Cisco Packet Tracer 8.x tutorials
Cisco Wireless concepts
The Cisco Wireless Controller (WLC) devices is the Cisco solution to centrally configure, manage enterprise wireless networks, regardless of the number of access points deployed and thei location. Wireless controllers have become very popular as companies move from standalone Access Point (AP) wireless designs, complicated to configure and to secure properly, to centralized controller-based designs, reaping the enhanced visibility, functionality and redundancy benefits that come with those modern designs.
The following youtube video presents the basic concepts of how Wireless Controllers work and interact with Lightweight access points using CAPWAP protocol. A good understanding of the concepts presented in this video is mandatory before starting this Packet Tracer 8.2 wireless tutorial.
Introduction - IPSEC VPN on ISR routers
Cisco Packet Tracer allows IPSEC VPN configuration between routers. The example below presents a basic VPN configuration over a Frame Relay between Paris and New-York using Cisco 2811 routers.
IPSEC Tunneling allows network adminisrators to use the Internet to create secure connections between networks (teleworkers, remote sites, ...). Cisco 2811 routers use the ISAKMP and IPsec tunneling standards to crete and manage tunnels. IPsec provides authentication (AH) and encryption (ESP) services to prevent unauthorized data access or modification. ISAKMP is the negotiation protocol that makes peers negociate on how to build the IPsec security association.
A major problem with IPSec sessions is that they do not support multicast or broadcast traffic. Enabling dynamic routing protocols such as OSPF or EIGRP requires multicast or brodcast support to allow hellos and updates traffic between routers.
Solution : Build another generic tunnel over IPSEC. Three options available in Cisco routers :
- Virtual Tunnel Interface (VTI)
- Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE)
- DMVPN and GET VPN
GRE over IPSEC has been working in Cisco Packet Tracer since at least version 6.0.1 . This tunnel design allows OSPF dynamic routing over the tunnel
Access point overview
The Cisco 819 ISR supports built-in enterprise class WLAN capability with an embedded Cisco 3500 Access Point featuring 802.11a/b/g/n and 2X3 MIMO antenna diversity (2 transmitting antennas and 3 receiving antennas). With the dual 802.11 radio capability, the integrated AP can serve both as an access point and as a client to another wireless network for backbone/internet connectivity. This provides another source for WAN diversity along with Gigabit Ethernet, serial, and 3G/4G capabilities.
The Cisco 819 ISR router wireless access-point is a service module connected to the router with the following interfaces :
- wlan-ap0 for access point management
- Wlan-GigabitEthernet0 for production traffic between the router and the AP. This interface can be configured as a trunk to allow the AP to link multiple SSID to different vlans
Router#show ip interface brief Interface IP-Address OK? Method Status Protocol GigabitEthernet0 unassigned YES NVRAM administratively down down FastEthernet0 unassigned YES unset up down FastEthernet1 unassigned YES unset up down FastEthernet2 unassigned YES unset up down FastEthernet3 unassigned YES unset up down Serial0 unassigned YES NVRAM administratively down down Wlan-GigabitEthernet0 unassigned YES unset up up wlan-ap0 10.10.10.1 YES TFTP up up Cellular0 unassigned YES unset administratively down down Vlan1 10.10.10.1 YES NVRAM up up
BGP in Packet Tracer
BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) is the core routing protocol of the Internet. It is described as a path vector protocol, as BGP does not use traditional IGP (OSPF, EIGRP, RIP) metrics, but makes routing decisions based on paths, network policies, and/or rulesets. It maintains a table of IP networks or 'prefixes' which designate network reachability among autonomous systems (AS).
BGP protocol support in Packet Tracer allows Cisco CCNP Route students to better understand this complex routing protocol and to be prepared for the simulation questions in the exam.
Internal BGP (iBGP) is currently not supported in Packet Tracer (see screenshot below). iBGP support has still not been added in the new Packet Tracer 8.2.2 version
Tutorial description
This tutorial will guide you for advanced voip configuration in Cisco Packet Tracer 8.2.2 network simulation software. Based on the Cisco's Hierarchical Network Design Model, this simulated network has voip call routing features enabled between two campus buildings with network services (DNS, DHCP ...) centralized in the datacenter.
In a real world environment, the CUCME router would also be located in the datacenter. However, Packet Tracer doesn't seems to support this configuration as IP phones don't register and receive a valid phone number.
Network diagram
