UNIT 8: BUILDING CISCO MULTILAYER SWITCHED NETWORKS

Learning outcomes:

A candidate following a programme of learning leading to this unit will be able to:

• implement and configure scalable Cisco internetworks

• design scalable Cisco internetworks
• troubleshooting scalable Cisco internetworks

Links to the Level 4 NVQ for IT Professionals

A course of study leading to this unit will provide candidates with the underpinning knowledge
and understanding requirements and also the practical skills needed to support the
achievement of the following NVQ units:

NVQ Unit Level

Interpersonal and Written Communication 4
Security of ICT Systems 4
System Operation 4
Technical Fault Diagnosis 4
Technical Fault Remedy Selection 4
Working With ICT Hardware and Equipment 4

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Unit Content: Building Cisco Multilayer Switched Networks

Assessment Objectives Knowledge, Skills and Understanding

1 Implementation and Configuration

a Given a set of EIGRP fundamentals to include:

network • EIGRP design
requirements, • EIGRP terminology
identify the steps to • EIGRP and IGRP compatability
configure an
Enhanced IGRP EIGRP features to include:
environment and • EIGRP technologies
verify proper • neighbour discovery and recovery
operation (within • reliable transport protocol
described • dual finite-state machine
guidelines) of your
• protocol-dependent modules
routers
EIGRP components to include:
• EIGRP packet types
• EIGRP tables
• route tagging with EIGRP

EIGRP operation to include:

• convergence using EIGRP

Configuring EIGRP to include:

• configuring EIGRP for IP networks
• EIGRP and the bandwidth command
• bandwidth-percent command
• summarising EIGRP routes
no auto-summary and interface summarisation

b Given an addressing OSPF overview to include:

scheme and other • OSPF terminology
laboratory • OSPF states
parameters, identify • OSPF network types
the steps to • OSPF hello protocol
configure a single-
area OSPF OSPF operation to include:
environment and • establish router adjacencies
verify proper • elect a DR and a BDR
operation (within • discover routes
described
• select appropriate routes
guidelines) of your
• maintain routing information
routers
OSPF configuration and verification to include:
• configuring OSPF on routers within a single area
• show commands
• clear and debug commands

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Assessment Objectives Knowledge, Skills and Understanding

b Cont Configuring OSPF over NBMA to include:

• NBMA overview
Given an addressing • full-mesh frame relay
scheme and other • partial-mesh frame relay
laboratory • point-to-multipoint OSPF
parameters, identify
the steps to
configure a single-
area OSPF
environment and
verify proper
operation (within
described
guidelines) of your
routers

c Given an addressing Multiarea OSPF operation to include:

scheme and other • creating multiple OSPF area
laboratory • OSPF router types
parameters, identify • OSPF LSA and area types
the steps to • configuring OSPF operation across multiple areas
configure a multiple • flooding LSUs to multiple areas
area OSPF • updating the routing table
environment and • opaque LSAs
verify proper
operation (within Multiarea OSPF configuration and verification to include:
described
• using and configuring OSPF multiarea components
guidelines) of your
• configuring OSPF route summarisation
routers
• verifying multiarea OSPF operation

Stub, totally stubby and not-so-stubby areas to include:

• using stub and totally stub areas
• stub and totally stubby area crieteria
• configuring stub and totally stubby areas
• NSSA overview
• how NSSA operates
• configuring NSSA

Virtual Links to include:

• meeting the backbone area requirements
• configuring virtual links

d Given an addressing IS-IS fundamentals to include:

scheme and other • OSI protocols
laboratory • OSI terminology
parameters, identify • ES-(IS and IS-IS)
the steps to • Integrated IS-IS
configure Cisco • OSPF versus IS-IS
routers for proper
Integrated IS-IS ISO addressing to include:
operation • NSAPs

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[

Assessment Objectives Knowledge, Skills and Understanding

d Cont • NETs
• SO addressing with Cisco routers
Given an addressing • identifying systems in IS-IS
scheme and other
laboratory • IS-IS operation to include:
parameters, identify • high-level view of IS-IS operation
the steps to • OSI PDUs
configure Cisco • IS-IS hello messages
routers for proper
• IS-IS link state PDU (LSP) formats
Integrated IS-IS
• IS-IS routing levels
operation
• IS-IS adjacencies
• Designated Intermediate Systems (DIS) and Pseudonodes
(PSN) IS-IS data flow
• LSP flooding and synchronisation
• IS-IS metrics
• IS-IS metrics
• IS-IS network types
• SPF algorithm

• IP routing with integrated IS-IS to include:

• OSI, IP and dual
• Suboptimal IS-IS routing

• Integrated IS-IS operation in a WAN environment to include:

• Point-to-point and point-to-multipoint operation with IS-IS
• Configuring integrated IS-IS in a WAN environment
• Frame relay point-to-multipoint scenario with integrated IS-IS
• Detecting mismatched interfaces with integrated IS-IS

e Identify the steps to Controlling routing update traffic

select and configure • Controlling routing updates
the different ways to • passive interfaces
control routing • filtering routing updates with distribute-list
update traffic

f Identify the steps to Route redistribution:

configure router • redistribution overview
redistribution in a • administrative distance
network • modifying administrative distance by using the distance
command redistribution guidelines
• configuring one-way redistribution
• configuring two-way redistribution
• redistributing connected and static routes
• verifying redistribution operation

g Identify the steps to Configuration of policy-based routing using route maps.

configure policy-
based routing using
route maps

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Assessment Objectives Knowledge, Skills and Understanding

h Given a set of Autonomous systems:

network • overview of autonomous systems
requirements, • single-homed autonomous systems
identify the steps to • multihomed nontransit autonomous systems
configure a BGP • multihomed transit autonomous systems
environment and • when not to use BGP
verify proper
operation (within Basic VGP Operation:
described • BGP routing updates
guidelines) of your • BGP neighbours
routers • BGP message types
• BGP neighbour negotiation
• network-layer reachability information (NLRI)
• path attributes

Configuring BGP:
• basic BGP configuration
• EBGP and IBGP
• EBGP and IBGP configuration example
• EBGP multihop
• clearing the BGP table
• peering
• BGP continuity inside an AS

Monitoring and verifying BGP Operation.

The BGP routing process:

• the BGP routing process model
• implementing BGP routing policy

BGP attributes:
• controlling BGP routing with attributes
• the Next Hop attribute
• next Hop behaviour on multiaccess media
• next Hop behaviour on NBMA networks
• AS_Path attribute
• AS_Path and private AS numbers
• atomic aggregate attribute
• aggregator attribute
• local Preference attribute
• manipulating local preference
• the Weight attribute
• multiple Exit Discriminator attribute
• origin attribute

The BGP Decision Process.

BGP route filtering and policy routing:

• BGP route filtering
• using filters to implement routing policy
• using distribute-list to filter BGP routes
• IP prefix-list command (continued overleaf)

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Assessment Objectives Knowledge, Skills and Understanding

h Cont. Redundancy, symmetry, and load balancing:

• issues with redundancy
Given a set of • symmetry and load balancing
network • redundancy, symmetry and load balancing default routing in
requirements, BGP networks
identify the steps to • symmetry
configure a BGP • load balancing
environment and • multihomed connections
verify proper
operation (within
described
guidelines) of your
routers
2 Design

a Describe the three- The three-layer hierarchical design model:

layer hierarchical • core layer
design model and • distribution layer
explain the function • access layer
of each layer:
Access, Distribution Characteristics of a scalable network:
and Core • reliable and available
• responsive
• efficient
• adaptable
• accessible but secure

b Given specific Routing:

requirements, • routing fundamentals
choose the correct • static routing
routing protocol to • configuring dynamic routing
meet the • distance vector routing protocols
requirements • link-state routing protocols
• hybrid routing protocol: EIGRP

Default Routing:
• default routing overview
• configuring static default routes
• default routing with IGRP
• default route caveats

Floating Static Routes.

Convergence issues.

Route calculation:
• Route calculation fundamentals
• Initiation of routing updates routing metrics

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Assessment Objectives Knowledge, Skills and Understanding

c Identify the correct IPv4 addressing:

IP addressing • Address architecture of the Internet
scheme, including • Class A and B IP addresses
features of IPv6 • Classes of IP addresses: C, D, and E and subnet masking

IP addressing crisis and solutions:

• IP addressing crisis
• Classless Interdomain Routing (CIDR)
• route aggregation and supernetting
• supernetting and address allocation

Route VLSM:
• variable-length subnet masks
• classless and classful routing protocols

Summarization:
• overview of route summarization.
• route flapping

Private addressing and NAT:

• private IP addresses (RFC 1918)
• discontiguous subnets
• Network Address Translation (NAT)

IP Unnumbered.

DHCP and Easy IP:

• DHCP overview
• DHCP operation configuring IOS DHCP server
• Easy IP

Helper addresses:
• using helper addresses
• configuring IP helper addresses

IPv6:
• IP address issues solutions
• IPv6 address format

d Describe the Route summarization.

concepts relating to
route summarization
and apply them to
hypothetical
scenarios

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Assessment Objectives Knowledge, Skills and Understanding

3 Troubleshooting

a Identify the steps to Verification of OSPF operation in a single area.

verify OSPF
operation in a single
area

b Identify the steps to Verification of OSPF operation in multiple areas.

verify OSPF
operation in multiple
areas

c Identify verification Verification of IS-IS operation.

methods which
ensure proper
operation of
Integrated IS-IS on
Cisco routers

d Identify the steps to Verification of route redistribution.

verify route
redistribution

e Describe the Scalability problems associated with internal BGP.

scalability problems
associated with
internal BGP

f Interpret the output Interpretation of show and debug commands to determine the
of various show and cause of route selection errors and configuration problems.
debug commands to
determine the cause
of route selection
errors and
configuration
problems

g Identify the steps to Verification of Enhanced IGRP operation.

verify Enhanced
IGRP operation

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Assessment

This is carried out through the Cisco Academy Program assessment system. Centres must
ensure that all candidate claims are made in-line with the Cisco Quality Assurance Program
document (QAP).

A copy of the candidate’s completed grade book for the unit must be submitted with the
Assessment Record Folder to OCR.

Within the Cisco assessment regime, candidates will sit an on-line examination externally set
and marked by OCR/Cisco systems. Examinations take the form of computerised multiple
choice objective tests. The examination is administered within authorised Cisco Network
Academy.

Learning outcomes

Candidates demonstrate knowledge and understanding of building scalable Cisco

internetworks.

Please note that the information provided regarding assessment requirements refers to CCNP
3.0 objectives. These details are applicable from December 2003.

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