Step 1. What is a Network?

A network consists of host devices such as computers, mobile devices, and printers that are connected
by networking devices such as switches and routers. The network enables the devices to communicate
with one another and share data.

Simple Local Area Network (LAN)

In this diagram, data from the student computer to the instructor computer travels through the switch to
the router (FastEthernet Interface 1/0), then to the next switch (FastEthernet Interface 0/0), and finally to
the instructor computer.

As you proceed through this lab, you will learn the answers to the following questions:

 Why do some devices work on networks and others do not?

 How do devices find each other?
 What are switches, routers, and interfaces and how are they configured?
 How do REST and SDN relate to this information?

Next: Understand device compatibility with networking

Step 2: Understand device compatibility

with networking
A common use case for a small network may be as follows: a home office with four computers, each
physically attached to a switch or a hub. You purchase an inexpensive printer, intending to connect it to
the network so that it will be available for all computers, but then you discover that the printer is not
network-compatible.

Office Network

The printer cannot connect to the network because it does not have a Network Interface Card (NIC) card.
Each of your computers has a NIC card and so should your printer.

Network Interface Card (NIC)

NIC cards vary in size and appearance, and may look different from what is shown here. This network
card has a Registered Jack 45 port (RJ-45) that you can connect to a wired network with an Ethernet
cable. There are many types of Ethernet cables, but they all have male connectors that can plug into an
RJ-45 port.
Ethernet Cable

Each NIC card has a unique Media Access Control (MAC) address that identifies the physical device,
also known as a physical address. The MAC address is printed on the card and usually cannot be
changed. A MAC address is six bytes long, in hexadecimal format. The first three bytes are the vendor ID,
and the last three bytes are the NIC ID.

MAC Address

A NIC card also has a Internet Protocol Address (IPv4) address. You can configure a static address, or
the network card can get a dynamically-assigned address from a DHCP service on the network. An IP
address consists of four values, called octets, that range from 0 to 255 and are separated from each other
by dots. An IP address must be unique on the network.
IPv4 Address

In the use case described at the beginning, you will need to replace the printer with one that has a NIC
card. You connect the new printer's RJ-45 port to the network hub with an Ethernet cable. After
completing any additional configuration tasks required by your hardware, your computers will be able to
print to the networked printer.

Next Step: Understand how devices find each other

Step 3: Understand how devices find

each other
This step describes the processes behind the scenarios in Step 1 and Step 2.

Revisiting the Step 1 scenario: routers and

switches
In the Step 1 scenario, the network completes the following processes when a student sends a message
to the instructor.
Simple Local Area Network (LAN)

The student computer needs to know the IP address of the instructor's computer. In this example, the
IPv4 address of the instructor's computer is 172.16.16.1 and the address of the student computer is
172.16.254.1. Because the instructor's computer is on another subnet, the student computer will send the
message request to its default gateway IP, belonging to the router. The network switch and router
complete the following processes to send the data.

1. Process One: MAC Address table: The switch receives the message request and looks in
its MAC Address Table for the MAC address associated with the router IP. If the switch locates
the MAC address, it sends the student message to the port connected to the router for further
processing. If the switch does not have the MAC address in its cache, it floods the request to all
ports.
2. Process Two: ARP Cache: The router receives the message request and looks in its ARP
cache for the MAC address associated with IP 172.16.16.1. If the router locates the MAC address
and other identifying information, it sends the student message to the instructor computer. If the
router does not have the MAC address in its cache, it initiates the next process.
3. Process Three: ARP request: The router uses a protocol called Address Resolution Protocol
(ARP) to broadcast an ARP request to look for the IP address 172.16.16.1 on all network devices.
If one of the devices has that IP address, the device sends an ARP response that identifies itself
and includes the MAC address. The router then passes the message to that device. However, if
no devices connected to that router have a matching IP address, the router will drop the request.
4. Process Four: MAC Address table The switch receives the message request from the router
and looks in its MAC Address Table for the MAC address associated with the instructor's
computer. If the switch locates the MAC address, it sends the student message to the port
connected to the computer. If the switch does not have the MAC address in its cache, it floods the
request to all ports.
Revisiting the Step 2 scenario: switch or hub
Step 2 described an office network in which computers and a printer were connected by a switch or a
hub. This simple network does not include a router, but may connect the devices via a switch or a hub.

Office Network

In the switch scenario, a computer must be able to identify the IP address of the printer. Because there is
no router in this network, the IPv4 addresses for all devices must be on the same network segment so
that they can find each other. To be "on the same segment" means that an IPv4 address can be found
without the need to route to another network segment.

In this example, the IPv4 address of the printer is 172.16.254.5 and the user's computer's IPv4 address is
172.16.254.1. When the user attempts to send data to the printer, the devices perform the following
processes.

1. Process One: ARP cache: The user computer looks in its ARP cache for the MAC address
associated with 172.16.254.5. If the computer locates the MAC address and other identifying
information, it sends the data to the MAC address of the printer. If the computer does not have
the MAC address in its table, it initiates the next process.
2. Process Two: ARP request: The user computer sends an ARP Request to look for the IP
address 172.16.254.5. The printer receives the request and sends an ARP Response that
identifies itself and includes the MAC address. The computer sends the data to the MAC address
of the printer.
3. Process Three: MAC Address table: The switch receives the message request and looks in
its MAC Address Table for the MAC address associated with the printer. If the switch locates the
MAC address, it sends the message out the port connected to the printer. If the switch does not
have the MAC address in its cache, it floods the request to all ports.

A hub, also known as a repeater, is less sophisticated than a switch. It sends, or repeats, all data that it
receives to all devices that are connected to it.
 1. Process: Data repetition: The hub receives the data and sends it to every device that is
connected to it. If one of the devices has the matching IP address, it will respond.

Hubs are less efficient than switches, because they do not have an ARP cache and cannot use ARP.
Hubs always broadcast data to all ports, which can saturate the network, consume bandwidth, and make
computers reject data.

Many switches have a feature called microsegmentation that provides the same bandwidth to all
connected devices. However, with a hub, all connected devices must share a limited amount of
bandwidth. With microsegmentation, network traffic flows smoothly without collisions.

Finally, switches often provide many configuration options, while hubs offer little or no configuration.

Questions to consider
1. If a switch is more efficient than a hub, why would you buy a hub?
2. Now that you understand ARP, look up RARP and determine when that protocol might be used.
Next Step: Understanding and configuring switches, routers, and interfaces

Step 4: Understand and configure

switches, routers, and interfaces
This step describes the characteristics of switches and routers in more detail, as well as how these
devices use interfaces.

Switch characteristics and behavior

Various Cisco Switches

A switch is a Layer 2 (Data Link Layer) device, so most interfaces do not have IPv4 addresses. Note:
Layers will be covered in another Learning Lab.

Switches have the following characteristics:

 RJ45 ports connect to other devices such as a router, switches, and other network hosts (e.g.,
computers and printers). Each port has a configurable software interface.
 ARP determines with which device it should exchange data.
 Microsegmentation prevents network data collisions and improves traffic flow.
 Interfaces can be configured to create networks such as Virtual LANs (VLANs). (This type of
configuration is not covered in this Learning Lab.)

The following diagram shows a sample configuration of a switch's interfaces. Notice that no IP addresses
are present.
Sample Switch Configuration
Router characteristics and behavior

Various Cisco Routers

A router is a Layer 3 (Network Layer) device. Most of its interfaces have IPv4 addresses.

Routers have the following characteristics:

 RJ45 ports connect to other routers or switches. Each port has a configurable software interface.
 A routing table determines which switch or router should receive data. It routes data to the proper
network device.
 Interfaces and other features such as routing tables, and network address translation can be
configured by an administrator. Configuration is not covered in this Learning Lab.

The following diagram shows a sample configuration of a router's interfaces. Notice that each interface
has an IP address.
Sample Router Configuration

Interfaces
Each physical RJ45 portal has at least one interface that can be configured. A network engineer can
configure and activate or deactivate an interface via a terminal or command line interface. Configuration
commands can be extensive. They support creating virtual interfaces, trunk ports, virtual LANs, attaching
policies and functionality to various interfaces, and more.

Revisit the Step 1 scenario

You can now relate your understanding of switches, routers, and interfaces back to the network example
in Step 1.
Simple Local Area Network (LAN)

This network example has the following characteristics:

 All of the connections between network devices use Ethernet cables.

 Starting from the bottom, right to left, the student network host computers connect to the RJ45
ports on the switch. Each of the portals has an interface (not shown).
 A port on the switch connects to the router's (RTR2) RJ45 port, defined by the FastEthernet1/0
interface.
 The router (RTR2) connects to another router (RTR1), which, in this case, is through a portal
defined by a Serial0/0 interface.
 The router (RTR2) also connects to a switch through its portal, which is defined by a
FastEthernet0/0 interface.
 The switch connects to the Instructor network host computers through its RJ45 ports. Each of
these ports has an interface (not shown).

1. Bear in mind that each of the network host devices has interfaces with defined IP addresses as
well.

About network engineers

Network engineers are responsible for configuring the interfaces and other features of these hardware
devices. Some of this information can be configured dynamically, but that must be enabled by a network
engineer. Network engineers also perform all of the physical wiring, connecting devices using Ethernet
cable.
Questions to consider
 Through which hardware devices do the student computers communicate with the administration
computers?
 If a student computer wants to send information to an administration computer, what information
does it need to start? What are the possible processes used to find the administration computer?
 What could happen if a network engineer misconfigures a device by assigning the wrong IP
address to it or connecting it to the wrong portal?

Next Step: Understanding REST and SDN in the context of networking

Step 5: Understand SDN and REST in

the context of networking
This step provides an overview of Software-Defined Networks (SDN) and Representational State Transfer
(REST), and how these technologies relate to networking.

Software-Defined Networks (SDN)

Network engineers configure network devices using a command line interface. This work can be time-
consuming and error-prone.

A Software Defined Network (SDN) uses networking software to configure the network. SDN adds new
features and protocols to network devices. These features and protocols enable third-party applications to
dynamically configure the devices and define how the devices process data.

On a network device, data enters and leaves through the data plane. The decisions of what to do with the
data are made on the control plane. Before SDN, these two planes essentially functioned as one. SDN
separated the planes to enable completion of network configuration and decisions through a remote
control plane.

Representational State Transfer (REST)

To make the SDN features on these devices accessible over the network, they are exposed through an
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Network engineers use software that connects to these APIs
to configure switches and routers dynamically.

Many newer APIs are based the Representational State Transfer (REST) protocol, which is designed to
simplify function calls. If you are not familiar with REST, the Coding 101 REST Basics Learning Lab is a
good introduction.

With the implementation of SDN, Cisco and several other companies have created new technologies,
such as SDN controllers with APIs that developers can use to dynamically configure and change the
network. A few of these controllers are Cisco DNA and OpenDaylight. You can learn more about these
controllers via the DevNet Learning Labs.
Questions to Consider
 What network configuration would you want to automate using SDN?
 What features of REST make it simple to use?

Congratulations! You have completed "Networking basics and software-defined networks"