Depending on your role as a software engineer, you may constantly or almost never interact with any of the networking concepts in this roadmap.
Regardless, it’s useful to at least have foundational knowledge in computer networking. If you’re a Site Reliability Engineer, DevOps Engineer, or focused on infrastructure performance or security, going deeper into networking can come in handy.
Phase 1: Foundational Knowledge
- Fundamentals of Networking:
- Concepts: IP addresses (IPv4, IPv6), subnetting, MAC addresses, routing protocols (DHCP, BGP), DNS (Domain Name System), TCP/IP stack.
- OSI Model:
- Concepts: Seven layers of the OSI model and their functionalities (physical, data link, network, transport, session, presentation, application).
- Network Topologies and Types:
- Concepts: LAN, WAN, PAN, VLAN, etc. Mesh, Star, Bus, Ring Topologies
- Transport Protocols:
- Concepts: TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) features, reliable vs. unreliable transmission, flow control, error correction.
- Application Layer Protocols:
- Concepts: HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), HTTPS, RESTful APIs, SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), FTP (File Transfer Protocol), SSH (Secure Shell).
Phase 2: Deep Dive
- Network Infrastructure:
- Concepts: Switches, routers, gateways, and wireless access points. Basics of networking hardware.
- Routing and Switching:
- Concepts: advanced routing protocols (like OSPF, EIGRP), switching concepts, like STP (Spanning Tree Protocol) and VLANs configuration.
- Wireless Networking:
- Concepts: 802.11 standards, wireless security protocols, and Wi-Fi configuration and optimization.
- Network Troubleshooting and Debugging:
- Concepts: Wireshark, traceroute, ping.
Phase 3: Advanced Mastery
- Network Security:
- Concepts: Firewalls, encryption (TLS/SSL), VPNs (Virtual Private Networks), network intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS).
- Network Automation and Orchestration:
- Concepts: Ansible, Puppet, Chef, and network orchestration.
- Emerging Trends and Protocols:
- Concepts: SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network), SDN (Software-Defined Networking), IPv6 deployment. Multi-cloud networking, cloud-native networking (like Kubernetes networking).