Cisco Device Operation

• Commands: show, debug
• Infrastructure: NVRAM, Flash, Memory & CPU, file system, config reg
• Operations: file transfers, password recovery, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), accessing devices, security (passwords)

General Networking Theory

• OSI model: Layer comparisons, functions
• General Routing Concepts: Split horizon, difference between switching and routing, summarization, Link State vs. Distance Vector, loops, tunneling
• Protocol comparisons: Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), etc.
• Standards: 802.x, protocol limitations
• Protocol Mechanics: Windowing/Acknowledgements (ACK), fragmentation, maximum transmission unit (MTU), handshaking, termination

Bridging & LAN Switching

• Transparent Bridging: IEEE/DEC spanning tree, Configuration Bridging Protocol Data Unit (BPDU), Integrated Routed and Bridging (IRB), Concurrent Routing and Bridging (CRB), access lists
• LAN Switching: Trunking, VLAN Trunk Protocol (VTP), inter-switch link (ISL), Virtual LANs (VLANS), Fast Ether Channel (FEC), Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP), Cisco Group Management Protocol (CGMP)

Internet Protocol (IP)

• Addressing: Classless Interdomain Routing (CIDR), subnetting, Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), Network Address Translation (NAT), Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP)
• Services: Domain Name System (DNS), Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)
• Applications: Telnet, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP)
• Transport: IP fragmentation, sockets, ports
• Access Lists

IP Routing Protocols

• MPLS
• Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP): Metrics, mechanics, & design
• Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS): Metrics, mechanics, & design
• Routing Information Protocol (RIP) & RIP v2: : Metrics, mechanics, & design
• Multicast: Design, Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM - both sparse and dense), Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol (DVMRP), Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP)
• Access lists: distribute lists, route maps, policy routing, redistribution, route tagging
• Open Shortest Path First (OSPF):
  1. Design: areas, virtual links, stub, not so stubby areas (NSSA), area border router (ABR) / autonomous system boundary router (ASBR) redistributions, media dependencies, external vs. internal, summarization
  2. Operation: Designated Router (DR), Backup Designated Router (BDR), adjacencies, link-state advertisement (LSA) types, link-state database, shortest path first (SPF) algorithm, authentication
• Border Gateway Protocol (BGP):
  1. Design: Peer Groups, Route Reflectors, Confederations, Clusters, Attributes, Autonomous Systems (AS)
  2. Operation: Route Maps, Filters, Neighbors, decision algorithm, Interior Border Gateway Protocol (IBGP), Exterior Border Gateway Protocol (EBGP)
  3. Multi-protocol BGP - Multicast and VPN Address families

Performance Management

• Traffic Management: Queuing, Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ), Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP), traffic shaping, load balancing ,congestion management

WAN (addressing, signaling, framing)

• ISDN: Link Access Procedure on the D channel (LAPD), Basic Rate Interface (BRI) / Primary Rate Interface (PRI) framing, signaling, mapping, dialer map, interface types, B/D channels, PPP Multilink
• Frame relay: Local Management Interface (LMI), Data Link Connection Identifier (DLCI), Permanent Virtual Circuit (PVC), framing, traffic shaping, forward explicit congestion notification (FECN), backward explicit congestion notification (BECN), CIR, discard eligible (DE), mapping, compression
• ATM: Switched Virtual Connection (SVC) / Permanent Virtual Connection (PVC), ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL), Service Specific Connection Oriented Protocol (SSCOP), User-Network Interface (UNI) / Network-Network Interface (NNI), Interim Local Management Interface (ILMI), Cell format, Quality of Service (QoS), RFC 1483 & 1577, Private Network-Network Interface (PNNI), Interim-Interswitch Signaling Protocol (IISP), mapping