SD-WAN refers to a new approach to building networks that focuses on speed, resiliency, automation, security, manageability and ease of use. Traditional routers have limited scalability, which means they can usually only connect to a few hundred clients at a time, and due to design bottlenecks, traditional WANs often experience latency issues. But with SD-WAN, organizations can rapidly deploy high-performance WAN services over any network infrastructure, including MPLS, broadband Internet and even LTE, meaning they can scale quickly without having to worry about managing multiple vendors or different types of hardware.

SD-WAN (Software Defined Wide Area Network) requires the following devices to build and support its network architecture:

1.SD-WAN Edge Device: The SD-WAN Edge Device is a device deployed at each branch or remote office location. It can be a physical hardware device or virtualized software used to connect a branch office’s local network to the WAN. The edge device is responsible for intelligently routing and load balancing data traffic over multiple network links (e.g., Internet, MPLS, etc.).
2.Central Controller: The central controller of SD-WAN is the brain of the network, responsible for centralized management and control of the entire SD-WAN network. The central controller can be a physical device or a cloud platform, which provides centralized configuration, monitoring, troubleshooting and security policy management.
3.SD-WAN management platform: SD-WAN management platform is a centralized management tool for managing and monitoring SD-WAN network. It provides a user interface and console that enables network administrators to configure and manage SD-WAN edge devices, formulate policies, monitor network performance, and perform troubleshooting.
4.Link and Device Monitors: SD-WAN networks need to monitor and measure the performance of links and devices. These monitors can be physical devices or software tools for real-time monitoring of metrics such as link quality, latency, packet loss and bandwidth utilization.
5.Firewalls and security devices: Security is a very important part of an SD-WAN network. Organizations can deploy firewalls and other security devices on SD-WAN edge devices to provide network security protection such as traffic filtering, intrusion detection and encryption.

It is important to note that specific SD-WAN equipment and technology vendors may vary, and different vendors may offer different hardware and software solutions. Therefore, when choosing SD-WAN equipment, it is recommended to conduct comprehensive evaluation and consultation to select the right equipment and vendor based on the specific needs and budget of the organization.