350-501 Sample Questions Answers

Option B: Internet routing through global routing on a PE router means that the PE router performs global routing for internet traffic. This allows the PE router to handle both L3VPN traffic and internet traffic.

Option D: Leaking internet routes from the global table into the L3VPN VRF allows the L3VPN customers to access the internet via the same MPLS backbone. The PE router imports internet routes into the L3VPN VRF, enabling internet access for VPN customers.

 Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering (TE) tunnels necessitate a link-state routing protocol like OSPF or IS-IS because these protocols use Shortest Path First (SPF) calculations. The tunnel endpoints leverage these SPF calculations to implement the tunnel, ensuring an efficient and optimized path through the network. This is essential for MPLS TE, which aims to optimize network resource utilization and improve traffic distribution across the network.

In a multivendor network environment, it is essential to configure OSPF NSF with the IETF standard to ensure compatibility across different vendor devices. The command router ospf 1 nsf ietf enables OSPF NSF capability using the IETF standard, which facilitates uninterrupted forwarding during a route processor switchover.

When OSPF routers establish adjacency, they must agree on the MTU size on the connecting interface. If the MTUs do not match, the routers will not form an OSPF adjacency, and the link between them will not come up. Therefore, configuring the MTUs on the interfaces to match is essential for the OSPF network to function correctly.

The configuration shown in the exhibit indicates that Router 1 is configured with NETCONF-YANG and has enabled the feature candidate-datastore. This means that Router 1 has a temporary data store where a copy of the running configuration can be manipulated and verified before committing the configuration. This allows administrators to test changes before applying them to the running configuration, reducing the risk of errors that could impact network operations.

The Internet gateway router being connected as a PE router to the MPLS backbone is a design attribute that can be used to provide Internet access to a major customer through a separate dedicated VPN. This setup allows for efficient routing and separation of traffic, ensuring security and performance.

In the context of VPLS (Virtual Private LAN Service) configuration, the engineer should perform additional configurations to enable the virtual switch instance. The correct answer is Option A, which likely involves configuring interface VLAN and associating it with xconnect vfi to establish end-to-end LAN connectivity between customer’s remote offices. This is essential for enabling VPLS, which allows geographically dispersed sites to be connected over a service provider’s network as if they were on the same local area network.

To collect the required traffic statistics, the network engineer must configure the router to capture specific data points. The configurations in Option A and Option D align with these requirements. Option A involves configuring the router to collect IPv4 protocol, source address, destination address, application name, interface output, IPv4 source-prefix, IPv4 destination-prefix, counter bytes, flow direction, and transport tcp-flags. Option D involves setting the cache-period timer active to 20 seconds, which aligns with the CPU limit of processing samples that are a maximum of 20 seconds long.

References := Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies (SPCOR) v1.0

The configuration shown is for the head-end router of a Cisco MPLS TE tunnel with segment routing. This setup involves commands related to segment routing and MPLS traffic engineering tunnels, such as “mpls traffic-eng tunnels”, “segment-routing mpls”, and “segment-routing prefix-sid-map advertise-local”. These commands configure the head-end router to effectively create and manage TE tunnels using segment routing. References: Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies (SPCOR) - Cisco SPCOR Training & Certification.

 To meet the scalability and service recovery requirements, the network engineer should implement BGP PIC core functionality on routers R2 and R3 (Option A). This will enhance the convergence time during a failure. Additionally, establishing BGP connectivity between routers R1 and R4 with VPNv4 address family enabled (Option C) will facilitate MPLS services across multiple IGP domains.

References :=

Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies

On-Demand E-Learning for Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies

 The command “show mpls traffic-engineering tunnels” is used to quickly check the path of a TE (Traffic Engineering) tunnel in a Cisco MPLS core network. This command provides detailed information about each TE tunnel, including its current operational status, configuration details, and the specific path it is taking through the network. References: Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies source documents or study guide

 The error message “%CLNS-4-AUTH_FAIL: ISIS: LAN LIIH authentication failed” indicates that there is an authentication failure in the IS-IS routing protocol between routers R1 and R2. In the exhibit, it can be observed that R2 has a state of “UP” for its IS-IS neighbor relationship, while R1 is in “INIT” state. This discrepancy in states indicates an issue with the establishment of the neighbor relationship, which can be attributed to an authentication failure at both Level 1 and Level 2 PDUs as indicated by option B.

The absence of routes learned by PE4 from PE5 in other PE routers’ routing tables is likely due to missing route target configurations. Route targets are crucial for importing and exporting VPN routes between VRFs in MPLS Layer 3 VPNs.

Option D is correct because advertising the route targets for PE5 to the other PEs will allow them to import routes from PE5 into their respective VRFs, facilitating communication across the Layer 3 VPN.

References :=

Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies (SPCOR) source book and study guide.

Router 4 must be in the same area as Router 1, so it should have the same area address which is “49.0111”. The system ID can be different to uniquely identify the router in that area, but since there is no option with a different system ID and the same area address, option B is correct as it has both the same area address and system ID as Router 1. References := Cisco

In IS-IS, to advertise only the network prefixes associated with passive interfaces, the command advertise passive-only under the address family configuration mode is used. This ensures that only the prefixes of passive interfaces are advertised to other IS-IS routers in the network. The passive interface command is used to prevent IS-IS from forming adjacencies over that interface, while still allowing the network prefix of the interface to be included in the IS-IS link-state database.

The correct configuration for extending the layer 2 domain between the company’s two locations involves setting up the interface with L2 transport, specifying the encapsulation method as dot1q with the VLAN tag of 12, and applying the appropriate rewrite ingress tag rules. This setup ensures that the VLAN tag is preserved across the service provider’s core, maintaining the layer 2 domain continuity.

References := Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies

The configuration shown indicates that R1 has been configured to support Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) graceful restart. This means that R1 will maintain the forwarding state during an LDP restart, allowing it to continue forwarding packets along known routes while it re-establishes LDP neighbors/peers. This ensures minimal disruption to traffic flow during such events. References: Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies source documents or study guide

the configuration should ensure that VRF ABC and XYZ have route targets that allow them to import routes from VRF CENTRAL, but not from each other. This can be achieved by careful manipulation of route targets and import/export policies within the VRF configurations456.

 OSPFv3 is designed to support both IPv4 and IPv6. The message “IPv6 routing not enabled” indicates that IPv6 has not been configured on the router, but this does not prevent OSPFv3 from running for IPv4. The OSPFv3 configuration for IPv4 will still function on the interface FastEthernet0/0 as intended.

 In OSPF, the election of the designated router (DR) and backup designated router (BDR) is based on the OSPF network type. The network types include:

Broadcast: This is the default network type for Ethernet interfaces. In a broadcast network, OSPF elects a DR and BDR. All other routers become DROTHERs. To prevent the election of a DR/BDR, you can configure the interface as non-broadcast (NBMA) using the ip ospf network non-broadcast command.

Point-to-Point: This network type is used for point-to-point links (e.g., serial links). There is no DR/BDR election in point-to-point networks.

Point-to-Multipoint: This network type is used for point-to-multipoint links (e.g., Frame Relay). There is no DR/BDR election in point-to-multipoint networks.

Point-to-Multipoint Non-Broadcast: Similar to point-to-multipoint, but explicitly configured as non-broadcast. There is no DR/BDR election in point-to-multipoint non-broadcast networks.

Loopback: Loopback interfaces are always treated as point-to-point.

Virtual-Link: Used for OSPF virtual links.

Sham-Link: Used for OSPF sham links.

Demand Circuit: Used for demand circuits (e.g., ISDN).

Non-Broadcast: Explicitly configured as non-broadcast. There is no DR/BDR election in non-broadcast networks.

To reduce network usage and minimize leave latency for users connected to VLAN 76, the configurations should focus on efficient multicast traffic management. Option A likely involves enabling IPv6 MLD snooping, which restricts multicast traffic to only the ports that have members interested in receiving the traffic, thus reducing unnecessary network usage. Option C might include configuring fast-leave processing, which allows the switch to immediately stop forwarding multicast traffic to a port when the last member of a multicast group leaves, reducing leave latency.

References := Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies (SPCOR)

To establish LDP sessions between the PE and P routers, you need to enable communication over TCP port 646 for T-LDP hello messages.

T-LDP (Targeted LDP) uses TCP port 646 for session establishment.

Example configuration:

interface GigabitEthernet0/0

mpls ldp discovery targeted-hello accept

 The configuration in Option D is correct for implementing BGP selective prefix suppression according to the requirements. The “aggregate-address” command is used to configure the advertisement of the summarized route 10.16.0.0/21, and the “suppress-map” option allows for selective suppression of specific prefixes, in this case, 10.16.6.0/24. References: Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies (SPCOR) - Cisco SPCOR Training & Certification

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/service-provider/mobile-internet/5g-transport/converged-5g-xhaul-transport.html#

In an MPLS network, the Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) is used to distribute labels which can include segment prefixes. LDP is a protocol that automatically generates and exchanges labels between routers, allowing for the forwarding of packets along a predetermined path without the need for complex lookups in a routing table at every hop.

 The ip igmp join-group command is used on a router interface to simulate the presence of an IGMP host for a specific multicast group. By issuing the command ip igmp join-group 239.10.10.10, the router is configured to join the multicast group 239.10.10.10 and will receive multicast traffic for this group. This is useful for testing or when the router itself needs to receive the multicast stream.

The failure to implement IS-IS multitopology can be attributed to the routing process not supporting extended metrics. Extended metrics are necessary for multitopology routing because they allow for the definition of multiple topologies within the same routing protocol, each with its own set of metrics and paths1.

 The Time to Live (TTL) security mechanism is a lightweight security feature that can protect against CPU and memory resource exhaustion due to a denial-of-service (DoS) attack. It works by setting a limit on the number of hops (TTL value) that BGP packets can traverse. By configuring neighbor 10.163.83.55 ttl-security hops 2, ISP A ensures that BGP packets received from ISP C must have a TTL value of at least 254 when they reach R1, as BGP packets decrement the TTL by 1 with each hop. This effectively prevents spoofing attacks from outside the directly connected network because any packets spoofed from further away would have a TTL that drops below the threshold before reaching R1.

The issue with Router 1 missing the route for Router 2’s loopback 0 is likely due to the routers being configured in different OSPF areas. For OSPF to properly exchange routing information, routers within the same network should be configured in the same area. Therefore, the engineer should change the area numbers on Router 1 and Router 2 to be the same, ensuring they can exchange routes, including the route for Router 2’s loopback 0.

To mitigate DDoS attacks in a BGP environment, an engineer can apply BGP FlowSpec, which allows for the creation of traffic filtering policies that can be distributed across the network. This configuration enables the network to respond quickly to DDoS attacks by filtering or redirecting malicious traffic based on predefined criteria, such as source IP, destination IP, and port numbers456.

In ISIS, routers can form neighbor relationships even with different system IDs, provided they are configured to be in the same area and the authentication between them is correctly set up.

The core component of MDT that describes the data streamed to a collector is the encoder. In the context of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT), the encoder is not explicitly mentioned; however, the concept aligns with the process of creating and capturing images of operating systems, which involves encoding or compiling the necessary data into a deployable image.

Best – 50.50.50.2

2nd Best – 40.40.40.2

3rd Best – 20.20.20.2

44th Best – 30.30.30.2

To ensure multiple paths toward the hosting-as-a-service solution and basic protection against traffic black-holing in case of link failure, the engineering team should:

B. Configure the fast-reroute per-prefix command for the IS-IS protocol in the MPLS network. This action enables fast reroute, which is a mechanism to quickly switch over to a backup path in case the primary path fails, without waiting for the routing protocol to converge.

D. Configure the mpls ldp sync command in the MPLS network with the BGP additional-paths receive and additional-paths send options. MPLS LDP (Label Distribution Protocol) synchronization ensures that a label-switched path (LSP) is not used for forwarding traffic until all routers along the path have signaled that they have label information for that LSP. The BGP additional-paths feature allows for the advertisement of multiple paths for the same prefix, providing path diversity and redundancy.

 The requirement is for R2 to delay sending BGP updates to R5 for multicast traffic by 30 seconds. This can be achieved by configuring the advertisement interval for IPv4 multicast traffic on R2, which controls the frequency of sending BGP updates for multicast routes. References := Cisco SPCOR

The configuration shown in the exhibit enables IP flow information collection on the interface gigabitethernet0/1. This setup is used for network traffic analysis, and when applied, it provides data that includes the source interface of the traffic for traceback analysis. This is useful for identifying the origin of traffic, which can be critical in situations such as security incidents or network troubleshooting.

 In BGP, the Local Preference attribute is used to influence the exit point from an AS (Autonomous System). A higher local preference value is preferred, and all routes received inherit the local preference value of the route that is installed in the IP routing table. So, configuring a higher local preference outbound will make specific BGP speakers as preferred exit points for customer AS. References := Cisco

Cisco MPLS TE (Traffic Engineering) tunnels provide a way to optimize traffic routing within an MPLS network. However, there are certain constraints to be aware of:

QoS-aware tunneling: Unfortunately, Cisco MPLS TE tunnels do not inherently support Quality of Service (QoS) awareness. This means that the tunnels themselves do not directly consider QoS parameters when making routing decisions. QoS policies must be applied separately at the network level, and the TE tunnels do not inherently take QoS into account during path selection.

Tunnels spanning multiple OSPF areas: Contrary to option A, Cisco MPLS TE tunnels can indeed span multiple OSPF areas. The use of OSPF areas does not inherently restrict the creation of MPLS TE tunnels across area boundaries.

ISIS metrics: Option B is incorrect. When using ISIS (Intermediate System to Intermediate System) as the Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP), newer-style metrics (such as wide metrics) are supported. Older-style metrics are not the only option.

Tunnels over IP unnumbered links: Option C is also incorrect. Cisco MPLS TE tunnels can be configured over IP unnumbered links, allowing efficient use of IP addresses.

In summary, the primary constraint is the lack of built-in QoS awareness within MPLS TE tunnels.

To filter routes when redistributing OSPF into BGP, you should configure a route map and reference it with the redistribute command.

The route map allows you to apply filtering criteria to the routes being redistributed.

Example configuration:

router bgp 65000

redistribute ospf 1 route-map OSPF-TO-BGP

!

route-map OSPF-TO-BGP permit 10

match ip address prefix-list OSPF-TO-BGP-FILTER

!

ip prefix-list OSPF-TO-BGP-FILTER seq 10 deny 192.168.0.0/24

ip prefix-list OSPF-TO-BGP-FILTER seq 20 permit any

In Cisco hardware, when a high bandwidth multicast stream is sent over a Multicast VPN (MVPN), a data Multicast Distribution Tree (MDT) is specifically created for that stream. This data MDT is used in addition to the default MDT, which is used for lower-bandwidth or control traffic. The purpose of the data MDT is to optimize the transmission of high-bandwidth streams through the core of the network, ensuring that the multicast traffic is only sent to those PE routers that have local receivers for the multicast group in question. This mechanism helps in efficiently using network resources and provides a scalable solution for transmitting high-bandwidth multicast streams.

When implementing LDP NSF on your network, enabling NSF for the link-state routing protocol in use on the network is essential to ensure continuous forwarding of packets during a failure scenario. Additionally, enabling NSF for BGP ensures that BGP sessions are not dropped during a switchover, maintaining network stability and uptime.

When choosing between SaltStack and Chef for network automation, it is important to consider that Chef is an agent-based tool written in Ruby, while SaltStack is a Python-based module tool. This fundamental difference in language and architecture can influence the decision based on the existing environment and the team’s expertise.

References :=

Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies (SPCOR) course materials.

Official Cisco documentation and training resources available on the Cisco Learning Network Store.

 RFC 5305 extends the IS-IS protocol for traffic engineering by specifying new information that an Intermediate System (router) can place in Link State Protocol Data Units (LSPs). Sub-TLV type 10 of the extended IS-IS reachability TLV type 22 is used to specify the maximum reservable link bandwidth. This is an important parameter for traffic engineering as it defines the amount of bandwidth that can be reserved by traffic engineering algorithms for use in constrained-path computations for MPLS traffic engineering Label Switched Paths (LSPs). References: RFC 53051.

 The issue described involves packets being dropped when sent from the application server to the access site. Since OSPF and BGP peerings are confirmed to be operational, the problem likely lies within the route advertisement. Allowing 172.16.20.1 in the BGP advertisement on R3 by adjusting the route-map will likely resolve the issue, ensuring that traffic destined for 172.16.20.1 is not being inadvertently filtered or blocked.

This configuration sets up policing rules for different protocols including CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol) and ARP (Address Resolution Protocol), with specific rate limits for invalid packets as well as CDP and ARP protocols. References: Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies source documents or study guide

The issue with establishing an IS-IS adjacency between the two routers stems from a mismatch in the configuration of their interfaces. Router R2’s interface is set to point-to-point, while the peer router interface is set to multipoint. For IS-IS adjacencies to form, both interfaces must be configured with the same network type. The discrepancy in the network types is preventing the adjacency from being established. To resolve this, the network operator must ensure that both interfaces are either configured as point-to-point or as multipoint. References := Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies (SPCOR)

 The configuration shown in the exhibit indicates a BGP FlowSpec policy that is configured locally on CSR1. This policy is designed to drop all traffic destined for TCP ports 80 and 443 for the IP address 10.6.5.0/24. The traffic rate is displayed as 0 bps, which suggests that the policy is not currently dropping any traffic. However, the matched and dropped statistics indicate that the policy has been active in the past, as it has matched and dropped packets.

 Enabling MPLS LDP IGP Synchronization ensures that the IGP advertises a route only if there is a corresponding label binding from LDP. This synchronization helps prevent blackholing traffic when there is a direct link failure in the network. When the B-C link failed, the IGP could find an alternate path via routers E and F, but without LDP synchronization, the labels for MPLS were not available on this new path, leading to traffic loss. By enabling LDP IGP Synchronization, routers will only use paths for which a complete set of labels exists, ensuring label forwarding occurs on the alternate path.

RSVP (Resource Reservation Protocol) is used with MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) traffic engineering tunnels primarily to reserve bandwidth along the path of the tunnel. This ensures that sufficient resources are allocated for the traffic to meet quality of service requirements, which is crucial for maintaining the performance of critical applications that traverse the network. References := For more information on RSVP and MPLS traffic engineering, refer to the Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies (SPCOR) course materials, which provide detailed explanations on how these technologies work together to optimize network traffic1.

 The PCE (Path Computation Element) communicates with the PCC (Path Computation Client) using the PCEP. PCEP is responsible for path computation and signaling in MPLS networks.

To prevent packet loss when IGP (Interior Gateway Protocol) and LDP (Label Distribution Protocol) are not synchronized, enabling MPLS LDP IGP synchronization is crucial. This synchronization ensures that the IGP routing protocol (such as OSPF or IS-IS) waits until LDP convergence is completed before advertising labels for MPLS traffic. It helps maintain consistency between the IGP and LDP databases.

MPLS TE FRR (Fast ReRoute) provides backup protection by creating a bypass LSP for each protected LSP at each point of local repair. This method allows for rapid switching to the backup path in case of a failure, minimizing traffic loss and disruption.

References :=

Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies (SPCOR) course materials.

To view login history for users who activated a session, the network administrator can use the show netconf-yang sessions command. This command provides information about active NETCONF/YANG sessions, including the login times for each user.

 Router R1 is configured as a stub area with the “no-summary” option, which means it will not receive summary LSAs (Type 3) from the Area Border Router (ABR). It will only have Type 1 (Router LSAs) and Type 2 (Network LSAs) in its OSPF database for the area it belongs to. Router R2 is configured as an NSSA (Not So Stubby Area), which allows it to import AS external routes as Type-7 LSAs. These Type-7 LSAs can then be converted to Type-5 LSAs by the ABR when propagated into other areas. Therefore, R2 has Types 1, 2, and 7 LSAs in its OSPF database.

 DWDM, or Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing, uses different wavelengths of light to combine multiple optical signals. This method allows for the transmission of various data streams simultaneously over a single optical fiber. By using closely spaced wavelengths, DWDM can fit more channels onto a single fiber, significantly increasing the capacity and efficiency of fiber-optic networks.

 The control plane protocol used between Cisco SD-WAN routers and vSmart controllers is the Overlay Management Protocol (OMP). OMP is a proprietary protocol of Cisco SD-WAN that facilitates the exchange of routing, policy, and management information across the network. It operates within the secure environment provided by the Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) control connection, ensuring that the communication between the routers and controllers is encrypted and authenticated1.

References := Cisco 300-415: Cisco SD-WAN vSmart-WAN Edge Router Control Plane Protocol

In the context of OSPF multiarea implementation, adjacency issues can often be resolved by specifying the type of network on the interface. In this case, option B “ip ospf network point-to-point” is appropriate as it helps in forming OSPF adjacency over point-to-point links by allowing OSPF to use a simpler neighbor discovery process, which can resolve adjacency issues. References := Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies

The task requires the engineer to configure a route map that permits all unmatched routes during router redistribution within BGP. The correct action is to remove the implicit deny entry at the end of the route map, as indicated in Option C. By default, route maps have an implicit deny at the end, meaning that if a route doesn’t match any of the permit or deny statements in the route map, it will be denied. Removing this implicit deny entry ensures that all unmatched routes are permitted. References := Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies

 A prefix segment identifier (PSID) is a unique identifier used in Segment Routing (SR) networks. It is locally significant within a specific SR domain. Each PSID corresponds to a specific segment (such as a node or an adjacency) in the SR domain. PSIDs are used to create segment lists that define the path a packet should follow through the network. Unlike globally unique identifiers, PSIDs are only meaningful within the context of a single SR domain.

Router R1 establishes TCP connections that are authenticated with an MD5 password. In the context of BGP (Border Gateway Protocol), TCP is used for establishing connections, and MD5 passwords can be used for authentication to enhance security.

To implement Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) in an IS-IS environment, the first task is to configure BFD in an interface configuration mode. This involves setting up BFD parameters on the interfaces where IS-IS is running to enable quick failure detection.

LDP session protection capability is a feature that maintains LDP bindings when a link fails, using LDP Targeted Hellos to protect LDP sessions. Without the specific exhibit, it’s not possible to determine which router has LDP session protection enabled but session hold up is not active.

 To ensure that traffic for the prefix 192.168.1.1/32 travels via the alternate path R6-R5, a route-map with a higher local preference should be applied inbound on R3 for neighbor R6. This will make the path through R6-R5 more preferable, thus meeting the requirement. References := Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies

To enable LDP session protection for LDP neighbors within each VRF, the engineer should configure LDP session protection within the individual VRFs. This ensures that LDP sessions are protected at the VRF level, providing security and stability for MPLS-based services. By enabling LDP session protection within each VRF, the router will take appropriate actions to protect LDP sessions against misbehaving neighbors or potential attacks. References: Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies (SPCOR) v1.0

 In this scenario, BGP is used in the core of the service provider network, while OSPF serves as the PE-CE routing protocol. To ensure communication between CE1 and CE2, which are located in different geographical locations, it’s essential for PE1 and PE2 to share routes. This can be achieved by configuring both PEs to mutually redistribute BGP and OSPF routes within the VRF dedicated for that customer, ensuring seamless communication between both customer endpoints. References: Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies

The SPT threshold set to infinity causes multicast traffic to permanently stay on the shared tree and not switch to the source tree. In multicast routing, the Shortest Path Tree (SPT) threshold determines when a router should switch from receiving multicast traffic on the shared tree to receiving it on a source tree. Setting the SPT threshold to infinity means that the router will always receive multicast traffic on the shared tree

 In OSPF, for two routers to establish communication, they must have the same key ID and key value on their interfaces. This ensures secure communication between the OSPF peers. The key ID and value are part of the OSPF authentication mechanism that helps in validating the identity of OSPF peers before exchanging routing information. References: Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies (SPCOR) - Cisco SPCOR Training & Certification

 YAML’s readability and straightforward syntax make it an ideal choice for expressing infrastructure as code, which is a core principle in both Ansible and SaltStack for automating and managing IT infrastructure.

 The configuration in the exhibit shows that R1 is configured with “mpls ldp graceful-restart”, which enables LDP Graceful Restart on the router. This means that R1 can support a graceful restart operation on the peer, even if graceful restart is disabled on the peer. This feature allows LDP to recover from failures without affecting the forwarding plane, ensuring network stability and minimal packet loss during failovers.

 mVPN (Multicast Virtual Private Network) is designed to support the efficient transport of multicast streams across a Layer 3 VPN. It enables service providers to use their existing MPLS networks to transport multicast traffic, allowing for scalable and manageable multicast delivery without requiring a separate network infrastructure. References: Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies

 A Multi-Layer control plane, like Cisco’s nLight technology, provides an integrated approach that allows for the automatic provisioning, monitoring, and management of traffic across different network layers, from Layer 0 (optical) to Layer 3 (IP). This integration increases network agility and flexibility while improving network utilization, leading to significant cost savings and more efficient network resiliency solutions2.

: In this scenario, E-LINE pseudowires are suitable because they create a point-to-point Ethernet connection between the two sites. E-LINE pseudowires are commonly used for point-to-point Ethernet services.

 By setting IP precedence values (using Differentiated Services Code Point - DSCP) and configuring traffic policing, the network can enforce policies to drop or mark packets based on their priority. When traffic exceeds the specified threshold, the network can take appropriate actions.

The issue described indicates that the preferred BGP path for traffic destined to 192.168.1.1/32 is not being used. By applying a route-map with a higher Local Preference (LP) on R1 for the prefix 192.168.1.1/32, the BGP path attributes can be manipulated to prefer the path through R2. Local Preference is a BGP attribute that determines the preferred exit path out of an AS. A higher Local Preference value is preferred over a lower one. Therefore, configuring the route-map High-LP with a higher Local Preference on R1’s BGP peering with R2 will influence the BGP path selection process, ensuring that traffic for 192.168.1.1/32 prefers the path R3-R2-R1 as expected.

The Forward Error Correction (FEC) field within the OTN (Optical Transport Network) signal structure is responsible for error correction. When data arrives at the receiver, the FEC field helps correct any errors that may have occurred during transmission. It enhances the reliability of optical communication by detecting and rectifying errors.

To direct traffic from R3 to R4 via R1, the weight attribute on R3 can be set higher for the route through R1 compared to other routes. Weight is a Cisco-specific BGP attribute that determines the preferred path when multiple routes to the same destination exist. It is local to the router on which it is configured and not advertised to other BGP peers.

References :=

Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies (SPCOR) course materials.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/multiprotocol-label-switching-mpls/mpls/215215-segment-routing -overview-and-migration-g.html

 The ttl-security hops  command sets the maximum number of hops that a BGP message can traverse. In this case, setting ttl-security hops 2 means that the router will accept BGP packets from a neighbor (2.2.2.2) only if the TTL is 253 or more. This is because the default TTL value is 255, and for each hop, the TTL is decremented by 1. Therefore, a packet from a directly connected neighbor would have a TTL of 254 when it reaches the PE router. If the packet has traversed one more router (making it two hops away), the TTL would be 253 upon arrival.

The REST API command shown in the exhibit is a POST request to a specific URL, indicating that it is used to submit data to be processed to a specified resource. In this case, the resource is an XML file named “Descriptions.xml”. POST requests are used when submitting data to be processed by the resource identified by the URI. The nature of the process conducted on the submitted data depends on that particular URI. References: Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies (SPCOR) - REST API section.

 In a Unified MPLS routing architecture with partitioned IGP domains, it is essential to ensure that the iBGP Labeled Unicast address families are correctly configured to facilitate the exchange of VPNv4 routes directly between PE routers. In this case, ABR R102 should be configured with the address family-level configuration depicted in Option A to support this architecture. This configuration ensures that R101 can peer with both R102 and R103, and similarly, R201 can peer with R202 and R203 using iBGP Labeled Unicast address families. References := Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies

NetFlow version 9 can report additional information such as BGP Autonomous System (AS) information due to its template-based design, which allows for flexibility and support for a wider range of IP flow information, including IPv4 and IPv6 flow information, BGP routing information, and multicast flow data.

The configuration in Option A is correct for enabling dial-out telemetry streams using gRPC on devices with TLS disabled.

It uses model-driven telemetry (MDT), which is a new method of monitoring network devices. Unlike traditional methods that pull data from the device, MDT pushes data from the device to the collector.

In this configuration:

Telemetry is model-driven.

It specifies a destination group with an IP address and port number where the telemetry data will be sent.

The encoding is self-describing-gpb (Google Protocol Buffers).

The protocol used is TCP.

This setup ensures that telemetry data is sent to the specified collector without requiring TLS encryption.

 The Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) is designed to allow service providers to automate network operations efficiently. It provides a single, well-defined API that enables integration across various network environments. NSO’s capabilities include zero-touch telemetry, machine learning intuition, open APIs, and automated actions, which facilitate a simpler and more efficient network operation experience. This makes it an ideal choice for service providers looking to plan, optimize, and achieve closed-loop operations within their networks.

References := The information is based on the Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies (SPCOR) training and certification resources, which offer a deep dive into service provider technologies, including core architecture, services, networking, automation, quality of services, security, and network assurance123.

 In a gRPC dial-in configuration, the encoding is specified by the client initiating the connection. This setup allows for connection multiplexing, which means multiple gRPC calls can be made concurrently over a single connection, improving efficiency. Two-way streaming is also facilitated, allowing both the client and server to send a sequence of messages to each other, providing a full-duplex communication channel.

When there is an LSP breakage during the testing of MPLS OAM ping capabilities, the ingress MPLS router does not receive any reply because MPLS OAM ping is used to verify connectivity over Label Switched Paths (LSPs), and if an LSP is broken, the echo request will not reach the egress router, resulting in no echo reply being sent back.

YANG (Yet Another Next Generation) is a data modeling language used to model configuration and state data of a network. It is used to define the data structure of configuration files and is widely used for network configuration and management. YANG uses containers to categorize related nodes, allowing for a hierarchical organization of the data. Types can be associated with each leaf, but they are not required. Spines are not used in YANG, and it is not a distributed model of nodes.

The REST API script in the exhibit is used to configure a VRF (Virtual Routing and Forwarding) instance. In the script,  defines a tenant named “customer”, and  creates a VRF named “customervrf” within that tenant. A VRF allows multiple instances of a routing table to co-exist within the same router at the same time, enabling network paths to be segmented without requiring multiple routers. References: Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies source documents or study guide.

 Both Chef and Puppet are configuration management platforms that aim to configure and manage servers and other IT infrastructure. They operate in the same infrastructure management space and share several similarities:

Use a master-client architecture: Chef functions with a master-client architecture, where the server runs on the master machine, and the client runs as an agent on every client machine. Similarly, Puppet follows a similar setup.

Manage devices or nodes to be configured: Both Chef and Puppet manage the configuration of devices or nodes within an infrastructure.

Leverage a pull model: Both tools use a pull model, where the configuration is pulled from a central server to the managed nodes.

In an EVPN operation, the PE (Provider Edge) router determines and advertises Ethernet segment reachability by discovering remote ESIs (Ethernet Segment Identifiers) and determining their redundancy mode (all-active or single-active). This is crucial in multihoming scenarios where the PE needs to auto-discover remote PEs and the corresponding redundancy mode. In case of segment failures, PEs withdraw the routes used at this stage to trigger fast convergence by signaling a MAC mass withdrawal on remote PEs3.

In Option A, the configuration correctly classifies and marks management protocols with DSCP AF23, which belongs to AF class 2 with low drop probability.

Monitoring protocols are marked with DSCP AF13, aligning with AF class 1 and low drop probability.

All other traffic is marked with a DSCP value of 0, as required.

 In the given configuration, “tacacs-server host 192.168.1.2 single-connection” indicates that Router 1 will maintain a single connection to the TACACS+ server at IP address 192.168.1.2 for multiple authorization requests instead of opening a new connection for each request. This can be efficient in scenarios where there are frequent authorization requests as it reduces the overhead associated with establishing a new TCP connection each time.

References := Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies

The configuration snippet in the exhibit shows that BGP summarization is configured with the “aggregate-address” command followed by an IP address and a subnet mask, and then the “summary-only” and “as-set” options. The IP address is 192.168.0.0, and the subnet mask is 255.255.0.0, which corresponds to a /16 prefix length (indicating that the first 16 bits of the IP address are the network portion). However, there seems to be a typo in option B as it’s not a valid IP address format; hence option A is correct with an assumption of typo error.

https://community.cisco.com/t5/mpls/cisco-xr-rpl-destination-vs-destination-prefix/td-p/4587693

To redirect traffic from ASN 64501 to 10.0.0.0/8 via the primary link North_A instead of the slow backup link North_B, setting a higher local preference between North_A and South_A is required. Local preference is a BGP attribute that helps in selecting the exit point from an AS (Autonomous System). By increasing local preference for routes received on North_A, traffic will be directed through this path as it becomes more preferred. References := Cisco Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies (SPCOR)

 The configuration sets up a telemetry subscription to collect and send data every 60 seconds, which is indicated by the sample-interval 60000 setting in the configuration. References: For more detailed information, please refer to the official Cisco documentation on Implementing and Operating Cisco Service Provider Network Core Technologies (SPCOR) and the specific section on Telemetry Configuration.