CCNA Routing & Switching
The Cisco Networking Academy® CCNA Routing and Switching curriculum is designed for students who are seeking entry-level ICT jobs or plan to pursue more specialized ICT skills.
CCNA Routing and Switching provides comprehensive coverage of networking topics, from fundamentals to advanced applications and services, with opportunities for hands-on practical experience and career skills development.
Cisco Certifications
Students will be prepared to take the Cisco CCENT® certification exam after completing a set of two courses and the CCNA® Routing and Switching certification exam after completing a set of four courses.
Features and Benefits
The CCNA Routing and Switching curriculum offers the following features and benefits:
- Students learn the basics of routing, switching, and advanced technologies to prepare for the CCENT and CCNA certification exams, networking related degree programs, and entry-level careers.
- The language used to describe networking concepts is designed to be easily understood by learners at all levels and embedded interactive activities help reinforce comprehension.
- Courses emphasize critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and the practical application of skills.
- Multimedia learning tools, including videos, games, and quizzes, address a variety of learning styles and promote increased knowledge retention.
- Hands-on labs and Cisco® Packet Tracer simulation-based learning activities help students develop critical thinking and complex problem solving skills.
- Embedded assessments provide immediate feedback to support the evaluation of knowledge and acquired skills.
Course Description
CCNA Routing and Switching teaches comprehensive networking concepts, from network applications to the protocols and services provided to those applications by the lower layers of the network. Students will progress from basic networking to more complex enterprise and theoretical networking models later in the curriculum.
There are four courses in the recommended sequence:
- Introduction to Networks
- Routing and Switching Essentials
- Scaling Networks
- Connecting Networks
In each course, Networking Academy™ students will learn technology concepts with the support of interactive media and apply and practice this knowledge through a series of hands-on and simulated activities that reinforce their learning.
| Course | Description |
| Introduction to Networks | Introduces the architecture, structure, functions, components, and models of the Internet and computer networks. The principles of IP addressing and fundamentals of Ethernet concepts, media, and operations are introduced to provide a foundation for the curriculum. By the end of the course, students will be able to build simple LANs, perform basic configurations for routers and switches, and implement IP addressing schemes. |
| Routing and Switching Essentials | Describes the architecture, components, and operations of routers and switches in a small network. Students learn how to configure a router and a switch for basic functionality. By the end of this course, students will be able to configure and troubleshoot routers and switches and resolve common issues with RIPv1, RIPv2, single-area and multi-area OSPF, virtual LANs, and inter-VLAN routing in both IPv4 and IPv6 networks. |
| Scaling Networks | Describes the architecture, components, and operations of routers and switches in a large and complex network. Students learn how to configure routers and switches for advanced functionality. By the end of this course, students will be able to configure and troubleshoot routers and switches and resolve common issues with OSPF, EIGRP, STP, and VTP in both IPv4 and IPv6 networks. Students will also develop the knowledge and skills needed to implement DHCP and DNS operations in a network. |
| Connecting Networks | Discusses the WAN technologies and network services required by converged applications in a complex network. The course enables students to understand the selection criteria of network devices and WAN technologies to meet network requirements. Students learn how to configure and troubleshoot network devices and resolve common issues with data link protocols. Students also develop the knowledge and skills needed to implement IPSec and virtual private network (VPN) operations in a complex network. |
Skills and Competencies
Here are some examples of tasks students will be able to perform after completing each course.
| Introduction to Networks | Routing and Switching Essentials | Scaling Networks | Connecting Networks |
| Describe the devices and services used to support communications in data networks and the Internet | Describe enhanced switching technologies such as VLANs, VLAN Trunking Protocol, Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol, and 802.1q | Configure and troubleshoot DHCP and DNS operations for IPv4 and IPv6 | Describe the operations and benefits of virtual private networks (VPNs) and tunneling |
| Describe the role of protocol layers in data networks | Describe basic switching concepts and the operation of Cisco switches | Describe the operations and benefits of the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) | describe different WAN technologies and their benefits |
| Describe the importance of addressing and naming schemes at various layers of data networks in IPv4 and IPv6 environments | Configure and troubleshoot basic operations of a small switched network | Configure and troubleshoot STP operations | Configure and troubleshoot serial connections |
| Design, calculate, and apply subnet masks and addresses to fulfill given requirements in IPv4 and IPv6 network | Configure and troubleshoot basic operations of routers in a small routed network | Describe the operations and benefits of link aggregation and Cisco VLAN Trunk Protocol (VTP) | Configure and troubleshoot broadband connections |
| Build a simple Ethernet network using routers and switches | Configure and troubleshoot VLANs and inter-VLAN routing | Configure and troubleshoot basic operations of routers in a complex routed network for IPv4 and IPv6 | Configure and troubleshoot IPSec tunneling operations |
| Use Cisco command-line interface (CLI) commands to perform basic router and switch configurations | Describe the operations of Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol and Domain Name System for IPv4 and IPv6 | Configure and troubleshoot advanced operations of routers and implement RIP, OSPF, and EIGRP routing protocols for IPv4 and IPv6 | Monitor and troubleshoot network operations using syslog, SNMP, and NetFlow |
| Manage Cisco IOS® Software licensing and configuration files | Design network architectures for borderless networks, data centers, and collaboration |
Note: The entire course may take up to one (1) year.
