A written examination, length 2 hours weighted at 50% looking at learning outcomes 1, 2 and 4 (Final assessment.)

A practical test, length 1 hour not in examination conditions weighted at 50% looking at learning outcomes 2 and 3.

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.

Specialist networking laboratory with Cisco equipment

NOTE
Instructors teaching this module who use the CISCO material must have successfully completed a CCNP SWITCH and CCNP ROUTE course

For a student to be successful within this module they would need to have the level of knowledge which would be expected of completing a CCNA based course. A student does not need to have completed a CCNA but just the equivalent level of knowledge through study at the university, other institution or industrial experience.

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

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

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

1. Assess critically the mechanisms and architectural principles of network communications systems. (Analysis, Knowledge and Understanding).
2. Demonstrate systematic 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 & EPG routing protocols, load balancing, redundant architecture and scalable address schemes. (Analysis, Knowledge and Understanding, 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).

The lectures given will be covering the theoretical content of the course giving the students the information. The practical sessions will be carried out in the networking labs. The practical sessions will be used to allow the student to experiment on the equipment and to supplement their understanding through additional practical examples of using a particular technology.

Within this subject the lectures and tutorials will be shared with the module COCS50605 and due to this there is 2 hours of additional teaching to cover level 6 topics

There will be 26 lecture hours and 52 practical hours.