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• The prerequisite for technical employees involved with any or all of the “Triple Play” technologies
• Combines the essential components of many separate, longer and less substantive classes into one complete class
• Yields superior results with greatly minimized costs & time investments
• Has the added benefit of relating the general core technology knowledge with the how’s, why’s and concept essentials needed to install and troubleshoot the various Comtrend products.

Also ideal as a preparation or follow up to any of the following:

• Vendor training on products that use TCPIP protocols and technologies (IPTV, VOIP, routers, switches, ADSL, etc.)
• Industry certification programs such as CCNE, CCNA, etc.

Course Outline

This is a one-of-a-kind, completely “Triple Play”-focused TCPIP, Ethernet and Network essentials course. It combines the essential components of many separate & less substantive classes into one complete class. This approach yields superior results with greatly minimized costs & time investments to your company!
As an added benefit, general TCPIP, Ethernet and home networking knowledge will be referenced to the associated configurations and management screens of the various Comtrend products.

Students leave the class with a crystal clear understanding of the core TCPIP, Ethernet LAN & networking essentials as well as how they apply to each of the Triple Play technologies.

Anyone involved with installing, repairing and/or maintaining any of the Triple Play technologies (Internet data access and home networking over ADSL lines or fiber circuits, POTS/Voice over IP and/or Video over IP/IPTV) should attend. Students will learn the all important and necessary underlying core of IP fundamentals, TCPIP protocol technologies, networking essentials and LAN/WAN principles that each and every one of these Triple Play technologies require.

The classroom learning environment is maximized by a sophisticated array of equipment - protocol analyzers, hubs, switches, routers, servers, personal computers, etc. At appropriate points throughout the course, the instructor will explain & demonstrate technology details over this circuit. Detailed, Triple Play-specific workbook diagrams are invaluable reference tools both during & after the class!

Dates/Pricing

Who should attend?

Any Triple Play employee, regardless of background or experience level, interested in gaining a crystal clear understanding of TCPIP protocols and technologies, Ethernet and network essentials.

• Installation and Repair, Help Desk
• Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3
• Engineers, Tech Support
• Network Operations Center, Data Technicians
• Note: Managers, Sales or Marketing personnel interested in understanding the technology are also welcome to attend.

Course Details

• Protocol & Data Foundations:
• Data fundamentals - digital and data principles, data bits and bytes,
  octets, binary, nibbles, hexadecimal, general protocol principles
• ASCII coding - how/where does it apply to TCPIP, DNS, Telnet, FTP, HTTP, HTML, IPTV and data in general?
• Message oriented protocol fundamentals
• Reading and interpreting TCPIP, Ethernet, VOIP and IPTV protocols on a protocol analyzer in hexadecimal, summary and detailed decode formats
• How do these topics relate to the Comtrend products

• The OSI Model & the TCPIP Stack:
• No fluff - just the important principles of layering & layered protocols
• The model’s purpose, functionalities and its relationship to TCPIP
• How does the OSI model apply to repeaters, hubs, bridges, switches &
  routers?
• A complete breakdown of layered protocols through various network
  scenarios and products (repeaters, hubs, switches, bridges and routers)
• Layer 1, 2 & 3 issues through an intermediary network fully explained
• How does this relate to configurations on the Comtrend products – bridging versus routing, etc.

• TCPIP Fundamentals:
• Overview of the TCPIP suite/stack of protocols - IP/ARP/RARP, TCP/UDP/ICMP/ IGMP, FTP/TELNET/DNS/SMTP/SNMP/HTTP
• How does each layer relate to the OSI model and what is important to know
  about each layer?
• IP connectionless networks and general routing principles
• The framing and reframing process as a datagram is routed from one side of a network to another
• The TCPIP Application Process protocols (HTTP, FTP, Telnet, DNS, etc.)
• Major fields within the IP header
• Major fields within the TCP header
• IP addressing - static versus dynamic
• DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocols)
• Common IP addressing scenarios on a typical ADSL or fiber-optic customer circuit
• NAT (Network Address Translation) - internal vs. external addresses
• Client server communications, port numbers (well known vs. random numbers), firewalls, filtering/security, etc.
• UDP vs. TCP message exchange
• How do these things relate to Comtrend product configurations and operational modes

• Ethernet LAN Essentials & PC Interfacing:
• PC interfacing/networking fundamentals as they relate to Ethernet & LANs
• LAN fundamentals, Ethernet progressions - coax to twisted pair, 10BaseT, 1000BaseT/GigE, twisted pair, cat5 cabling issues, RJ 45 connectors
• MDI and MDI-X pin outs, cabling - straight through versus crossover, hub/switch nomenclatures such as uplink, etc.
• Ethernet address fields - Destination address, Source address, (manufacturer bytes)
• What is the Ethernet Protocol Type field? (0800 IP, 0806 ARP, etc.)
• What is a value of 8100 and how is this used for VLANs?
• What is an Ethernet switch and how does it compare to a hub? How does it
  increase throughput and decrease collisions?
• Full duplex and half duplex Ethernet settings as they apply to Ethernet switches, PCs, ADSL modems and fiber-optic gateways
• VLAN tagging - what is 802.1P (Priority) and 802.1Q (VLAN)?
• How might one encounter these protocols in current networking and triple play environments?
• How do all of these relate to the Comtrend products, configurations and management screen parameters/indicators

• ARP Protocols:
• ARP protocols - TCPIP operation over an Ethernet LAN
• Automatic retrieval of MAC address to IP address relationships
• ARP caching
• Why is it sometimes necessary to clear ARP caches on routers or other network devices?
• How can you check the ARP cache on your PC at the DOS or command prompt?
• ARP protocol structure and decoding of ARP messages
• When and why is proxy ARP used?
• How does ARP relate to the Comtrend products/how do various configurations affect ARP operation at the Comtrend

• IP Protocol:
• What is a datagram?
• Connectionless IP networks vs. connection oriented networks and protocols
• IP Header fields: IP Version (Version 4, 6), IP Header Length - why is it necessary? TOS (Type of Service) Diffserve (Differentiated Services and prioritization within routers, Datagram ID number - why is this field in the header - how is it used to identify datagrams and how does it relate to ICMP error reporting and troubleshooting?
• Fragmentation, Don’t Fragment bit
• TTL (Time to Live Field) - how is this used to report routing problems?
• How is this field used in the Trace routing process to learn the intermediary routers between a particular source and destination address?
• IP protocol fields - purpose and values (why is 02 used in IPTV?)
• IP Header checksum - how and why is this field in an IP Datagram
• Source and destination address - class A, B, C, D
• Multicast address range (IPTV’s use of multicasting)
• Classless InterDomain Routing (CIDR)
• Subnet masks
• IP Options
• Relating IP operation to the various Comtrend configurations

• TCP Protocol:
• TCP - the end to end integrity protocol
• TCP’s unique 3 stage connection process in contrast to other traditional connection oriented protocols
• A complete explanation and demonstration of TCP’s use of the Starting Sequence Numbers, Acknowledgement fields, SYN, and Valid Ack bits during the 3 stage connecting process
• How is this TCP connecting process used in traditional data applications such as email?
• How is this TCP connecting process used for VOIP control messages and certain IPTV events and transactions?
• Passing ULP (Upper Layer Protocol) bytes - sequencing and acknowledging between end systems
• How does TCP handle receiving out of order datagrams?
• How does TCP adjust the flow of data from its peer protocol in the remote end system?
• What does TCP do if it does not receive an acknowledgement from its peer protocol in the remote system? How are bit errors at a lower layer corrected?
• TCP header bytes: Port numbers - well known port numbers versus random numbers
• How does a NAT device use these port numbers to uniquely identify a machine on the internal LAN?
• How does a firewall use these well known port numbers to identify an application and how does it know a direction (client to server or server to client)?
• Source Sequence numbers, Ack Sequence numbers, Flag fields and events such as the SYN, FIN and Reset bits
• What TCP connecting and disconnecting events are invoked when a link is “clicked” on a browser?
• Header length - why is the field used, TCP Flags field - urgent pointer, push bit usage
• TCP window - how is this field used between end systems to throttle the amount of data generated toward a peer TCP entity? How can starting default window size values sometimes make a broadband circuit operate with the same performance as a dial-up circuit?
• How can small TCP window offerings affect communications and give the appearance of a Telco circuit with a high error rate?
• TCP Header checksum - how and why is it used? Urgent pointer TCP Options - maximum segment size - how does this often relate to MTU size at the frame layer?
• NAT operation at the Comtrend – configuration examples
• How does the line error rate between the Comtrend and the Telco distribution equipment/DSLAM affect TCP protocol exchanges when the customer is emailing or browsing
• Performance/Throughput versus line speed

• Networking Essentials:
• Repeaters, physical converters, Layer 1 devices
• Bridges (Local and Remote), Ethernet switch, Layer 2 devices
• How does the configuration RFC 1483 in the ISP gateway affect an ADSL line and how its ADSL “modem” should operate?
• Routers, Layer 3 Devices
• How does TCPIP operate over and through these Layer 1, 2 and 3 devices?
• What are the various accepted definitions of the term gateway? Which layers of the OSI Model do they operate at?
• A quick journey from past to present networks (Traditional POTS networks, circuit switched voice, voice digitization, T carrier, DACS type products, ADN/DDS, T carrier leased lines, DLC and GR-303 protocols, ADSL lines and issues, SONET bandwidth and SONET transport networks, VOIP and VOIP gateways
• Virtual networks - X.25, Frame Relay and ATM networks and message switching bandwidth
• Circuit switched bandwidth versus message switching/virtual networks
• ADSL lines
• Frame Relay and DLCIs (Data Link Connection Identifiers)
• Switch networks and Level 2 communications
• ATM and VPI/VCIs (Virtual Path Identifier, Virtual Circuit Identifier)
• How are the ATM VP/VC, VPI/VCIs used between the ADSL modem and the DSLAM for data and management?
• Mapping an ADSL line to a particular ISP gateway through ATM
• How is ATM used in a typical IPTV over ADSL scenario (0/35, 0/33)?
• TCPIP’s operation over ATM, frame relay and SONET transport networks
• Ethernet port based VLANs, VPNs, throughput vs. line speed, QOS (quality of service), PPPOE and PPPOA
• NAT (Network Address Translation) functionalities
• How do all of these relate to the Comtrend products, configurations and management screen parameters/indicators

• UDP Protocols:
• UDP header fields: Source/Target Ports, Message length, checksum
• Port values
• Advantages and disadvantages over TCP
• UDP protocol use in DNS, TFTP, VOIP and IPTV
• Comtrend and ADSL line error rates for applications that use UDP such as VOIP and IPTV. What would be the results of line errors to the customer for IPTV and VOIP in comparison to the affect on surfing/email

• ICMP Protocols:
• ICMP - a multipurpose protocol
• Ping - Echo Request and Echo reply message exchanges
• Pinging from a Dos or command prompt - what do all those parameters mean - pinging www.xxx.com (ip address = xx.xx.xx.xx) with 32 bytes of data
• Where does that IP address come from? What does the number of bytes of data, TTL and ms value indicate?
• What other options can a user control when they perform a ping from a Dos or command prompt?
• How to do a continuous ping (-t), set a different buffer size (-1), set a different time to live (-i)
• What does an error message of “destination host unreachable” mean as opposed to “request timeout”?
• Which devices can generate ICMP messages?
• What happens when an ICMP message is discarded?
• ICMP message structures - Echo Request, Echo Reply, Source Quench, Destination Unreachable, Time Exceeded
• How is a source quench message used to throttle datagrams?
• Destination unreachable error codes - examples and scenarios of how these might occur and what might cause them
• Trace routing - how does it work, what does it tell you? Trace routing through a firewall
• Usage of the datagram ID in the IP header as it applies to ICMP
• Using ICMP test tools (pinging, trace routing, etc.) through the Comtrend products and in various configurations

• IGMP Protocols:
• Internet Group Management Protocols
• How are they transported through the network?
• Multicast groups and host membership
• Multicast address ranges 224.0.0.0 - 239.255.255.255
• In IPTV, how are multicast addresses applied to TV, music, PPV and EAS channels?
• Multicast Membership Query messages sent from a router/IGMP Proxy device (DSLAM, RT, etc.) to hosts/set top boxes
• IMGP Membership Report and Leave Group messages sent from a host/set top box to a router/IGMP Proxy device (DSLAM, RT, etc.)
• IGMP protocol message structures
• How are all these protocols used in IPTV for channel changing?
• IGMP Proxy at the DSLAM, RT or in-house gateway
• End-to-end IGMP operation from the Set Top Box to the head end
• IGMP operation through the Comtrend products and the various Comtrend configurations as they relate to IGMP operation

• TCPIP Application Process Protocols:
• Host.txt files
• The domain name structure, domains and root domain name servers
• How does the DNS protocol execute automatically to resolve host name to IP address relationships?
• Primary and secondary domain name servers
• What happens if a DNS query message is corrupted or lost?
• Telnet - what is it used for, what are the sequence of message events involved, ASCII representations used, etc.
• FTP - what is it used for, what are the sequence of message events involved, ASCII representations used, why does it use two ports (20, 21)?
• SMTP - Email specifics, message exchanges used, user configurations as they pertain to SMTP, what is a POP server, ASCII representations used, etc.
• HTTP - what is it used for, what are the sequence of message events involved, ASCII representations used, etc.
• Which of these applications might be encountered in an IPTV environment?
• How do particular Comtrend configuration scenarios affect these events