Projects

The following are the chapter objectives from Cisco Exploration I/Cisco Academy's online materials [ISBN-13: 978-1587132087].

If you have a project due on a specific layer of the OSI model, you may find it helpful to use the points expressed for that chapter as a starting point for your Powerpoint slides.

Good luck, everyone.

Chapter Objectives for Network Fundamentals CCNA Exploration v4

Chapter 1 Living in a Network-Centric World

How do networks impact our daily lives?
What is the role of data networking in the human network?
What are the key components of a data network?
What are the opportunities and challenges posed by converged networks?
What are the characteristics of network architectures?

Chapter 2 Communicating over the Network

What is the structure of a network, including devices and media necessary for communications?
What function do protocols perform in network communications?
What are the advantages of using a layered model to describe network functionality?
What is the role of each layer in the OSI network model and the TCP/IP network model?
What is the importance of addressing and naming schemes in network communications?

Chapter 3 Application Layer Functionality and Protocols

How do the functions of the three upper OSI model layers provide network services to end-user applications?
How do the TCP/IP application layer protocols provide the services specified by the upper layers of the OSI model?
How do people use the application layer to communicate across the information network?
What are the functions of well-known TCP/IP applications, such as the World Wide Web and e-mail, and their related services (HTTP, DNS, DHCP, STMP/POP, and Telnet)?
What are the file-sharing processes that use peer-to-peer applications and the Gnutella protocol?
How do protocols ensure that services running on one kind of device can send to and receive from many different network devices?
How can you use network analysis tools to examine and explain how common user applications work?

Chapter 4 OSI Transport Layer

Why is there a need for the transport layer?
What is the role of the transport layer as it provides the end-to-end transfer of data between applications?
What is the role of two TCP/IP transport layer protocols: TCP and UDP?
How do the key functions of the transport layer protocol, including reliability, port addressing, and segmentation, work?
How do TCP and UDP handle the key functions?
When is it appropriate to use TCP or UDP, and what are some examples of applications that use each protocol?

Chapter 5 OSI Network Layer

What is the method described by the network layer for routing packets from a device on one network to a device on a different network?
How does the Internet Protocol (IP) work at the network layer to provide connectionless, best-effort service to the upper layers of the OSI model?
How are devices grouped into physical and logical networks?
How do the hierarchical addresses of devices allow communication between networks?
How do routers use next-hop addresses to select a path for packets to reach their destination?
How do routers forward packets?

Chapter 6 Addressing the Network: IPv4

What type of addressing structure does IPv4 use?
What is the 8-bit binary equivalent of a given decimal number?
What is the decimal equivalent of a given 8-bit binary number?
What type of address is a given IPv4 address, and how is it used in a network?
How do administrators assign addresses within networks?
How are addresses assigned by ISPs?
What is the network portion of the host address?
What is the role of the subnet mask in dividing networks?
What are the appropriate addressing components for IPv4, given addressing design criteria?
How do you use testing utilities to verify and test network connectivity and operational status of the IP stack on a host?

Chapter 7 OSI Data Link Layer

What is the role of data link layer protocols in data transmission?
How does the data link layer prepare data for transmission on network media?
How do the types of MAC methods operate?
What are several common logical network topologies?
How does the logical topology determine the MAC method for a type of network?
What is the purpose of encapsulating packets into frames to facilitate media access?
What are the purposes of the Layer 2 frame structure?
What are the generic fields of a Layer 2 frame?
What is the role of the key frame header and trailer fields, including addressing, QoS, type of protocol, and Frame Check Sequence?

Chapter 8 OSI Physical Layer

What role do the physical layer protocols and services play in supporting communication across data networks?
What is the purpose of physical layer signaling and encoding used in networks?
How do signals represent bits as a frame as data is transported across the local media?
What are the basic characteristics of copper, fiber, and wireless network media?
What are common implementations of copper, fiber, and wireless media in networks?

Chapter 9 Ethernet

How did Ethernet evolve?
What are the purposes of the fields of the Ethernet frame?
What are the function and characteristics of the media access control method used by Ethernet protocol?
What are the physical and data link layer features of Ethernet?
How are Ethernet hubs and switches different?
What is the purpose of Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) and how does it operate?

Chapter 10 Planning and Cabling Networks

What basic network media is required to make a LAN connection?
What are the types of connections used for intermediate and end-device connectivity in a LAN?
What are the pinout configurations for straight-through and crossover cables?
What are the different cabling types, standards, and ports used in WAN connections?
What is the role of device connections management when using Cisco equipment?
How do you design an addressing scheme for an internetwork and assign ranges for hosts, network devices, and the router interface?
Why is network design so important?

Chapter 11 Configuring and Testing Your Network

What is the role of the IOS?
What is the purpose of a configuration file?
What are the classes of devices that have the IOS embedded?
What are the factors contributing to the set of IOS commands available to a device?
What are the IOS modes of operation?
What are the basic IOS commands?
How are the basic show commands used and why?