Python Network Programming

Conquer all your networking challenges with the powerful Python language

Abhishek Ratan, Eric Chou, Pradeeban Kathiravelu, Dr. M. O. Faruque Sarker

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781788835466
• eBook ISBN: 9781788830232
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Computer Networking
• Index: Computer Science

Power up your network applications with Python programming

Key Features

• Master Python skills to develop powerful network applications
• Grasp the fundamentals and functionalities of SDN
• Design multi-threaded, event-driven architectures for echo and chat servers

Book Description

This Learning Path highlights major aspects of Python network programming such as writing simple networking clients, creating and deploying SDN and NFV systems, and extending your network with Mininet. You'll also learn how to automate legacy and the latest network devices. As you progress through the chapters, you'll use Python for DevOps and open source tools to test, secure, and analyze your network. Toward the end, you'll develop client-side applications, such as web API clients, email clients, SSH, and FTP, using socket programming.

By the end of this Learning Path, you will have learned how to analyze a network's security vulnerabilities using advanced network packet capture and analysis techniques.

This Learning Path includes content from the following Packt products:

• Practical Network Automation by Abhishek Ratan
• Mastering Python Networking by Eric Chou
• Python Network Programming Cookbook, Second Edition by Pradeeban Kathiravelu, Dr. M. O. Faruque Sarker

What you will learn

• Create socket-based networks with asynchronous models
• Develop client apps for web APIs, including S3 Amazon and Twitter
• Talk to email and remote network servers with different protocols
• Integrate Python with Cisco, Juniper, and Arista eAPI for automation
• Use Telnet and SSH connections for remote system monitoring
• Interact with websites via XML-RPC, SOAP, and REST APIs
• Build networks with Ryu, OpenDaylight, Floodlight, ONOS, and POX
• Configure virtual networks in different deployment environments

Who this book is for

If you are a Python developer or a system administrator who wants to start network programming, this Learning Path gets you a step closer to your goal. IT professionals and DevOps engineers who are new to managing network devices or those with minimal experience looking to expand their knowledge and skills in Python will also find this Learning Path useful. Although prior knowledge of networking is not required, some experience in Python programming will be helpful for a better understanding of the concepts in the Learning Path.

Contributors

About the authors

Abhishek Ratan has around 15 years of technical experience in networking, automation, and various ITIL processes, and has worked in various roles in different organizations. As a network engineer, security engineer, automation engineer, TAC engineer, tech lead, and content writer, he has gained a wealth of experience during the 15 years of his career. Abhishek also has a deep interest in strategy game playing, and if he is not working on technical stuff, he is busy spending time on his strategy games.

He is currently working as a Sr. Automation Engineer at ServiceNow, learning, and expanding his automation skills in the ServiceNow platform. His earlier experience includes working for companies such as Microsoft, Symantec, and Navisite,which has given him exposure to various environments.

Eric Chou is a seasoned technologist with an industry experience of over 18 years. He has worked on and helped managed some of the largest networks in the industry while working at Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and other companies. Eric is passionate about network automation, Python, and helping companies build better security postures. Eric is the author of several books and online classes on networking with Python and network security. He is the proud inventor of two patents in IP telephony. Eric shares his deep interest in technology through his books, classes, and his blog, and contributes to some of the popular Python open source projects.

Pradeeban Kathiravelu is an open source evangelist. He is a Ph.D. researcher at INESC-ID Lisboa/Instituto Superior Tecnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal, and Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. He is a fellow of Erasmus Mundus Joint Degree in Distributed Computing (EMJD-DC), researching a software-defined approach to quality of...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• About Packt
• Contributors
• Preface
• Fundamental Concepts
• Python for Network Engineers
• Continuous Integration for Network Engineers
• SDN Concepts in Network Automation
• Low-Level Network Device Interactions
• APIs and Intent-Driven Networking
• The Python Automation Framework – Ansible Basics
• The Python Automation Framework – Beyond Basics
• AWS Cloud Networking
• Working with Git
• Sockets, IPv4, and Simple Client/Server Programming
• Multiplexing Socket I/O for Better Performance
• IPv6, Unix Domain Sockets, and Network Interfaces
• Programming with HTTP for the Internet
• Email Protocols, FTP, and CGI Programming
• Programming Across Machine Boundaries
• Working with Web Services – SOAP, and REST
• Network Monitoring and Security
• Network Modeling
• Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA)
• Open and Proprietary Networking Solutions
• NFV and Orchestration – A Larger Ecosystem
• Programming the Internet
• Other Books You May Enjoy