BCENT - Basic Cisco Entry

Networking Technician
Chapter 3
Identifying Network Components

FOUNDATION TOPICS
Media
Network Infrastructure Devices

Specialized Network Devices

Virtual Network Devices
Voice over IP Protocols and Components

IDENTIFYING NETWORK COMPONENTS

What are the characteristics of various media types?
What are the roles of different network components?

What features are provided by specialized network devices?

How is virtualization affecting network designs?
What are the primary protocols and components in a VoIP network?

MEDIA
Network media breaks down into three categories:
Copper
Fiber-optic
Wireless
Each of these categories is divided into subcategories, each with different
specifications and uses.

COPPER
Copper cabling has been used for communication since the mid 1800s
when the telegraph became widely used.
There are three categories of copper cabling:
Coaxial
Unshielded Twisted-pair
Shielded Twisted-pair
Each also has subcategories with different specifications and uses.

COAXIAL CABLE

Coaxial Cable (or coax for short) is composed of two conductors:

The inner, insulated conductor or center wire, passes the data.
The outer, braided metal shield, which helps protect the data.

COAXIAL CABLE TYPES

The three of the most common types of coaxial cables are:
RG-6: Commonly used by local cable companies to connect individual
homes.
RG-58: This type of coaxial cable was popular with early 10BASE2
Ethernet networks.
RG-59: Typical used to carry composite video between two nearby
devices. (i.e. cable box to TV)

COAXIAL CABLE CONNECTORS

The two common connector types used with coax are:

BNC

F-connector

TWISTED PAIR CABLING

The most popular physical LAN media type is twisted pair cable.
In each cable there are eight individually, insulated strands of copper
wire. Each pair of wire is twisted together to reduce EMI.
There are two categories of twisted pair:
Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)

Unshielded Twisted Pair

Category 6 Cable
Four pairs of insulated
copper wires
Some resistance to EMI

Shielded Twisted Pair

Category 7 cable
Four pairs of insulated
copper wires
Each pair is wrapped in foil.
All four pairs are wrapped
in wire mesh
Very resistant to EMI

TWISTED PAIR CATEGORIES

Category

Maximum
Throughput

Maximum Distance

Cat 3

10 Mbps

100 meters

Cat 5

100 Mbps

100 meters

Cat 5e

1 Gbps

100 meters

Cat 6

1 Gbps

100 meters

Cat 6a

10 Gbps

100 meters

Cat 7

10 Gbps

100 meters

Twisted Pair Connectors: RJ-45

8 pin connector
Used on almost all
Ethernet networks

Twisted Pair Connectors: RJ-11

4 pin connector
Used on most home
telephone networks

Twisted Pair Connectors: DB-9

Also known as RS-232
9 pin connector
Commonly used to
connect the serial port on
a computer to a
networking device

FIBER-OPTIC CABLING
Uses light from an LED or LASER to transmit information through a glass
fiber.
Two categories of fiber-optic cabling:
Multimode fiber
Single-mode fiber

Multimode Fiber (MMF)

Core size: 62.5 microns
Common uses:
Routers to switches
Switches to switches
Servers to switches

MULTIMODE FIBER (MMF)

Light propagation over multimode fiber-optic cable

Single-mode Fiber (SMF)

Core Size: 10 microns
Common uses:
Routers to switches
Switches to switches

SINGLE-MODE FIBER (SMF)

Light propagation over over single-mode fiber-optic cable

FIBER-OPTIC CONNECTORS

SC Subscriber Connector

LC - Lucent connector

ST Straight Tip Connector

MTRJ Mechanical TransferRegistered Jack

Fiber-Optic Compared to Copper

Advantages Of
Fiber-Optic Cabling

Advantages of
Copper Cabling

Higher bandwidth
Longer distances
Immune to EMI
Better security

Less expensive
Easy to install
Inexpensive tools

CABLE DISTRIBUTION
Components
Entrance facilities
MDF (main distribution frame)
Cross-connect facilities
IDF (intermediate distribution frame)
Backbone wiring
Telecommunications closet
Horizontal wiring
Work area

CABLE DISTRIBUTION

TIA/EIA structured cabling in a building

CABLE DISTRIBUTION

66-block patch panel

110-block patch panel

CABLE DISTRIBUTION

A typical UTP cabling installation

WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES
All devices connected to the same AP are considered to be
on the same shared network segment.

NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE DEVICES

There are two primary categories of network infrastructure devices:
Switches
Routers
In order to understand how switches work, it is important to learn how
they evolved from two older technologies: Hubs and Bridges

HUBS
Hubs operate at Layer 1 of the OSI model and were used to connect
multiple network devices.
They are sometimes called multiport repeaters.

Three basic types of Ethernet hubs:

Passive Hub
Active Hub
Smart Hub
Hubs are essentially obsolete today. They have been replaced by
switches in modern LANs.

Hubs

One collision domain

One broadcast domain

BRIDGES
Join two or more LAN segments.
Each LAN segment becomes a separate collision domain.

Bridges analyze source MAC addresses in frames entering the bridge and
populate an internal MAC address table based on those addresses.
Bridges make intelligent forwarding decisions based on the destination
MAC address in the frame.

BRIDGES

Two Collision Domains

One Broadcast Domain

SWITCHES
Switches are essentially a multiport bridge. They are usually considered
a Layer 2 device.
They learn MAC addresses and make forwarding decisions based on that
information.
Switches analyze source MAC addresses in frames entering the switch
and populate an internal MAC address table based on those addresses.
Each port represents a collision domain. All ports belong to the same
broadcast domain

Switches

Four collision domains

One broadcast domain

ROUTERS
Routers are Layer 3 devices. They make forwarding decisions based on
logical network address information, usually IP addresses.
Each port on a Router is a separate collision domain AND a separate
broadcast domain.
Routers are typically more feature-rich and support a broader range of
interface types.

ROUTERS

Eight Collision Domains

Two Broadcast Domains

MULTILAYER SWITCHES
Multilayer switches combine features of Layer 2 Switches and Layer 3
Routers.
They can make decisions based on both MAC addresses and IP
addresses.
If configured with VLANs (which will be discussed in Chapter 4) each
port on a multilayer switch can be a collision domain AND a broadcast
domain.

Multilayer Switches
Multilayer switch configured
with virtual LANs (VLANs)

Four collision domains

Four broadcast domains

INFRASTRUCTURE DEVICES SUMMARY

Device Type

Number of
Collision Domains
Possible

Number of Broadcast
Domains
Possible

OSI Layer of
Operation

Hub

Bridge

1 per port

Switch

1 per port

Multilayer Switch

1 per port

1 per port

3+

Router

1 per port

1 per port

3+

SPECIALIZED NETWORK DEVICES

There is more to a network than just routers, switches and PCs. Other
devices serve specific functions to improve network usability,
performance and security.

Some of these devices are:

VPN Concentrators
Firewalls
DNS Servers
DHCP Servers
Proxy Servers
Content Engines and Switches

VPN CONCENTRATORS
Companies with locations across multiple sites require secure
communications between those sites.
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) creates a secure, virtual tunnel network
over an untrusted network, like the Internet.
One of the devices that can terminate VPN tunnels, is a VPN
Concentrator, although firewalls typically perform this function now.
There will be more about VPNs in Chapter 12.

VPN CONCENTRATORS

Branch A
VPN
Concentrator

Branch B

VPN

VPN

Concentrator

Concentrator

Headquarters
VPN
Concentrator

Branch C

FIREWALLS
A firewall is primarily a network security appliance. It stands guard at the
entrance to your network, protecting it from malicious Internet traffic.
Firewalls can be software or hardware.

FIREWALLS

DNS SERVERS
Computers and the internet use numbers not names, but people recall
names better than numbers.
A Domain Name System (DNS) server performs the task of taking a
domain name like, www.ciscopress.com and resolving that name into an
IP address that is understood on the network.

This is similar to the contact list on your phone. You rarely dial your best
friends phone number. You just click their name to call them.

DNS SERVERS

DNS HIERARCHY

Root

.com
cisco

amazon

.mil
twitter

navy

af

.edu

army

eku

purdue

cs

math

yale

DHCP SERVERS
Initially, clients on networks needed IP addresses manually configured
(or statically assigned) in order to communicate. This was a hassle and
also led to configuration errors.

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) automates the process so

the vast majority of devices on a network receive an IP address
automatically.
The key elements assigned through DHCP are:
IP address, subnet mask, default gateway and
DNS server.

DHCP SERVERS

PROXY SERVERS
A proxy server is a device that makes a request on behalf of a client.
Clients are configured to forward their packets, which are seemingly
destined for the Internet, to a proxy server.
The proxy server evaluates the request, if it has a copy of the
information the client is seeking, it replies with the cached copy.
If the requested page is not in the cache, the server forwards the
request to the Internet.

PROXY SERVERS

CONTENT ENGINES AND SWITCHES

Some networks do not use proxy servers, instead they use a dedicated
appliance to perform this content caching.
These appliances are commonly referred to as caching engines or
content engines.
Content switches are also known as load balancers, distributing
incoming requests across the various servers in the server farm.

CONTENT ENGINES

HQ

Branch
Office

Reply

Request

PC

Content
Engine

IP WAN

Content from the HQ server

is Sent to the Branch Office
Content Engine

Server

CONTENT SWITCHES

Internet

Server Farm

VIRTUAL SERVERS
Instead of having several, separate, physical servers, virtualization allows
multiple, virtual instances of servers to exist on a single, powerful server.
A single server can have multiple Microsoft Windows virtual servers
running simultaneously with Linux virtual servers.

VIRTUAL SERVERS

Microsoft
Windows Active
Directory

Linux Web
Server

Single
NIC

Sun Solaris
DNS Server
Virtual Server

Ethernet
Switch

VOIP PROTOCOLS AND COMPONENTS

A Voice over IP (VoIP) network, digitizes voice traffic so that it can be
treated like other data on the network.
A VoIP network can save a company money and provide enhanced
services over a traditional PBX solution.

VOIP PROTOCOLS AND COMPONENTS

IP Phone

PSTN
SIP
RTP
PBX
Switch
IP WAN
SIP
Gateway

Gateway

SIP
SIP

Call Agent

Analog
Phone

SUMMARY

OSI Reference Model

Seven Layers
Assists in understanding network processes

TCP/IP Stack
Four Layers
Similar purpose as OSI model

Port Numbers and Assignments

Each application layer protocol has a different port number
Different ranges have different purposes

SUMMARY

Media
Copper
Fiber-optic
Wireless

Network Infrastructure Devices

Switches
Routers

SUMMARY

Specialized Network Devices

VPN Concentrators
Firewalls
DNS Servers
DHCP Servers
Proxy Servers
Content Engines and Switches

Virtual Network Devices

Virtual Servers

Voice over IP Protocols and Components