Brief Summary

I have over 30 years’ experience in the IT industry, most of which has been spent in networking/telecoms in the UK/EMEA and NZ/APAC.  I have worked in varied roles such as technical consulting, network design and architecture, pre-sales support, operational support and software engineering.  I moved to New Zealand in 2008, where I worked in several roles before returning to the UK in 2022.

My experience has been gained in a wide range of organisations, from start-ups, through enterprises and to large service providers and telcos.  I have worked in both team environments and on an individual and independent basis.  In recent years, I have also done a lot of my work in the public sector.

Though performing hands-on work is not as regular as it used to be, it has been a strong element in my previous work, when I gained satisfaction from performing proof-of-concepts before deploying to production environments.  I first started working with Cisco in 1994, and with Juniper in 1999.

I very much enjoy customer-facing roles since no two customers are alike, and so the variety this gives is always a challenge that I am keen to take on.  Taking part in technical discussions with customers forms a key part of being able to fully understand their requirements, which is essential to being able to deliver a successful solution.

Latest News and Useful Articles                — Updated: 25 April 2025 —

• Switching, routing, and bridging terminology.  [ipSpace]

• BGP unnumbered in 2025.  [ipSpace]

• Asia reaches 50% IPv6 capability.  [The Register]

• Generating an optimal segment list for SR-TE.  [Routing Craft]

• How ARP killed a static route.  [ipSpace]

• A touch of AI.  [Packet Pushers]

• Peer-to-peer communication in an IPv6 world.  [ipSpace]

• Ars Technica history of the Internet.  [Part 1]

• Network migration with BGP Local-AS feature.  [ipSpace]

• China admits cyberattacks on US infrastructure.  [The Register]  [Schneier]  [WSJ]

• SR/MPLS.  [Russ White]

• NAT traversal mess.  [ipSpace]

• How to leak to a journalist.  [Schneier]  [NiemanLab]

• NSA warns against "fast flux" attacks.  [Ars Technica]

A more comprehensive news/article list can be found on my networks sub-domain here.

Click here for the latest full version of my CV, or find me on LinkedIn and X (Twitter).

rob (at) larsenconsulting (dot) net

© Robert Larsen.  All rights reserved.