Network Design Cookbook: 
Architecting Cisco Networks 
 
Practical Cisco Training for Network Engineers & Consultants! 
 
 
 
Michel Thomatis, CCIE #6778 
RouteHub Group, LLC 
www.RouteHub.net 
 
 
 
 
 
April 15, 2012 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Network Design Cookbook | About the Author  1 
 
 
Network Design Cookbook: Architecting Cisco Networks 
by 
Michel Thomatis, CCIE #6778 
 
Copyright 2011 Michel Thomatis 
All rights reserved. 
 
ISBN-13: 978-1-257-75024-5 
 
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical 
means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing 
from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a 
review. 
 
May 8, 2011 
 
CCDE, CCIE, CCDP, CCIP, CCNP, CCVP, CCSP, CCDA, CCNA, CCENT, Cisco, Cisco IOS, Cisco Systems, the Cisco Systems logo, and 
Networking Academy are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and certain other 
countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document or web site are the property of their respective owners. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Network Design Cookbook | About the Author  2 
 
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Network Design Cookbook | About the Author  4 
 
 
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Network Design Cookbook | About the Author  5 
 
 
Table of Contents 
 
1 
2 
3 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR .................................................................................................................................... 10 
START HERE .................................................................................................................................................. 10 
THE ARCHECTURE OF NETWORK DESIGN ..................................................................................................... 11 
3.1 
3.2 
3.3 
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ROLES ............................................................................................................... 11 
COMPONENTS .................................................................................................................................................. 18 
DESIGN ........................................................................................................................................................... 23 
4  DESIGN PROCESS .......................................................................................................................................... 33 
5  DESIGN STEPS............................................................................................................................................... 35 
6  DESIGN: FOUNDATION SOLUTIONS .............................................................................................................. 37 
6.1 
LAN (CAMPUS) SOLUTION ............................................................................................................................ 38 
6.2  WAN SOLUTION .............................................................................................................................................. 43 
DATA CENTER SOLUTION .................................................................................................................................... 47 
6.3 
6.4 
INTERNET EDGE SOLUTION ................................................................................................................................. 53 
7  DESIGN: NETWORK SOLUTIONS ................................................................................................................... 56 
7.1 
7.2 
SECURITY SOLUTIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 57 
Firewalls ............................................................................................................................................... 58 
7.1.1 
Intrusion Prevention (IPS) .................................................................................................................... 63 
7.1.2 
Content Security ................................................................................................................................... 65 
7.1.3 
Secure Communications ....................................................................................................................... 68 
7.1.4 
Identity-Based Access Control .............................................................................................................. 72 
7.1.5 
PCI/DSS ................................................................................................................................................ 74 
7.1.6 
Proxy .................................................................................................................................................... 76 
7.1.7 
DMZ and Extranet ................................................................................................................................ 78 
7.1.8 
Physical Security ................................................................................................................................... 80 
7.1.9 
7.1.10 
Endpoint Security ................................................................................................................................. 81 
7.1.11  Data Loss Prevention ........................................................................................................................... 82 
COLLABORATION SOLUTIONS............................................................................................................................... 83 
Voice (IP Communications) .................................................................................................................. 84 
7.2.1 
Messaging ............................................................................................................................................ 95 
7.2.2 
Conferencing ........................................................................................................................................ 98 
7.2.3 
Customer Care ................................................................................................................................... 100 
7.2.4 
Presence ............................................................................................................................................. 101 
7.2.5 
Video .................................................................................................................................................. 102 
7.2.6 
Social Networking .............................................................................................................................. 104 
7.2.7 
7.2.8  Web 2.0 .............................................................................................................................................. 105 
 
Network Design Cookbook | About the Author  6 
 
 
7.4 
7.3  MOBILITY SOLUTIONS ...................................................................................................................................... 106 
7.3.1  Wireless .............................................................................................................................................. 107 
Teleworker ......................................................................................................................................... 112 
7.3.2 
DATA CENTER SOLUTIONS ................................................................................................................................ 115 
Virtualization ..................................................................................................................................... 116 
7.4.1 
Cloud Computing ............................................................................................................................... 118 
7.4.2 
High Performance Computing (HPC) .................................................................................................. 120 
7.4.3 
Unified Computing ............................................................................................................................. 122 
7.4.4 
Data Management (Storage) ............................................................................................................. 134 
7.4.5 
Content Switching .............................................................................................................................. 137 
7.4.6 
Optimization ...................................................................................................................................... 140 
7.4.7 
Disaster Recovery ............................................................................................................................... 142 
7.4.8 
7.4.9 
Top Rack Switching ............................................................................................................................ 144 
7.4.10  Web and E-Commerce ....................................................................................................................... 145 
NETWORK MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS ................................................................................................................ 147 
GREEN COMPUTING SOLUTIONS ........................................................................................................................ 151 
SYSTEM SOLUTIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 152 
7.5 
7.6 
7.7 
8 
DESIGN: SERVICES ...................................................................................................................................... 153 
8.1 
8.2 
8.3 
GENERAL SERVICES ......................................................................................................................................... 154 
CORE NETWORK SERVICES ................................................................................................................................ 155 
IP Routing ........................................................................................................................................... 156 
LAN Switching .................................................................................................................................... 172 
Quality of Service (QoS) ..................................................................................................................... 181 
IP Multicast ........................................................................................................................................ 198 
IPv6 .................................................................................................................................................... 204 
IP Services & Features ........................................................................................................................ 208 
First Hop Redundancy Protocol (FHRP) .............................................................................................. 211 
Network Management ....................................................................................................................... 212 
SECURITY SERVICES ......................................................................................................................................... 213 
Virtual Private Network (VPN) ........................................................................................................... 214 
Network Security ................................................................................................................................ 221 
Tunneling: L3VPN ............................................................................................................................... 223 
Tunneling: L2VPN ............................................................................................................................... 228 
Identity-Based Access Control ............................................................................................................ 229 
Best Practices ..................................................................................................................................... 230 
8.2.1 
8.2.2 
8.2.3 
8.2.4 
8.2.5 
8.2.6 
8.2.7 
8.2.8 
8.3.1 
8.3.2 
8.3.3 
8.3.4 
8.3.5 
8.3.6 
9  DESIGN RESOURCES ................................................................................................................................... 231 
9.1 
9.2 
9.3 
REQUIREMENTS .............................................................................................................................................. 231 
SOLUTION DESIGN .......................................................................................................................................... 235 
TOPOLOGY .................................................................................................................................................... 237 
9.3.1 
Topology Overview ............................................................................................................................ 238 
9.3.2 
LAN and Data Center ......................................................................................................................... 239 
9.3.3  WAN and Internet Edge ..................................................................................................................... 248 
Network Design Cookbook | About the Author  7 
 
 
 
9.4 
9.5 
9.5.1 
9.5.2 
9.5.3 
9.5.4 
DEPLOYMENT ................................................................................................................................................. 253 
BANDWIDTH SERVICES & PERFORMANCE ............................................................................................................ 255 
LAN and Data Center ......................................................................................................................... 256 
Private WAN, Public WAN (Internet Edge) ......................................................................................... 267 
Internet Edge ..................................................................................................................................... 273 
Solutions and Services ........................................................................................................................ 276 
SERVICE DESIGN ............................................................................................................................................. 279 
9.6 
REDUNDANCY ................................................................................................................................................ 280 
9.7 
DESIGN OPTION ............................................................................................................................................. 295 
9.8 
9.9 
CONSOILDATION MATRIX ................................................................................................................................. 297 
9.10  HARDWARE ................................................................................................................................................... 300 
STANDARDS ................................................................................................................................................... 309 
9.11 
9.11.1  Naming Standard ............................................................................................................................... 309 
9.11.2 
VLAN Schema ..................................................................................................................................... 310 
9.11.3 
IP Addressing Schema ........................................................................................................................ 311 
9.11.4  Data Center Facilities ......................................................................................................................... 312 
10 
REFERENCE: HARDWARE ........................................................................................................................ 314 
10.3 
10.3.1 
10.3.2 
10.3.3 
10.1  ROUTERS....................................................................................................................................................... 314 
SWITCHES ..................................................................................................................................................... 315 
10.2 
10.2.1 
LAN Switches ...................................................................................................................................... 315 
10.2.2  Data Center Switches ......................................................................................................................... 319 
SECURITY ...................................................................................................................................................... 320 
Firewalls and VPN .............................................................................................................................. 320 
Intrusion Prevention ........................................................................................................................... 321 
Content Security ................................................................................................................................. 322 
10.4  COLLABORATION ............................................................................................................................................ 323 
10.4.1 
Voice: Call Control .............................................................................................................................. 323 
10.4.2 
Voice: Voice Gateway (and Cisco CME Router) .................................................................................. 324 
10.4.3  Messaging .......................................................................................................................................... 325 
Conferencing ...................................................................................................................................... 326 
10.4.4 
10.4.5 
Customer Care ................................................................................................................................... 327 
Presence ............................................................................................................................................. 328 
10.4.6 
10.4.7 
Video .................................................................................................................................................. 329 
10.5  DATA CENTER ................................................................................................................................................ 330 
10.5.1 
Application Switching (Load Balancers) ............................................................................................. 330 
10.5.2  Unified Computing ............................................................................................................................. 331 
10.5.3  WAN OPtimization ............................................................................................................................. 333 
10.6  MOBILITY ...................................................................................................................................................... 334 
10.7  NETWORK MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................................................ 335 
11 
12 
OTHER DESIGN RESOURCES .................................................................................................................... 336 
NETWORK DESIGN COOKBOOK EXAMPLE .............................................................................................. 346 
12.1 
STEP 1 - REQUIREMENTS AND SOLUTIONS ........................................................................................................... 346 
Network Design Cookbook | About the Author  8