Building Scalable Cisco Networks: Prepare for CCNP and CCDP Certification with the Official Cisco BSCN Coursbook

Designed to help a student prepare for the Routing exam (640-503) en route to Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) certification, Building Scalable Cisco Networks explains the three main routing protocols and provides exercises that will give readers practical experience on Cisco Systems equipment. This is an excellent, generally comprehensive guide to routed data networks that's as well suited to on-the-job reference as to test preparation. Authors Catherine Paquet and Diane Teare assume readers have somewhat less than CCNA-level knowledge of Cisco routing (probably a considerately conservative assumption), and explain Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) in terms tailored to people who configure Cisco routers for a living.

Routing, like object-oriented programming, is one of the topics everyone must think about and conceptualize individually. Paquet and Teare use conceptual drawings, feature-comparison tables, and Internetwork Operating System (IOS) input-and-output listings--as well as lucid writing--to explain complex protocols as simply as possible. They also make use of a case study in which a company must integrate several acquired companies, each with different internetworking and routing schemes, into an efficient whole. More obviously test-preppish material includes configuration exercises (assigned and then separately explained) and review questions at each chapter's conclusion. --David Wall

Topics covered:

• Scalable routing protocols, as implemented on Cisco Systems routers
• Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) in single and multiple areas
• Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP)
• Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
• Techniques for optimizing routing-table updates