Network Fundamentals
- Role and function of network components
- Enterprise topology architectures
- Physical interfaces and cable types, recognising fault patterns
- TCP and UDP compared
- IPv4 addressing and subnetting, private address ranges
- IPv6 addressing, prefixes and address types
- WLAN, virtualisation and switching fundamentals
Network Access
- Configuring and verifying VLANs across multiple switches
- Interswitch connectivity and trunking
- Layer 2 discovery with CDP and LLDP
- EtherChannel with LACP
- Reading Rapid PVST+ Spanning Tree in operation
- Cisco WLAN architectures, AP modes and WLC connectivity
- Device access: Telnet, SSH, HTTPS, console, TACACS+ and RADIUS
IP Connectivity
- Correctly reading the routing table
- How a router makes its forwarding decision
- Static routing for IPv4 and IPv6
- Configuring and verifying single-area OSPFv2
- Understanding first-hop redundancy protocols
IP Services
- NAT with static entries and pools
- NTP in client and server mode
- DHCP and DNS on the network, DHCP client and relay
- SNMP and syslog in operation
- QoS: classification, marking, queuing, policing and shaping
- Remote access via SSH, TFTP and FTP
Security Fundamentals
- Threats, vulnerabilities and countermeasures
- Access control with local passwords, password policies and multi-factor authentication
- IPsec for site-to-site and remote-access VPN
- Configuring and verifying access control lists
- Layer 2 protection: DHCP snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection, port security
- AAA concepts and WLAN security with WPA2 and WPA3
Automation and Programmability
- How automation is changing network operations
- Traditional versus controller-based networks
- Software-defined architectures: overlay, underlay and fabric
- AI and machine learning in network operations
- REST APIs: authentication, CRUD, HTTP verbs, data formats
- Configuration management with Ansible and Terraform
- Reading and understanding JSON data
