Chapter11.Comprehensive Switching Self-Study Lab

Chapter 11. Comprehensive Switching Self-Study Lab

This chapter presents a complex LAN topology and requires you to configure it to certain specifications. The content of this lab draws upon the content covered in the previous chapters and is designed to allow you to apply the content you have learned throughout the book to a real-world network. This lab is particularly useful if you are a CCIE lab candidate and want to gain experience configuring features on the Catalyst 3550 series switch.

NOTE

You can find detailed solutions to these labs in Appendixes A, "Comprehensive Switching Self-Study Lab Part I Solution" and B, "Comprehensive Switching Self-Study Lab Part II Solution".

The lab consists of two portions. In Part I, the entire LAN topology is Layer 2 based, relying on spanning tree to ensure convergence in the event of a switch or link failure. Part I uses a router-on-a-stick architecture to provide inter-VLAN routing. Figure 11-1 shows the network topology for Part I.

Figure 11-1. Part I Lab Topology

In Part II, you migrate the flat Layer 2 topology of Part I to a multilayer topology, which relies more on IP routing protocols (rather than spanning tree) for convergence. Figure 11-2 shows the network topology for Part II.

Figure 11-2. Part II Lab Topology