I've worked on large variety of network technologies and platforms. Everything from ISP core routers to customer premise equipment and the many network protocols these devices use.
I take both a top-down approach to network design, based on industry best-practice and vendor certified solutions, and a bottom-up consideration of platform capabilities and the practicalities of delivering & supporting any networked system. This approach also enables early baseline solution costing.
In engineering the network solution, I either create the network configuration myself or act in an advisory role to support colleagues, whilst retaining a holistic approach to project goals.
Successful network design has been taking a modular approach for many years. The art is in finding the right system arrangement for any given project that balances a number of (potentially completing) factors, including:
Documenting networked systems involves a host of information in different forms, including:
Modern network devices and systems incorporate templates, APIs and scripting languages to support their integrated operation and automation. A few of the scripting/programming languages I've used as part the projects I've worked on include: