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Network Redundancy Protocols – HSRP vs VRRP vs GLBP

In this article we will discuss the similarities and differences between the 3 “First Hop Redundancy” protocols supported by Cisco devices. These are Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP), Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) and Gateway Load Balancing Protocol (GLBP). Comparison among HSRP, VRRP, GLBP Now let’s move to the main purpose of this article: To see similarities and differences Read More

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OSPF Link State Advertisement (LSA) Types

In this article, we’ll be diving deeper to analyze all eleven OSPF LSA Types using network diagrams and examples to help understand when each LSA type is used and how they keep the OSPF network updated. LSA TYPES – QUICK OVERVIEW Before we begin, let’s take a quick look at the different type of OSPF LSA packets we’ll cover: Read More

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Understand BGP Regular Expressions and Examples

Regular Expressions are used often for BGP route manipulation or filtering. In this lesson, we’ll take a look at some useful regular expressions. First, let’s take a look at the different characters that we can use: Characters ? repeats the previous character one or zero times. * repeats the previous character zero or many times. + Read More

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Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) vs Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)

RSTP needs backwards compatibility with STP switches. Thus Discarding state merges Disabled, Blocking, Listening into one. Ideally if running a complete RSTP topology then discarding becomes practically unneeded due to the explanation below. In STP BPDU will only be sent from root bridge > down, therefore non-root bridges would only forward on BPDUs that are Read More

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Understand the Difference between the Control Plane and Data Plane

1. Control Plane :In Routing control plane refers to all functions and processes that determine which path to use to send the packet or frame. The control plane is responsible for populating the routing table, drawing network topology, forwarding table and hence enabling the data plane functions. This means here the router makes its decision. Read More