CCNA Exploration - Routing Protocols and Concepts

0 Course Introduction

0.0 Welcome

0.0.1 Introduction

Page 1:


0.0.1 - Introduction
Nine Diagrams

Diagram 1: Multiple Images - Changing people, classroom, and network situations.

Welcome
Welcome to the CCNA Exploration Routing Protocols and Concepts course. The goal is to develop an understanding of how a router learns about remote networks and determines the best path to those networks. This course includes both static routing and dynamic routing protocols. The specific skills covered in each chapter are described at the start of each chapter.

Diagram 2: Multiple Images - Changing people, classroom, and network situations.

More than just information
This computer-based learning environment is an important part of the overall course experience for students and instructors in the Networking Academy. These online course materials are designed to be used along with several other instructional tools and activities. These include:

- Class presentation, discussion, and practice with your instructor
- Hands-on labs that use networking equipment within the Networking Academy classroom
- Online scored assessments and a matching grade book
- Packet Tracer simulation tool
- Additional software for classroom activities

Diagram 3: Multiple Images - Global Network Academy Community showing images of Academy Netspace

A global community
When you participate in the Networking Academy, you are joining a global community linked by common goals and technologies. Schools, colleges, universities, and other entities in over 160 countries participate in the program. A visualization of the global Networking Academy community is at http://www.academynetspace.com.

The material in this course encompasses a broad range of technologies that facilitate how people work, live, play, and learn by communicating with voice, video, and other data. Networking and the Internet affect people differently in different parts of the world. Although we have worked with instructors from around the world to create these materials, it is important that you work with your instructor and fellow students to make the material in this course applicable to your local situation.

Keep in Touch
These online instructional materials, as well as the rest of the course tools, are part of the larger Networking Academy. The student, instructor, and administrator portal for the program is located at http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/netacad/index.html. There you can obtain access to the other tools in the program such as the assessment server and student grade book, as well as informational updates and other relevant links.

Diagram 4: Multiple Images - Changing people, classroom, and network situations.


Mind Wide Open
An important goal in education is to enrich you, the student, by expanding what you know and can do. It is important to realize, however, that the instructional materials and the instructor can only facilitate the process. You must make the commitment yourself to learn new skills. Below are a few suggestions to help you learn and grow.

1. Take notes. Professionals in the networking field often keep Engineering Journals in which they write down the things that they observe and learn. Taking notes is an important way to help your understanding grow over time.

2. Think about it. The course provides information both to change what you know and what you can do. As you go through the course, ask yourself what makes sense and what does not. Stop and ask questions when you are confused. Try to find out more about topics that interest you. If you are not sure why something is being taught, consider asking your instructor or a friend. Think about how the different parts of the course fit together.

Diagram 5: Multiple Images - Changing people, classroom, and network situations.

3. Practice. Learning new skills requires practice. We believe this is so important to e-learning that we have a special name for it. We call it e-Doing. It is very important that you complete the activities in the online instructional materials and that you complete the hands-on labs and Packet Tracer activities.

4. Practice again. Have you ever thought that you knew how to do something and then, when it was time to show it on a test or at work, you discovered you really had not mastered it? Just like learning any new skill, such as a sport, game, or language, learning a professional skill requires patience and repeated practice before you can say that you have truly learned it. The online instructional materials in this course provide repeated practice for many skills. Take full advantage of them. You can also work with your instructor to extend Packet Tracer and other tools for additional practice as needed.

Diagram 6: Multiple Images - Changing people, classroom, and network situations.


5. Teach it. Teaching a friend or colleague is often a good way to reinforce your own learning. To teach well, you will have to work through details that you may have overlooked on your first reading. Conversations about the course material with fellow students, colleagues, and the instructor can help solidify your understanding of networking concepts.

6. Make changes as you go. The course is designed to provide feedback through interactive activities and quizzes, the online assessment system, and through structured interactions with your instructor. You can use this feedback to better understand where your strengths and weaknesses are. If there is an area that you are having trouble with, focus on studying or practicing more in that area. Seek additional feedback from your instructor and other students.

Diagram 7: Packet Tracer screen image


Explore the world of networking
This version of the course includes a special learning tool called Packet Tracer. Packet Tracer supports a wide range of physical and logical simulations, as well as provides visualization tools to help you understand the internal workings of a network.

The Packet Tracer activities packaged with this course consist of network simulations, games, activities, and challenges that provide a broad range of learning experiences.


Create your own worlds
You can also use Packet Tracer to create your own experiments and networking scenarios. We hope that, over time, you consider using Packet Tracer, not only for experiencing the provided activities, but also to become an author, explorer, and experimenter.
The online course materials have embedded Packet Tracer activities that launch on computers running Windows operating systems if Packet Tracer is installed. This integration may also work on other operating systems using Windows emulation.

Diagram 8: Multiple Images - Changing people, classroom, and network situations.


Course Overview

The primary focus of this course is on routing and routing protocols. The goal is to develop an understanding of how a router learns about remote networks and determines the best path to those networks. This course includes both static routing and dynamic routing protocols. By examining multiple routing protocols, you gain a better understanding of each of the individual routing protocols and a better perspective of routing in general. Learning the configuration of routing protocols is fairly simple. Developing an understanding of the routing concepts themselves is more difficult, yet is critical for implementing, verifying, and troubleshooting routing operations.

Each static routing and dynamic routing protocol chapter uses a single topology throughout that chapter. You will be using that topology to configure, verify, and troubleshoot the routing operations discussed in the chapter.

The labs and Packet Tracer activities used in this course are designed to help you develop an understanding of how to configure routing operations while reinforcing the concepts learned in each chapter.

Chapter 1 Introduction to Routing and Packet Forwarding.
In Chapter 1, you are introduced to the router, its role in the network, its main hardware and software components, and the packet forwarding process. You are also given an overview of directly connected networks, static routing, and dynamic routing protocols, along with a brief introduction to the routing table. Each of these topics is discussed in more detail in later chapters. Chapter 1 also includes a review of basic Cisco I O S commands.
Chapter 2 Static Routing
Chapter 2 focuses on the role and configuration of static routes. The routing table process is introduced, and you are shown how to verify route entries as they are added and deleted from the routing table. This chapter also discusses Cisco Discovery Protocol, which is a tool that you can use to help verify network operations.

Chapter 3 Introduction to Dynamic Routing Protocols
Chapter 3 provides an overview of routing protocol concepts and the various dynamic routing protocols available for routing in IP networks. In this chapter, you examine the role of routing protocols. There is an overview of the classification of dynamic routing protocols. This overview is useful for comparing and contrasting the different protocols. Most of the information in this chapter is examined in more detail in later chapters.

Chapter 4 Distance Vector Routing Protocols
Chapter 4 presents two different types of routing protocols: distance vector and link state. You will examine distance vector concepts and operations, including network discovery, routing table maintenance, and the issue of routing loops. In this chapter, you are also introduced to the concepts used in RIP v1, RIP v2, and EIGRP routing protocols. These routing protocols are discussed in more detail in later chapters.

Chapter 5 RIP version 1
Chapter 5 is the first chapter that focuses on a specific dynamic routing protocol. In this chapter, you learn about RIP (Routing Information Protocol) version 1. RIP v1, a classful distance vector routing protocol, was one of the first IP routing protocols. You will examine the characteristics, operations, and limitations of RIP v1. You also learn about RIP v1 configuration, verification, and troubleshooting techniques.

Diagram 9: Multiple Images - Changing people, classroom, and network situations.

Course Overview Continued

Chapter 6 VLSM and CIDR
Chapter 6 reviews the VLSM (Variable Length Subnet Mask) and CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing) concepts that were presented in the Network Fundamentals course. You explore the benefits of VLSM along with the role and benefits of CIDR in today's networks. Next, you are introduced to the role of classless routing protocols. Classless routing protocols RIP v2, EIGRP, and OSPF are examined in later chapters.

Chapter 7 RIP v2 - Chapter 7 examines the next routing protocol presented in this course, RIP v2. RIP v2 is a classless, distance vector routing protocol. You learn how RIP v2 demonstrates the advantages and operations of a classless routing protocol. The chapter begins with a discussion of the limitations of the classful routing protocol, RIP v1. Then RIP v2 is introduced to show how a classless routing protocol can be used to overcome these limitations. In this chapter, you also learn the commands necessary to configure and verify RIP v2.

Chapter 8 The Routing Table: A Closer Look - Chapter 8 examines Cisco's IPv4 routing table in detail. The chapter begins with a discussion of the structure of the routing table. While examining the routing table, you learn about the lookup process, how the routing table process determines the best match with a packet's destination IP address, and how to enter a route in the routing table. The chapter concludes with a discussion about the differences between classful and classless routing behaviors.

Chapter 9 EIGRP - Chapter 9 focuses on Cisco EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol). EIGRP is a classless, enhanced distance vector routing protocol. You examine the advantages and operations of EIGRP's DUAL (Diffusing Update Algorithm). Then you learn about the configuration of EIGRP, including verification and troubleshooting commands.

Chapter 10 Link-State Routing Protocols
Chapter 10 examines link-state routing protocol concepts. You are introduced to link-state terminology and the link-state routing process. The chapter discusses the benefits and advantages of a link-state routing protocol compared to a distance vector routing protocol. You then examine the Shortest Path First (SPF) algorithm and how it is used to build a topology map of the network. The link-state routing protocol OSPF is discussed in the following chapter.

Chapter 11 OSPF - The final chapter in this course is an examination of the classless, link-state routing protocol OSPF (Open Shortest Path First). In this chapter, you examine OSPF operations and configuration, including verification and troubleshooting commands. By the end of this course, you should feel confident in your knowledge of routing and routing protocols. With continued study and practice, you will be able to put your new skills to work.