Which Cisco SD-WAN component is primarily responsible for authenticating and establishing control plane connections between WAN Edges and controllers?

• A. vBond orchestrator
• B. vManage
• C. vSmart
• D. WAN Edge

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is which component handles authentication and sets up control-plane connections between WAN Edges and controllers. In Cisco SD-WAN, the vBond orchestrator acts as the initial broker for devices joining the fabric. It authenticates each WAN Edge (and the vSmart controllers) using certificates and credentials, and then guides the Edge to the correct control-plane peers, even assisting with NAT traversal so the Edge can reach them. Once vBond verifies the Edge and provides the necessary endpoints, the WAN Edge establishes secure control-plane tunnels with the vSmart controllers to carry the control-plane traffic and policy exchanges. The vSmart controller then manages the control-plane state and distribution of policies, while vManage handles provisioning and centralized management. So the component responsible for authentication and establishing the initial control-plane connections is the vBond orchestrator.