Q: What is Ethernet? Define the different types of Ethernet.

A: Ethernet is a physical and data link layer LAN technology for connecting a number of
computer systems with network protocols.
The Ethernet system called 10BASE-T provides transmission speeds of up to 10 Mbps. Devices
are connected to the cable and compete for access using a Carrier Sense Multiple Access with
Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) protocol.

Fast Ethernet or 100BASE-T provides transmission speeds of up to 100 megabits per second and
is typically used for LAN backbone systems. Gigabit Ethernet provides an even higher level of
backbone support at 1,000 megabits per second (1 gigabits per second).

Q: What do broadcast and collision domains mean?

A: A broadcast domain is a logical boundary of a computer network, in which all nodes can reach
each other by broadcast in a LAN environment.

A collision domain is a section of a network where data packets can collide with one another
when being sent on a shared medium.
Only one device in the collision domain may transmit at one time, and the other devices in the
domain listen to the network in order to avoid data collisions.

Q: What are the basic differences between a hub and a switch?

A: Both hubs and switches are centralized devices that connect multiple network devices over
LAN but their functionalities are different. Hubs operate at layer 1 whereas switches operate at
layer 2. Hubs support half duplex transmission while switches support full duplex. There is one
broadcast and collision domain in a hub, but a switch has one broadcast plus as many collision
domains as the number of switch ports.

A hub operates at Ethernet but switches operate at Fast-Ethernet/Gig-Ethernet.

Q: What is a switch? What is the difference between manageable and unmanageable

switches?

A: A switch is a multi-port network bridge used to connect multiple network devices over the
same geographical location. It processes and forwards data at the data link layer (layer 2) of the
OSI model.

Unmanaged switches have no configuration interface or options. They are typically used in small
offices or home environments.

A managed network switch is configurable and provides the control to manage Spanning Tree
Protocol, Port Speed, VLANS, etc. They provide a serial console and command-line access via
telnet and SSH, as well as management via SNMP.
Q: What is VLAN and why is it used?

A: A VLAN (Virtual LAN) is a logical broadcast domain which allows a network administrator
to create groups of logically networked devices based on functions, departments, or projects. The
basic reason for splitting a network into VLANs is to reduce congestion on a large LAN.

The primary benefits of using VLANs are:

Security

Cost reduction

High performance

Broadcast storm mitigation

Improved IT staff efficiency

Simple project or application management

Q: What is a native VLAN?

A: A native VLAN is an untagged VLAN on an 802.1q trunked switch port. If a switch receives
untagged frames on a trunk port, they are assumed to be part of the VLAN that are designated on
the same switch port as the native VLAN. Frames that pass through a switch port on the native
VLAN are not tagged.

Q: What is VLAN pruning?

A: By default, a trunk port allows all VLANs through the trunk; all switches in the network
receive all broadcasts, even in situations in which few users are connected to that VLAN.
Pruning is a method to prevent flooding across the network from unnecessary traffic.

Q: Define the role of access and trunk ports.

A: A Switch port plays two common roles as access and trunk.

Access Port: Carries single VLAN traffic. Mostly used to connect end devices (routers, IP
phones, printers, desktops, etc.)

Trunk Port: Transports multi-VLAN traffic. Mostly used between switches configured with
multiple VLANs.

Q: Why do we use VTP and what is the transparent mode in VTP?

A: VTP is a Cisco proprietary switching technology, used for VLAN database replication in a
switching environment. VTP has four modes: server, client, transparent and off. VLANs created
on a VTP server synchronises with VTP clients automatically.
The VTP configuration has a revision number which will increase when you make a change on a
VLAN database.

VTP Transparent switches forwards VTP advertisements (server to client, client to client) but
will not synchronize itself. It manages its own VLAN database, which will not be shared with
any other switch.

Q: What is Spanning Tree Protocol and root bridge election?

A: Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is one of the most important switching technologies to
eliminate layer 2 switching loops. The root bridge serves as an administrative point for all
spanning-tree calculations to determine which redundant links to block.

All switches send BPDUs (Bridge Protocol Data Unit) every 2 seconds from its ports which
contain bridge-id, bridge-mac, cost, port-priority, etc.

For root bridge selection, STP prefers lowest bridge-priority if there is a tie in priority, then the
lowest MAC address will determine which bridge becomes the root. Lower priority is preferred
compared to a higher. The default bridge priority is 32768 and you can set it in multiples of
4096.

Q: What is the difference between PVST, PVST+ and RPVST?

A: Per VLAN Spanning Tree (PVST) is a Cisco proprietary technology used to configure a
separate spanning tree instance for each VLAN. It supports ISL trunking encapsulation whereas
PVST+ supports Dot1Q trunking encapsulation.

Rapid PVST (RPVST) works the same as PVST, but their main difference is fast convergence.
RPVST skips the listening state during the transition.

Q: Give a reason for selecting MST rather than PVST.

A: The main reason for selecting MST rather than PVST/STP is the number of different VLANs
involved. With 30 to 40 VLANs you can use PVST without any concerns.

However, if there are 40 VLANs in a switch, it has to maintain 40 spanning tree databases (a
separate database for each VLAN) and if you decide to use MST, you need to provision some
instances (logical grouping of VLANs).

Lets say you configure two instances, each with 20 VLANs. The switch has to maintain only
two spanning tree databases (a separate database for each instance) then.

Q: What is EtherChannel and is it possible to achieve load balancing using EtherChannels?

A: EtherChannel is a LAN port aggregation technology which allows grouping of several
physical Ethernet links to create one logical Ethernet link for the purpose of providing fault-
tolerance and high-speed links between switches, routers and servers.

Yes, EtherChannel supports load balancing on the basis of predefined hash algorithms but you
cannot control the port that a particular flow uses.
The hash algorithm cannot be configured or changed to load balance the traffic among the ports
in an EtherChannel.

Main hash algorithms are src_ip_addr | dest_ip_addr | src_mac_addr | dest_mac_addr | src_port |

dest_port} [dest_ip_addr | dest_mac_addr | dest_port.

Q: What is DHCP, DHCP relay, and DHCP snooping?

A: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network protocol that automatically

assigns IP addresses to hosts with other related configuration information such as the subnet
mask and default gateway.

DHCP Relay is just a proxy that is able to receive a DHCP request and resend it to the real
DHCP server. It means a DHCP server is installed at a remote location and your LAN gateway is
acting as a DHCP relay agent (proving the information of DHCP server using ip helper address
command).

DHCP snooping is a security mechanism which enables you to configure a switch port connected
to a DHCP server as a trusted port. The trusted port is responsible for the reply DHCP requests.
DHCP snooping is the best solution to prevent man-in-the-middle DHCP attacks.

Q: What are the basic differences between HSRP and VRRP?

A: Both HSRP and VRRP are high availability protocols that provide first hop redundancy.

HSRP

Cisco proprietary

1 Active + 1 standby router and 1 or more listening routers

Uses separate virtual IP addresses as gateway

Hello timer is 3 seconds and hold-down timer is 10 seconds

Preempt is disabled by default

Multicast at 224.0.0.2 (ver1), multicast at 224.0.0.102 (ver2). Both versions use UDP port
1985
 HSRP (v2) supports IPv6

VRRP

Open standard (IETF)

1 master and 1 or more backup routers

Physical IP address can be used for Virtual IP

Hello timer is 1 second and hold-down timer is 3 seconds

Preempt is enabled by default

Multicast at 224.0.0.18 IP 112

VRRP does not support IPv6