CCIE Fundamentals: Network Design and Case Studies, Second Edition

Chapter 1. Introduction

Edited by Atif Khan

Networking—the communication between two or more networks—encompasses every aspect of connecting computers together. Networks have grown to support vastly disparate end-system communication requirements. A network requires many protocols and features to permit scalability and manageability without constant manual intervention. Large networks can consist of the following three distinct components:

• Campus networks, which consist of locally connected users in a building or group of buildings

• Wide-area networks (WANs), which connect campuses

• Remote connections, which link branch offices and single users (mobile users and telecommuters) to a local campus or the Internet

Figure 1-1 provides an example of a typical ...