GCP – Google Cloud Networking 101: Quick Reference Guide

In the world of Google, networking is the invisible backbone supporting everything from traditional applications to cutting-edge AI-driven workloads. If you’re a developer navigating this complex landscape, understanding the underlying network infrastructure is no longer optional—it’s essential.

This guide cuts through the complexity, offering short, easy-to-digest explanations of core networking terms you need to know. But we don’t stop there. We also dive into the specialized networking concepts crucial for AI Data Centers, including terms like RDMA, InfiniBand, RoCE, NVLink, GPU, and TPU. Plus, we tackle common questions and answers to solidify your understanding.

Whether you’re working on-premises or leveraging the vast power of the Google Cloud, mastering these fundamental networking concepts will empower you to build, deploy, and optimize your applications with confidence.Networking categories and definitions

• Global Network 

• VPC and IP addressing

• OSI model and Internet model 

• TCP, TCP three-way handshake, UDP, QUIC

• Packet, Frame and MTU

• ARP, RARP, DNS & NAT

• Routing, Cloud Router, Dynamic Routing, BGP, MPLS 

• Networking for AI (NEW)

• Data Center Networking 

• Connectivity and Hybrid connectivity 

• Network Security 

• Traffic handling, Load balancing, Content Delivery 

• Troubleshooting & Monitoring 

• What happens when you type www.google.com in a browser

You can review the definitions and download the document pdf for the Networking 101 Google Cloud reference sheet v3 on GitHub.

Hands-on networking practice

To gain hands-on Google Cloud practice the following options are available to you:

• Sign up for skills boost

• Visit codelabs

• Jump Starts solution. Click and deploy.

To get additional updates on Google’s Global network you can catch up with current innovations: 

• Blog: Diving into the technology behind Google’s AI-era global network

• Documentation: Hypercompute Cluster

• Cloud WAN playlist YouTube Channel: Google Cross-Cloud Network

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