Chapter 1: LAN Design

CCNA Routing and Switching

Scaling Networks v6.0
Chapter 1 - Sections & Objectives
 1.1 Campus Wired LAN Designs
• Explain why it is important to design a scalable hierarchical network.
• Describe hierarchical small business network designs.
• Explain considerations for designing a scalable network.
 1.2 Campus Network Device Selection
• Select network devices based on feature compatibility and network requirements.
• Select the appropriate switch hardware features to support network requirements in small to medium-
sized business networks.
• Describe the types of routers available for small to medium-sized business networks.
• Configure basic settings on a Cisco IOS device.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 2
1.1 Campus Wired LAN
Designs

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 3
Cisco Validated Designs  A company with a small network with
one site and a connection to the
The Need to Scale the Network Internet might grow into an enterprise
with a central location with numerous
remote sites across the globe.
 All enterprise networks must:
• Support the exchange of various types
of network traffic
• Support critical applications
• Support converged network traffic
• Support diverse business needs
• Provide centralized administrative
control
 The LAN is the networking
infrastructure that provides access to
network resources for end users over
a single floor or a building.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 4
Cisco Validated Designs
Hierarchical Design Model  The campus wired LAN uses a
hierarchical design model to break the
design up into modular layers.
 Breaking the design up into layers allows
each layer to implement specific
functions, which simplifies the network
design for easier deployment and
management.
 A hierarchical LAN design includes three
layers as shown in the figure:
• Access layer
• Distribution layer
• Core layer
 Some smaller enterprise networks
implement a two-tier hierarchical design
and collapse the core and distribution
layers into one layer.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 5
Expanding the Network  The network designer must develop a
Design for Scalability strategy to enable the network to be
available and scale easily and effectively.
 Use expandable, modular equipment or
clustered devices that can be easily
upgraded to increase capabilities.
 Design a hierarchical network to include
modules that can be added, upgraded, and
modified as needed.
 Create an IPv4 or IPv6 address strategy
that is hierarchical.
 Choose routers or multilayer switches to
limit broadcasts and filter undesirable traffic
from the network.
 Implement redundant links between critical
devices and between access and core
layers. © 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 6
Expanding the Network  Redundancy is an important part of the
Planning for Redundancy network design for preventing disruption
of network services.
 Minimize the possibility of a single point
of failure by recognizing these facts:
• Installing duplicate equipment and
providing failover services for critical
devices is necessary.
• Redundant paths offer alternate physical
paths for data to traverse the network.
• Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is required
with redundant paths in a switched
Ethernet network to prevent Layer 2
loops.
 STP provides a mechanism for disabling
redundant paths in a switched network
until the path is necessary such as when
a failure occurs.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 7
Expanding the Network
Failure Domains  A well-designed network should limit
the size of failure domains.
 A failure domain is the area of a
network that is impacted when a
critical device or network service
experiences problems.
 The function of the devices that fail
will determine the impact of the
failure domain.
 Use redundant links and reliable
enterprise-class equipment to
minimize the disruption in a network.
 Smaller failure domains reduce the
impact of a failure but also make
troubleshooting easier.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 8
Expanding the Network
 In a hierarchical network design, some links
Increasing Bandwidth between access and distribution layer
switches may need to process a greater
amount of traffic than other links do.
 As multiple links converge into a single link,
it is possible for this link to become a
bottleneck.
 EtherChannel is a form of link aggregation
that will allow the network administrator to
increase the amount of bandwidth between
devices by creating one logical link out of
several physical links.
 EtherChannel uses existing switch ports.

 The EtherChannel configuration takes

advantage of load balancing between links
that are part of the same EtherChannel.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 9
Expanding the Network
Expanding the Access Layer  Wireless connectivity is an important
aspect of extending access layer
connectivity.
 The network must be designed to be
able to expand network access to
individuals and devices, as needed.
 Advantages of wireless connectivity
include increased flexibility, reduced
cost, and the ability to adapt to changing
network and business requirements.
 End devices require a wireless NIC that
incorporates a radio transmitter/receiver,
appropriate software drivers, and also a
wireless access point (AP) to connect to.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 10
1.2 Selecting Network
Devices

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 11
Switch Hardware
 Selecting the proper hardware to meet
Switch Platforms the current network requirements is
critical when designing a network.
 There are five categories of switches
for enterprise networks:
• Campus LAN switches
• Cloud-managed switches
• Data center switches
• Service provider switches
• Virtual networking
 Various factors to consider when
selecting switches include these:
• Fixed vs. modular configuration

 The chassis accepts line cards that contain the

• Stackable vs. nonstackable
ports • Thickness of the switch (rack units)
• Cost, port density, power, reliability
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 12
 Switch Hardware
Switch Platforms
1. Fixed configuration SW
Features and options are limited to those that
originally come with the switch.
• The number of ports cannot be increased.
• Switch may be stackable.
• Layer 2 switch: Catalyst 2960
• Layer 3 switch: Catalyst 3650

2. modular configuration SW
Large enterprise class switches.
• The chassis is totally customizable as different
line cards can be used.
• Adding additional line cards increases port
density.
• Catalyst 4500, 6500, 6800

. Stackable configuration SW
- Stackable switches, interconnected by a special
cable and makes the combined group of switches
operate as one large switch.
- Catalyst 3750.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 13
Switch Hardware
 The port density of a switch refers to
Port Density the number of ports on a single switch.
 Fixed configuration switches support a
variety of port density configurations:
• Cisco Catalyst 3850 24 port and 48 port
switches (see figure)
• The 48 port switch has an option for
four additional ports for pluggable SFP
devices.
 The modular Catalyst 6500 switch
shown in the figure can support over
1,000 switch ports.
 Modular switches are usually more
appropriate in large networks in order
to reduce space and power issues.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 14
Switch Hardware
 Entry-level switches have lower
Forwarding Rates forwarding rates than enterprise-
level switches.
 Forwarding Rates are an important
factor when selecting a switch
because if the rate is too low, it will
not be able to support full wire-
speed communication across all of
its switch ports.
 Access layer switches typically do
not need to operate at full wire
speed because they are physically
limited by their uplinks to the
 Switch product lines are classified by forwarding rates. distribution layer.
 Forwarding rates define the processing capabilities of a  Higher performing switches are
switch by rating how much data the switch can process needed at the distribution and core
per second. layers.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 15
Switch Hardware  PoE allows the switch to deliver power to
Power over Ethernet a device over the existing Ethernet
cabling.
 This eliminates the need for a power
cable to the networked device such an IP
phone or wireless access point.
 PoE allows more flexibility when
installing wireless access points and IP
phones by allowing them to be installed
anywhere that there is an Ethernet cable.
 The Cisco Catalyst 2960-C and 3560-C
Series compact switches support PoE
pass-through.
 PoE pass-through devices can power
PoE devices as well as the switch itself
by drawing power from certain upstream
switches.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 16
Switch Hardware
Multilayer Switching  Multilayer switches are typically deployed
in the core and distribution layer.
 Multilayer switches can do the following:
• Build a routing table and support routing
protocols
• Forward IP packets at a rate close to that
of Layer 2 forwarding
 Multilayer switches often support
specialized hardware called application-
specific integrated circuits (ASICs).
 ASICs along with dedicated software can
streamline the forwarding of IP packets
independent of the CPU.
 There is a trend in networking toward a
pure Layer 3 switched environment.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 17
Router Hardware
Router Requirements  Routing is required within the
distribution layer of an enterprise
network. Without routing, packets
could not leave the local network.
 Routers are critical networking devices
because they are responsible for:
• Connecting businesses and homes to
the Internet
• Interconnecting multiple sites within an
enterprise network
• Connecting ISPs on the Internet
• Translating between different media
types and protocols
• Finding alternate paths if a link or path
goes down

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 18
Router Hardware
Router Requirements (Cont.)
 Routers also serve other important
functions:
• Provide broadcast containment by
limiting broadcasts to the local
network
• Group users logically by application or
department
• Provide enhanced security through
the use of access control lists in order
to filter unwanted traffic.
• Interconnect geographically
separated locations.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 19
Router Hardware
 Selecting the proper router or routers is an
Cisco Routers important task for the network administrator
in order to accommodate a growing
network. There are three categories of
routers:
• Branch routers – Branch routers optimize
branch services on a single platform while
delivering an optimal application experience
across branch and WAN infrastructures.
• Network edge routers – Network edge
routers enable the network edge to deliver
high-performance, highly secure, and
reliable services that unite campus, data
center, and branch networks.
• Service provider routers – Service provider
routers differentiate the service portfolio and
increase revenues by delivering end-to-end
scalable solutions and subscriber-aware
services.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 20
Router Hardware
Router Hardware  Routers come in many forms:
• They range in size from a
small desktop router to a rack-
mounted or blade model
router.
• They can be categorized as
fixed configuration or modular.
• They come with a variety of
interfaces such as Fast
Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet,
Serial, and fiber-optic.
 As an example, the Cisco
1941 router comes with two
Gigabit Ethernet RJ-45
interfaces built-in and two slots
that can accommodate many
different network interface
modules.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 21
Managing Devices
Managing IOS Files and Licensing
 When selecting or upgrading a Cisco
IOS device, it is important to choose
the proper IOS image with the correct
feature set and version.
 IOS refers to the package of routing,
switching, security, and other
internetworking technologies
integrated into a single multitasking
operating system.
 When a new device is shipped, it
comes preinstalled with the software
 For routers beginning with Cisco IOS Software release 15.0, image and corresponding permanent
Cisco modified the process to enable new technologies licenses for the customer-specified
within the IOS feature sets.
packages and features.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 22
Managing Devices
In-band versus Out-of-band Management
 There are two methods for connecting
a PC to a network device for
configuration and monitoring tasks:
• Out-of-band management through the
use of the console or AUX port is used
for the initial configuration or when a
network connection is not available.
• In-band management is used to
configure or monitor the device
remotely through a network connection
using either SSH or HTTPs.
• A reachable and operational network interface
is required.
• For security reasons, the use of Telnet and
HTTP are not recommended.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 23
Managing Devices
Basic Router CLI Commands
 As shown in the figure to the left, a
basic router configuration includes
as follows:
• Hostname for identification
• Passwords for security
• Assignment of IP addresses to
interfaces for connectivity
• Basic routing
 Verify and save configuration
changes with the copy running-
config startup-config command
 To clear the router configuration, use
the erase startup-config and
reload commands.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 24
Managing Devices
Basic Router Show Commands
 The following are some of the most common
show commands:
 Routing Related:
• show ip protocols –Displays information
about the routing protocols configured
• show ip route – Displays detailed routing
table information including routing codes,
known networks, administrative distance and
metrics, how routes were learned, next hop,
static routes, and default routes
 Interface Related:
• show interfaces – Displays interfaces with
line status, bandwidth, delay, reliability,
encapsulation, duplex, and I/O statistics
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 25
Managing Devices
Basic Router Show Commands (Cont.)
• show ip interfaces – Displays interface
information including protocol status, IPv4
address, if a helper address is configured, and
whether an ACL is enabled on the interface
• show ip interface brief –Displays all
interfaces with IPv4 addressing information
and interface and line protocol status
• show protocols – Displays information about
the routed protocol that is enabled, and the
protocol status of the interfaces
 Other connectivity related commands include
show cdp neighbors. This command displays
information on directly connected Cisco devices
including Device ID, the local interface the
device is connected to, capability, the platform,
and Port ID of the remote device. The details
option provides the IP address.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 26
Managing Devices
Basic Switch CLI Commands  Basic switch configuration includes
these:
• Hostname for identification
• Passwords for security
• Assignment of IP addresses for
connectivity. In band-access requires
the switch to have an IP address.
 See the figure on the left for the
commands used to enable and
configure the switch.
 Use the copy running-config startup-
config command to verify and save the
switch configuration.
 Use the erase startup-config and
reload commands to clear the switch
configuration.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 27
Managing Devices
Basic Switch Show Commands
 Switches make use of common IOS commands for
configuration, to check for connectivity, and to display current
switch status. Here are some very useful commands:
• show port-security – Displays any ports with security
activated. Include the interface ID to examine a specific
interface.
• show port-security address – Displays all secure MAC
addresses configured on all switch interfaces.
• show interfaces – Displays one or all interfaces with line
protocol status, bandwidth, delay, reliability, encapsulation,
duplex, and I/O statistics.
• show mac-address-table – Displays all MAC addresses that
the switch has learned, how they were learned, port number,
and the VLAN assigned to the port.
 Cisco switches also support the show cdp neighbors
command.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 28
1.3 Summary

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 29
Summary
Packet Tracer – Skills Integration Challenge
 This Packet Tracer activity will
require you to practice many
of the skills that you have
acquired so far during your
CCNA studies.
 You will first complete the
documentation for the network
before implementing various
requirements.
 Finally, you will be required to
use your documentation to
verify your implementation by
testing end-to-end
connectivity.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 30
Summary
Chapter 1: LAN Design
• Explain why it is important to design a scalable hierarchical network.
• Select network devices based on feature compatibility and network requirements.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 31