes outside the private IP space or the internet.

  • AWS Site-to-Site VPN: An encrypted connection between on-premises resources and a VPC in the cloud. Its main components include the Virtual Private Gateway (VGW), Customer Gateway (CGW), and customer gateway devices on-premises.

  • AWS Client VPN: Managed service allowing client computers to connect securely to AWS resources in a VPC and on-premises network. It establishes encrypted end-to-end connections over the public internet.

  • Direct Connect: Direct Connect provides a dedicated private connection from on-premises or remote networks to a VPC. It utilizes AWS Direct Connect locations worldwide to establish connections. AWS Direct Connect Gateway Connects remote networks to multiple VPCs in different AWS Regions within the same account.

• VPC Flow Logs: They monitor and capture IP traffic going to and from network interfaces in a VPC. They can be configured at the VPC, subnet, or network interface level.

• Route 53: It provides scalable DNS solutions, allowing users to manage domain registration, DNS routing, and health checking. It also offers several routing policies to control the traffic.

• CloudFront: It is a global content delivery network (CDN) service designed to deliver content with low latency and high transfer speeds. CloudFront uses a network of edge locations strategically positioned around the world to cache and deliver content closer to end-users, reducing latency and improving performance.

Test your knowledge

Take a short quiz to validate the knowledge and to make sure you’ve not missed out on anything.