Many of you already know that there is a current, open “Ask The Expert” session going on right now over at the Cisco Support Community, but for those that didn’t happen to – well know you do!

Head on over for the next 4 days to get your questions in to Ben Ng (Cisco CCIE Voice Content Manager).

Overview

The purpose of this blog post is to give you a brief overview of M-LSPs, the motivation behind this technology and demonstrate some practical examples. We start with Multicast VPNs and then give an overview of the M-LSP implementations based on M-LDP and RSVP-TE extensions. The practical example is based on the recently added RSVP-TE signaling for establishing P2MP LSPs. All demostrations coud be replicated using the widely available Dynamips hardware emulator. The reader is assumed to have solid understanding of MPLS technologies, including LDP, RSVP-TE, MPLS/BGP VPNs and Multicast VPNs.

Multicast Domains Model

For years, the most popular solution for transporting multicast VPN traffic was using native IP multicast in SP core coupled with dynamic multipoint IP tunneling to isolate customer traffic. Every VPN would be allocated a separate MDT (Multicast Distribution Tree) or domain mapped to a core multicast group. Regular IP multicast routing is then used for forwarding, using PIM signaling in core. Notice, that the core network has to be multicast enabled in Multicast Domains model. This model is well mature by today and allows for effective and stable deployments even in Inter-AS scenarios. However, for the long time the question with MPVNs was – could we replace IP tunneling with MPLS label encapsulation? And the main motivation for moving to MPLS label switching would be leveraging MPLS traffic-engineering and protection features.

Tag Switched Multicast

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I cannot stand reading on a computer screen, so I do not hold out much hope for the upcoming iPad from Apple. I went with a Kindle DX (thanks Brian Dennis ) for my R&S studies and I 100% love the device. Incredible native PDF support makes for enjoyment of all the INE workbooks and Cisco DOC-CD segments.

The digital ink concept is truly what makes this device so perfect, and I cannot believe more people are not talking about it as they begin to predict the demise of the Kindle at the hands of the iPad – or the version with enhanced memory and disk space – the iMaxiPad.

If you are thinking about an e-reader for your studies and you have questions, let me know in the comments below….

The most important thing is to enjoy your studies folks, paper, or electronic ink-based!

Perhaps the most frequent question I receive from a student following their CCIE 4.0 program purchase is how they should best use the mountain of study materials that is included in that incredible bundle. This post is the first in a series I will provide that outlines various different study approaches we have witnessed students use and succeed with in the past. Just like passing the actual lab exam is a very personal experience consisting of a personalized strategy approach, so is the task of preparing for the exam. I look forward to the blog comments in these posts as students can share their own, valuable study tips and approaches.

Our first student (John) purchased the Self-Paced CCIE 4.0 program and decided to add on the Audio Bootcamp and the Interactive Video Companion.

John is 32 years of age with a wife and a 2 year old daughter. He works for a large help desk, and his role is to assist field technicians troubleshooting home networks.

Let us examine how he used these products in order to pass his CCIE Version 4.0 exam.

Phase 1 – Self Analysis

John prints out the Expanded Study Blueprint and rates his comfort level on a scale of 1 to 5 for each technology area. He will use this rating to help gauge how much time he will be spending in certain study areas.

John meets with his wife and they agree upon his study hours and arrange their schedules to accommodate his journey.

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Yes, big surprise right, more and more INE students are passing this tough new lab! Well, it is not a surprise, and the instructor team here at INE will not bask in this and rest on our laurels. Instead, we are working harder than ever to ensure ALL of our students enjoy such successes soon. And they will.

The latest INE students to pass:

Sargis Minasyan #25894

Divin Mathew John #25905

But wait, more congrats to extend….

One of my all-time favorite Live Bootcamp students, Ian Finlayson, had an awesome attempt today in Brussels. He missed the mark, but walked out feeling wonderful and more confident than ever. He will crush his next attempt for sure!

One of the new features in the Interactive Video Companion Series for Volume II is the Version 4 Challenge – Speed Drill component.

I thought our blog readers would want to take this feature out for a test fly – enjoy!

Lab 1 – Version 4 Challenge – Speed Drill

The Interactive Video Companion series for the Volume 2 R&S workbook provides detailed, self-paced, interactive videos detailing every aspect of the lab technologies and strategies.

To provide an idea of the scope of this new product, check out the partial Lab 1 outline below!

A. Lab Do’s and Don’ts

1. Introduction

2. Version 4 Challenge – Strategy

B. Lab Strategy

1. Core versus Non-Core

2. Reading Ahead and Diagramming

3. Additional Study Resources

C. Layer 2 Traffic Engineering

1. Diagramming

2. Version 4 Challenge – Core Knowledge

3. Version 4 Challenge – Core Knowledge II

4. Version 4 Challenge – Troubleshooting

5. Version 4 Command Recall Tool

6. Additional Study Resources

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Last week we highlighted some of our recent success stories, and in particular those who passed the new R&S version 4 lab. This week, we have received even more news of additional Voice Version 3 success stories, and wanted to extend our congratulations to them! As you can see, the Voice CCIE lab is passable, and we are excited to help you get there!

#25893 Daryl Smith (Voice)
#25890 Brett Saling (Voice)
#25841 Perry Blalock (Voice)
#21176 Haresh Khemani (Voice & R&S)
#21607 Andriy Yerofreyev (Voice & R&S)

Introduction

In this series of posts, we are going to review some interesting topics illustrating unexpected behavior of the BGP routing protocol. It may seem that BGP is a robust and stable protocol, however the way it was designed inherently presents some anomalies in optimal route selection. The main reason for this is the fact that BGP is a path-vector protocol, much like a distance-vector protocol with optimal route selection based on policies, rather than simple additive metrics.

The fact that BGP is mainly used for Inter-AS routing results in different routing policies used inside every AS. When those different policies come to interact, the resulting behavior might not be the same as expected by individual policy developers. For example, prepending the AS_PATH attribute may not result in proper global path manipulation if an upstream AS performs additional prepending.

In addition to that, BGP was designed for inter-AS loop detection based on the AS_PATH attribute and therefore cannot detect intra-AS routing loops. Optimally, intra-AS routing loops could be prevented by ensuring a full mesh of BGP peering between all routers in the AS. However, implementing full-mesh is not possible for a large number of BGP routers. Known solutions to this problem – Route Reflectors and BGP Confederations – prevent all BGP speakers from having full information on all potential AS exit points due to the best-path selection process. This unavoidable loss of additional information may result in suboptimal routing or routing loops, as illustrated below.

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We have had many requests to share this forum post with the blog, so here it is. I also wanted to share a conversation Hadi had with Sales here at INE. I am so proud to be a part of INE! I have so much respect for my fellow instructors - and our incredible students!

Hadi Esper: you can expect a CCIE success story (which i am writing now)

Hadi Esper: thank you

Kady Dennis: Thank you for visiting Internetwork Expert. How may I help you today?

Hadi Esper: Hi Kady, I dont really have any questions to say.. I passed my CCIE R&S (25869) 2 days ago and wanted to say thank you to the sales team who have been very helpful and supportive of me over the last 1 year and 2 months.. i couldnt have made it without your excellent workbooks nor without ur amazing discounts

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