Routing Tcp Ip- Volume Ii -ccie Professional Development
First published in 2003 (with updates for IPv6 and modern BGP features), Routing TCP/IP, Volume II has proven remarkably resilient. While new editions may lack coverage of SD-WAN, controller-based architectures, or EVPN, the core principles of BGP policy, route filtering, and redistribution have not changed—they have only become more critical.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Final Score: 9.5/10
Routing TCP/IP, Volume II is not a book you read; it is a reference you live in. For the engineer who truly wants to understand how routes are exchanged across continents, how ISPs influence traffic, and how to keep a complex network stable under failure, this volume remains a gold standard. It is the graduation ceremony from network operator to network architect.
"Routing TCP/IP, Volume II" by Jeff Doyle and Jennifer Carroll remains a foundational, expert-level resource for mastering BGP-4, IP multicast, and advanced IP troubleshooting. The second edition, while heavily focused on Cisco IOS, offers enduring architectural principles crucial for advanced networking and CCIE preparation. For a detailed overview of the book's contents, visit Cisco Press. Routing TCP/IP: CCIE Professional Development, Volume 2
Elena stared at the blinking cursor on her terminal. The lab topology was a mess of dotted lines and cloud icons. She had conquered OSPF and EIGRP from Volume I; those were the highways and local roads of the network. But tonight, she was lost in the back alleys of the internet.
She picked up the hefty tome: Routing TCP/IP, Volume II by Jeff Doyle. As she opened it to Part 1, the text seemed to glow. She blinked, and the room was gone.
She was standing at a crossroads. To her left, a road sign read "Classful Forest." To her right, a massive, bustling interchange labeled "BGP AS 65001."
A gruff voice boomed from the book. "You’re finally here. Stop trying to use static routes for everything."
Standing before her was a figure made of translucent, shifting paths—a "Route." Not a router, but the essence of a route itself.
"You’ve mastered Volume I," the Route said. "You know how I find my neighbors. You know the metrics. But do you know how to survive the chaos of the Internet? That is the lesson of Volume II."
The first gate was labeled Domain 1: BGP. As she stepped through, the world became a sprawling metropolis of Autonomous Systems. Every building was an AS, sending postal letters (updates) back and forth.
"The problem," said a grizzled old Border Gateway Protocol router sitting on a park bench, "isn't finding the path. It's choosing the right path, even when your neighbor lies to you."
Elena learned about IBGP and EBGP as two different postal services. One worked inside the city (IBGP), requiring a full mesh of mail carriers to prevent loops. The other (EBGP) was the international courier, hopping continents.
She struggled with Route Reflectors—a single post office that broke the full-mesh rule. She nearly caused a routing loop by forgetting next-hop self on a multi-access segment. She watched in horror as a misconfigured AS_PATH prepend made a packet travel from New York to London to get from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Routing TCP IP- Volume II -CCIE Professional Development
Finally, she faced the dragon of the chapter: BGP Path Selection. She had to choose between a path with a shorter AS_PATH and a path with a lower MED. The book’s voice whispered: "Weight first. Local Pref second. Originate third. AS_PATH fourth. Do not guess. Recite the algorithm."
She recited. The dragon bowed. She had earned the BGP feather for her cap.
The scene shifted. The tidy city melted into a chaotic, polluted swamp. The sign read: Domain 2: Multicast.
"I don't need this," Elena muttered. "I do unicast."
"You think you're efficient?" cackled a creature made of duplicated packets. "When one server tries to send a video to a thousand users, you send a thousand copies. You clog the rivers of bandwidth."
Elena learned the dark magic of IGMP, where hosts whisper to routers, "I want this channel." She learned the PIM (Protocol Independent Multicast) language—PIM Sparse-Mode being the butler who only sends data when someone explicitly requests a subscription, versus PIM Dense-Mode which floods the house first and cleans up later.
She built a Shared Tree (RP-rooted) for a meeting, watching the data take a long, winding path. Then, she triggered the Shortest Path Tree switch (SPT), and the data flew like an arrow directly from source to receiver.
"Optimization," the book whispered. "That is the CCIE way."
Just as she felt triumphant, a dense fog rolled in. Domain 3: IPv6. But this wasn't the friendly IPv6 of simple addressing. This was the integration phase.
"How do I route IPv6 over an IPv4 sea?" she asked.
The book showed her two ghosts: Tunnels and NAT-PT (now deprecated, a warning to the wise). She learned 6to4 relays and ISATAP, realizing that transition wasn't magic—it was engineering.
Her final trial was a locked door with three keyholes.
Key 1: BGP. She had to peer with a provider, filter inbound routes with a prefix-list, and set Local Preference to favor a secondary link. Key 2: Multicast. She had to configure a rendezvous point (RP) via Auto-RP and ensure the video feed reached the multicast boundary without leaking. Key 3: IPv6. She had to run MP-BGP to carry IPv6 routes across the IPv4 backbone.
Her fingers flew, not on a keyboard, but in the air, tracing Cisco CLI syntax. The locks clicked.
The door swung open. She was back in her study. The clock read 3:00 AM. The book lay open to the appendix, "Sample CCIE Lab Scenarios." First published in 2003 (with updates for IPv6
Her lab topology was still on the screen. But now, the dotted lines made sense. The BGP cloud was no longer a mystery. The multicast group was a silent, efficient stream.
She closed Volume II and patted the cover.
"Alright," she whispered to the empty room. "One more lab. Then the exam."
The book seemed to warm under her hand, the routes settled, waiting for the next traveler to brave the journey from routing protocols to internet-scale architecture.
"Routing TCP/IP - Volume II - CCIE Professional Development" by Jeff Doyle
Here's a brief overview and outline of the complete text:
Overview
Routing TCP/IP, Volume II, is a comprehensive guide to designing, implementing, and troubleshooting TCP/IP networks. The book focuses on the practical aspects of routing and provides detailed information on the configuration, implementation, and troubleshooting of TCP/IP networks. This book is geared towards network engineers, administrators, and CCIE candidates.
Table of Contents
Here is a more detailed outline:
Part I: Routing Principles
Part II: IGRP and EIGRP
Part III: OSPF
Part IV: IS-IS and NLSP
Part V: BGP and Multicast
Part VI: Route Filtering and Redistribution
Part VII: Large-Scale Routing
Appendices
Index
The book covers advanced topics in routing and provides detailed examples and case studies to illustrate key concepts. It also provides best practices and real-world advice for designing, implementing, and troubleshooting large-scale TCP/IP networks.
Routing TCP/IP, Volume II: CCIE Professional Development is widely considered the "Bible" for network engineers focusing on exterior gateway protocols and advanced IP routing. Written by Jeff Doyle
, the second edition (2016) provides deep conceptual and practical coverage of BGP, Multicast, and NAT. Cisco Press Core Topics Covered
The book is structured into three primary parts, moving from foundational concepts to advanced real-world implementations: Exterior Gateway Protocols (BGP)
Inter-domain routing concepts and BGP-4 operational components.
BGP Path Attributes, selection processes, and routing policies. Scaling BGP and Multiprotocol BGP (MP-BGP) for IPv6. Advanced IP Routing Issues IP Multicast
: Detailed coverage of Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) in Dense, Sparse, and Bidirectional modes, including scaling and troubleshooting. Network Address Translation (NAT)
: Implementation of NAT44 (IPv4 to IPv4) and NAT64 (IPv6 to IPv4). Next-Generation Protocols & Management
: Design goals, packet formats, and transition strategies from IPv4. Router Management : SNMP, RMON, logging (Syslog), and security management. Cisco Press Key Features for Professionals Routing TCP/IP, Volume II: CCIE Professional Development
The first half of Volume II is arguably the most important textual resource ever written for Border Gateway Protocol.
This section comprises the bulk of the book and the most critical knowledge for the CCIE. Weaknesses:
Chapters to Cover:
Lab Drills for BGP:
