ryan niemes

back home..

Hi everyone, I’m finally back home after a week without Internet access. I’ve received a lot of comments & emails that deserve replies and/or posts. I’ll be working to address these issues shortly. Bear with me please as I recover from jetlag.

Fast Convergence Techniques: IS-IS

We would be irresponsible as network designers if we did not study and appreciate IS-IS for the problems it can solve. IS-IS is a link-state protocol similar to OSPF. IS-IS uses TLVs (similar to BGP), and is thus easily extended. IS-IS and OSPF are the two choices you have when deploying TE on MPLS networks,Continue reading “Fast Convergence Techniques: IS-IS”

wordle.net graphic of CCDE outline

courtesy of wordle.net

Best Common Practices

For those of you who don’t know, the IETF publishes these documents called BCPs (Best Common Practice). These documents are useful to see what the Internet community believes is a best practice for a particular deployment type. I think these could be useful for CCDE study – not only because one of them is referredContinue reading “Best Common Practices”

Book Review: Definitive MPLS Network Designs

I have access to safari books through my employer, so I’ll be doing some brief reviews of each book to determine whether or not I’ll be buying it for further study. The first of this series is Definitive MPLS Network Designs. The book contains several case studies that will be helpful in studying for theContinue reading “Book Review: Definitive MPLS Network Designs”

Updated book listing

I created a book list on Amazon which contains the books referenced in the CCDE roadmap. I am updating it to contain only the books which are in print. Of note, the Traffic Engineering with MPLS book (Osborne) was out of print. You’ll need to buy the paperback version for one that is in print.Continue reading “Updated book listing”

Design Case Study 1 – Problem Overview

I thought it would be useful to document my design process using a case study. It is better (for me anyway) to force myself to write down my thought process so I more thoroughly understand the decisions involved. I believe the process of documenting, although sometimes tedious, is educational and gives me a much deeperContinue reading “Design Case Study 1 – Problem Overview”

Multilink PPP

I recently came across a good use for MLPPP in solving a design issue. The problem I faced was that I had several T1 links between a remote site and a single distribution router. The issue was how to ensure fault tolerance, scalability, and ease of configuration. MLPPP seemed to be the ticket. MLPPP isContinue reading “Multilink PPP”

MPLS ATOM Interworking – Ethernet and IP Interworking is the capability of L2TPv3 to change encapsulations between CE devices. The transport on one CE device can be translated to another transport. An example of this would be Frame Relay to Ethernet over an MPLS cloud. Key points: Ethernet Interworking can be used with IP andContinue reading

CCDE TOPIC: L2TPv3 & ATOM

L2TPv3 is a tunneling protocol similar to GREATOM is L2TPv3 over MPLS Here are some highlights: Does not support Layer 3 protocols – this is Layer 2 only. GRE supports Layer 3 Does not require MPLS Can change encapsulations between CE routers. For example, PPP to Ethernet is supported (this is called interworking) Has supportContinue reading “CCDE TOPIC: L2TPv3 & ATOM”