Features and Conventions

Where applicable, each chapter includes a variety of questions and exercises to further your knowledge of the material covered in that chapter. Many of the questions probe at the theoretical issues that indicate your mastery of the subject matter. Other questions and exercises provide an opportunity to build switching scenarios yourself. By utilizing extra equipment you might have available, you can build your own laboratory to explore campus switching. For those not fortunate enough to have racks of idle switching gear, the authors will be working with MentorLabs to provide value-added labs via the Internet.

Two conventions are used to draw your attention to sidebar, important, or useful information:

Tip

Tips are used to highlight important points or useful shortcuts.

Note

Notes are used for sidebar information related to the main text.

Various elements of Catalyst and Cisco router command syntax are presented in the course of each chapter. This book uses the same conventions as the Cisco documentation:

• Vertical bars (|) separate alternative, mutually exclusive, elements.

• Square brackets [] indicate optional elements.

• Braces {} indicate a required choice.

• Braces within square brackets [{}] indicate a required choice within an optional element.

• Boldface indicates commands and keywords that are entered literally as shown.

• Italics indicate arguments for which you supply values.