NOKIA WORKSHOP
Building Next-Gen DC Fabrics with Containerlab
Building Next-Gen DC Fabrics with Containerlab
Date : Mon, 13 Oct – Tue, 14 Oct 2025
Time : 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM SGT
Venue : SMU School of Economics
Level 2 Seminar Room 2.8
90 Stamford Road
Singapore 178903
Synopsis
The workshop explores how to use Containerlab to build and simulate a Data Center fabric topology. Participants will deploy an underlay IPv6 addressing scheme and work with key technologies like EVPN and VXLAN to enable scalable, efficient interconnection. By the end, participants will understand how to leverage Containerlab for building robust, next-gen network infrastructure.
For this session, we will use the open-source Containerlab tool. This is a beginner-level hands-on workshop that introduces Containerlab, an environment that provides a CLI for orchestrating and managing container-based networking labs. It starts the containers, builds a virtual wiring between them to create lab topologies of user’s choice, and manages labs lifecycle.
These hands-on workshops will cover:
- Installation
- Container images (container-native and VM-based NOSes)
- Topology file
- Basic lab deployment workflow
- Connectivity to the nodes
- Lab lifecycle
- VM-based lab
- Sharing the lab
- Troubleshooting and Wireshark pcaps
- Exploring the catalog of existing labs
Target audience
Applicable but not limited to:
- IP Routing System Architects
- Network team leaders
- Network Engineers/administrators
- Validation/Test engineers
- NOC Engineers/administrators from ISPs
- Webscalers or Enterprises.
Students in IT computing or telecommunications fields are also welcome to join.
Student Requirements
Participants are advised to bring their own laptop with an SSH client.
VMs or Bare Metal will be provided for attendees to have their own environment.
Learning Outcomes
- Apply knowledge and skills in a Lab as code environment for enhanced productivity through versioning, sharing and collaboration via hands-on lab using Containerlab to build and simulate Data Center topologies
- Understand fundamentals of modern DC fabrics: BGP underlay/overlay, EVPN, Telemetry/gnmi with Grafana/Prometheus
- Open to beginners—no prior experience with Containerlab required
- A good starting point to get ready for the “Nokia Certified Data Center Fabric Professional“.
Meet the Trainers
Bastien Claeys
Regional Product Line Manager
Nokia
Bastien is an experienced network engineer with strong background in Software-Defined Networking (SDN) for telco data centers.
He developed his expertise in network design while working in Belgium and now serves as a Regional Product Manager at Nokia in Australia, specializing in data center solutions.
Thomas Corre
Regional Product Line Manager
Nokia
Thomas is a regional Product Line Manager and Consulting Engineer at Nokia, with over 15 years of experience in IP Routing architecture engineering and presales.
Throughout his career, he has focused on supporting Service Providers in Europe and Southeast Asia, gaining extensive knowledge in Cloud computing, IP Routing technologies, and 5G Anyhaul.
Bastien Claeys
Regional Product Line Manager
Nokia
Bastien is an experienced network engineer with strong background in Software-Defined Networking (SDN) for telco data centers.
He developed his expertise in network design while working in Belgium and now serves as a Regional Product Manager at Nokia in Australia, specializing in data center solutions.
Thomas Corre
Regional Product Line Manager
Nokia
Thomas is a regional Product Line Manager and Consulting Engineer at Nokia, with over 15 years of experience in IP Routing architecture engineering and presales.
Throughout his career, he has focused on supporting Service Providers in Europe and Southeast Asia, gaining extensive knowledge in Cloud computing, IP Routing technologies, and 5G Anyhaul.