ECP-206 Ericsson Certified Associate - IP Networking Questions and Answers

In OSPFv2, the route characteristic that is used to determine the best path is the cost. The cost is a metric that represents the link bandwidth, delay, reliability, or other factors. The cost is inversely proportional to the bandwidth, meaning that a higher bandwidth link has a lower cost. The cost of a route is calculated by adding the costs of all links along the path. OSPFv2 uses the following formula to calculate the cost of an interface:

Cost = Reference bandwidth / Interface bandwidth in bps

The reference bandwidth is a constant value that can be configured by the network administrator. By default, it is 100 Mbps. The interface bandwidth is the actual bandwidth of the interface in bits per second. For example, if an interface has a bandwidth of 10 Mbps, its cost would be 100 Mbps / 10 Mbps = 101415.

OSPFv2 does not use jitter, packet loss, or delay as route characteristics to determine the best path. Jitter is the variation in latency or delay between packets. Packet loss is the percentage of packets that are dropped or corrupted during transmission. Delay is the time it takes for a packet to travel from source to destination. These characteristics are not part of the OSPFv2 protocol and are not advertised in OSPFv2 LSAs1617.

References: OSPF Metric cost Calculation Formula Explained - ComputerNetworkingNotes, OSPF Cost – OSPF Routing Protocol Metric Explained - Study-CCNA, Open Shortest Path First - Wikipedia, OSPF Metric = Cost - Cisco

The subnet address for 10.57.126.156/29 is 10.57.126.152. To find the subnet address, we need to perform a bitwise AND operation between the IP address and the subnet mask. The subnet mask for /29 is 255.255.255.248, which in binary is 11111111.11111111.11111111.11111000. The IP address in binary is 00001010.00111001.01111110.10011100. The result of the AND operation is 00001010.00111001.01111110.10011000, which in decimal is10.57.126.152. References: Ericsson IP Networking - IP Addressing, Software Installation and Upgrade Overview (Junos OS)

Referring to the exhibit, the service provider should implement L3VPN using the MP-BGP protocol to connect the sites for two customers (indicated in red and green in theexhibit). L3VPN is a type of VPN that uses MPLS to provide IP connectivity between customer sites across a service provider network. L3VPN allows customers to use overlapping or identical IP addresses without causing conflicts or requiring NAT. L3VPN uses MP-BGP to exchange VPN routes between PE routers, which are routers that connect customer networks to the service provider network. MP-BGP is an extension of BGP that can carry multiple address families, such as VPNv4 or VPNv6, along with additional attributes, such as route distinguisher (RD) and route target (RT). RD is used to make customer routes unique within the service provider network, while RT is used to control which routes are imported or exported between different VPNs3 .

References: L3VPN - Layer 3 Virtual Private Networks - Mpirical, [Use of MP-BGP Extensions for IPv6 Interdomain Routing]

The correct ordering (outer to inner) of packet headers in an IP/MPLS packet is Ethernet, MPLS, IP. An IP/MPLS packet is a packet that is encapsulated with an MPLS label stack between the Ethernet header and the IP header. The Ethernet header contains the source and destination MAC addresses and the EtherType field that indicates the type of the payload. The MPLS label stack contains one or more labels that are used for forwarding decisions by the MPLS routers. Each label consists of four fields: label value, experimental bits, bottom of stack, and time to live. The IP header contains the source and destination IP addresses and other information for routing and fragmentation. The order of the headers is important because it determines how the packet is processed by different devices in the network12.

References: MPLS Label Stack - Cisco, MPLS Fundamentals: 3 - MPLS Packet Forwarding

Penultimate hop popping (PHP) is a function performed by certain routers in an MPLS enabled network. It refers to the process whereby the outermost label of an MPLS tagged packet is removed by a label switch router (LSR) before the packet is passed to an adjacent label edge router (LER). The purpose of PHP is to reduce the load on the LER, as it saves one cycle of label lookup. The LER can forward the packet based on its IP header or another label in the stack, without having to process the outer label. PHPfunctionality is achieved by the LER advertising a label with a value of 3 to its neighbors. This label is defined as "implicit-null" and informs the neighboring LSRs to perform PHP12.

References: Penultimate hop popping - Wikipedia, MPLS Penultimate hop popping - NetworkLessons.com

iBGP works by exchanging routing information between two or more routers within an AS. Each router sends its own routing table to its neighbors, which contains information about the networks it knows and how they can be reached from that router. By default, iBGP neighbors only share BGP routes learned from eBGP neighbors, which are routers in different ASes. This is because iBGP assumes that all routers within an AS have consistent internal routing information provided by an IGP, such as OSPF or IS-IS. Therefore, iBGP neighbors do not need to share IP address information of loopbackinterfaces or directly connected interfaces, unless explicitly configured to do so by using commands such as neighbor update-source or network.

References: iBGP Ultimate Guide | How iBGP Is Different From eBGP, Ericsson IP Networking - Routing Protocols

Priority queuing (PQ) is a queuing method that establishes four interface output queues that serve different priority levels: high, medium, normal, and low. Traffic in the highest priority queue will experience the least amount of jitter and delay compared to traffic in the other queues, because PQ always services the higher-priority queues first. However, this can also cause traffic in lower priority queues to be starved of bandwidth, especially if the highest priority queue is oversubscribed. Traffic in the highest priority queue is not only reserved for voice traffic, but can also include network control and routing traffic. Traffic in all queues are not always guaranteed a minimum bandwidth, because PQ does not provide any bandwidth reservation mechanism. References: Quality of Service (QoS) Queues and Queuing Explained, Chapter: Configuring Priority Queueing - Cisco

An LDP implicit null label causes penultimate hop popping by a downstream router. LDP is a protocol that distributes labels for MPLS forwarding along the shortest path calculated by an IGP. An implicit null label is a special label value of 3 that indicates that the downstream router does not need a label to forward the packet to its destination. When an upstream router receives an implicit null label from a downstream router, it removes (or pops) the label from the packet before sending it to the downstream router. This process is called penultimate hop popping (PHP) and it reduces the load on the downstream router, which can forward the packet based on its IP header or another label in the stack59.

References: MPLS Label Distribution Protocol Commands - Cisco, Solved: Implicit null and Explicit null - Cisco Community

The action that will influence BGP route selection within your AS is changing the default value of the local preference attribute. The local preference attribute is used to indicate the preference of a path among multiple paths learned from different external BGP neighbors or autonomous systems (ASes). The higher the local preference value, the more preferred the path is within your AS, and vice versa. The default value of local preference is 100, but you can change it using route maps or other configuration methods on your BGP routers. References: Ericsson IP Networking - Routing Protocols, BGP Attributes and Path Selection, BGP Local Preference Attribute: Controlling Traffic Like a Pro

Two statements that are true about the Ericsson Router 6000 series are:

• The Router 6000 uses the same building practice and accessories as the Ericsson Radio System. The Ericsson Radio System is a modular and scalableradio access network solution that supports multiple standards, bands, and layers. The Router 6000 series is fully integrated into the Ericsson Radio System, using the same building practice and accessories such as mounting kits, cables, power supplies, etc. This simplifies installation, operation, and maintenance of both radio and transport equipment78.
• The Router 6000 products range from all-outdoor small site routers to large aggregation routers. The Router 6000 series consists of three main products: the Router 6672 for access, the Router 6675 for pre-aggregation, and the Router 6274 for metro aggregation. The Router 6672 is an all-outdoor small cell site router with high-capacity and low-power consumption. The Router 6675 is a combined access and E-RAN switch with hardware-accelerated IPSec and high-accuracy internal clock. The Router 6274 is a high-capacity metro aggregation router with SDN functionality and flexible interface options78.

References: Router 6000 Series - Ericsson, New Ericsson Router 6000 series couples radio and IP transport for 5G future - Global Brands Magazine

There are 8 different priorities available to use in a VLAN header. A VLAN header is a 4-byte field that is inserted into an Ethernet frame to indicate the VLAN membership and priority of the frame. The VLAN header consists of two subfields: the tag protocol identifier (TPID) and the tag control information (TCI). The TCI subfield contains three subfields: the priority code point (PCP), the drop eligible indicator (DEI), and the VLAN identifier (VID). The PCP subfield is a 3-bit field that specifies the priority level of the frame, ranging from 0 (lowest) to 7 (highest). The PCP values can be used to implement quality of service (QoS) mechanisms on bridges and switches12.

References: HTML rt Tag - W3Schools, VLAN 0 Priority Tagging Support - Cisco

Two statements that are correct for LDP are:

• LSRs send UDP hello messages for neighbor discovery. LDP is a protocol that distributes labels for MPLS forwarding along the shortest path calculated by an IGP. LDP uses two types of messages: discovery messages and session messages. Discovery messages are used to discover and maintain adjacency with other LSRs that support LDP. Discovery messages are sent as UDP datagrams to the well-known multicast address 224.0.0.2 (all routers on this subnet) on port 64634.
• LSRs use TCP to negotiate LDP session parameters. Session messages are used to establish, maintain, and terminate LDP sessions between LSRs. Session messages are also used to exchange label mappings, notification messages, and keepalive messages. Session messages are sent as TCP segments to port 64634.

References: Ldp | Microsoft Learn, Label Distribution Protocol - Wikipedia

A BGP session is established between two routers by sending a unicast OPEN message. BGP uses TCP as its transport protocol, which means that before exchanging any BGP information, a TCP connection must be established between the routers. The TCP connection uses port 179 as both source and destination port. After establishing a TCP connection, each router sends an OPEN message to its neighbor, containing parameters such as BGP version number, AS number, hold time, BGP identifier, and optional capabilities. The OPEN message also serves as a keepalive message for BGP. If both routers agree on these parameters, they proceed to exchange UPDATE messages containing routing information and establish a BGP session.

A BGP router does not send a NOTIFICATION message to establish a session, but rather to terminate a session due to an error or a manual shutdown. A BGP router does not send a CONNECT message, as this is a TCP state, not a BGP message. A BGP router does not send a multicast HELLO packet, as this is an OSPF message, not a BGP message. References: BGP Neighbor States > BGP Fundamentals | Cisco Press, Demystifying BGP Session Establishments - Packet Pushers, The TCP/IP Guide - BGP Connection Establishment: Open Messages

The next-hop to reach the host 192.168.1.129 is 10.126.131.250. This can be determined by looking at the routing table in the exhibit. The host 192.168.1.129 falls within the range of the network 192.168.1.64/26, which has a next-hop of 10.126.131.250. References: Ericsson IP Networking - IP Addressing, Software Installation and Upgrade Overview (Junos OS)

The statement about IPv6 that is correct is that broadcast has been replaced with multicast. IPv6 is the most recent version of Internet Protocol (IP), which provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the Internet. IPv6 has several improvements over IPv4, such as a larger address space, simplified header format, enhanced security, and better support for mobility and QoS.One of the changes in IPv6 is that it does not support broadcast, which is a method of sending a packet to all nodes on a network segment. Instead, IPv6 uses multicast, which is a method of sending a packet to a group of nodes that have joined a multicast address34.

References: IPv6 - Wikipedia, What Is IPv6? - Cisco