CCNP ROUTE 642-902 Official Certification Guide (CCNP Route Exam Preparation), Cisco Press, 2010, ISBN-10: 1587202530

CCNP SWITCH 642-813 Official Certification Guide (CCNP Switch Exam Preparation), 2010, Cisco Press, ISBN-10: 1587202433

OSPF and IS-IS: Choosing an IGP for Large-Scale Networks, Doyle, 2005, Addison-Wesley Professional, ISBN 10: 0-321-16879-8

Prior Study of Local Area, Wide Area and Wireless Networks (or similar)

Internet
- Library
- Windows workstations
- Networking equipment in University Labs

Additionally, for CISCO Academies only
- On-line learning material provided by CISCO Inc.
- CISCO Networking Academy programme assessment server

Internet
- Library
- Windows workstations
- Networking equipment in University Labs

Additionally, for CISCO Academies only
- On-line learning material provided by CISCO Inc.
- CISCO Networking Academy programme assessment server
- Laboratory exercise sheets provided by course instructor

NOTE:
Instructors teaching this module who use the CISCO material must have completed CCNP and CCNA 4 instructor training course of the CNAP programme

Module Launch (30 hours)
There will be a module launch during which 10 hours of face to face contact will be devoted to undertaking tasks which are designed to provide useful insights into the module content and purpose.

Guided Learning (22 hours)
A module tutor who is part of the teaching team of the module will be allocated to you and you will meet them during the launch. Following the launch, there will be some materials on the VLE which are designed to guide your learning. Additionally, there will be at least two hour long sessions per week of contact time for the eleven weeks following the launch. This will be used for learning guided led by your module tutor. It will be a face to face presentation if you are on day release. For online learners it will be flipped classroom approach with group (up to 20) seminars.

Reviews:
• Tutorial reviews for online learners (1 hour per student)
Online learners will have 2 tutorial sessions with their module tutor during the course of the module. These will be individual or small group sessions during which your module tutor will be able to answer any queries that you have regarding module work. The review weeks are listed in the module handbook and mentors will be invited to join the call and provide feedback.

• Tutorial sessions for day release learners (at least 1 hour per student)
There will scheduled tutorial sessions (up to 20 students) during the 11 weeks following the launch which will take the place of the tutorial reviews for day release students

Independent learning (247 hours)
The module leader will provide resources through the virtual learning environment which will include videos and presentations as well as links to useful websites. Other academic learning will be achieved through reading around the subject area. Module tutors will suggest useful texts, though many others will be suitable and can be found in our e-library. If you require help understanding any of the concepts, you may contact your module tutor for assistance.

Part of your independent learning will take place in your workplace under the guidance of your mentor. You will complete a work-based learning agreement to ensure that arrangements are in place at your workplace to facilitate this work-based learning. You are encouraged to endeavour to apply your growing academic knowledge to improve your work practice and to reflect on your work-based experiences to improve your learning.

You will be required to complete assignment work during independent learning time. Assignment work for a 30 credit module at level 5 should take around 120 hours to complete

Additional help with learning
You will have access to the departmental librarian. As a student, you are more than welcome to visit the university at any time and to use the resources. During time at the university, you may arrange to meet your module tutor or academic coach for additional help

A PRACTICAL TEST, length 1 hour not in examination conditions weighted at 50% (Learning outcomes 2 and 3).

A CASE STUDY weighted at 50% (learning outcomes 1, 2 and 4)

Designed to meet the learning outcomes of the module in the context of the student's employment. The precise details will be drawn up on a learning contract. The contract will detail the precise form of the assessment and the assessment criteria to be used for marking.

To Note: A standard case study will be used where it is not possible for the apprentice to utilise the workplace

The routing aspect of this course will look at the scalable, secure and reliable transfer of Layer 3 information within a commercial network. There are a number of protocols and addressing design techniques and the student will have practical experience of using these in addition to understanding the benefits and consequences of each of these. The course will look at the Interior Protocols used within a company and the Exterior protocols used to communicate between autonomous systems. Additionally increasingly important is the use of switching technology which is layer 3 aware and we will also look at this to see why this is now so heavily used in networks. The course will also look at the design of networks through the hierarchical considerations and redundancy to ensure the continued operation in the event of failure.

1. ASSESS CRITICALLY THE MECHANISMS AND ARCHITECTURAL PRINCIPLES OF NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS
Analysis
Knowledge & Understanding
Communication

2. DEMONSTRATE CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE MAIN FUNCTIONS OF THE OSI DATA-LINK LAYER: SWITCHING AND REDUNDANT PATHS. IN ADDITION UNDERSTAND THE FUNCTION OF THE NETWORK LAYER: IGP & EGP ROUTING PROTOCOLS, LOAD BALANCING, REDUNDANT ARCHITECTURE AND SCALABLE ADDRESS SCHEMES
Knowledge & Understanding
Analysis
Problem solving

3. DEMONSTRATE SYSTEMATIC UNDERSTANDING AND AN ABILITY TO CRITICALLY ASSESS DIFFERENT LAN TECHNOLOGIES, INCLUDING ETHERNET WITH SUPPORT FOR VOICE TRAFFIC AND SECURE TRAFFIC Analysis
Communication

4.EVALUATE CRITICALLY THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE PHYSICAL CORE OF A COMPUTER NETWORK AND THE DEPLOYMENT OF SWITCHES, ROUTERS, GATEWAYS AND VLANS
Analysis
Communication