General

Cisco ISP Essentials

Cisco IOS software documentation is extensive, often making it difficult for many ISPs to find what they need to hit a switch and make a network work. In a new book, Cisco Press has put all of its best principles together into a single resource made just for ISP operators.

by Patricia Fusco ISP-Planet Managing Editor [August 5, 2002]

We don't do book reviews at ISP-Planet. At least, we usually don't do book reviews at ISP-Planet. After all, the "I" in ISP stands for Internet. If an ISP operator seeks to learn about the fundamentals of running an ISP business anyone can just go online, do a little research, join a few discussion lists, and formulate a business plan.

When system administrators need to troubleshoot networking issues, they turn to the Web or a manual, and sometimes contact the manufacturer to help troubleshoot major problems. The last place system administrators would look for an answer is a book—books are old school, and what network engineer has time to read a book when a router is clogged?

Leave it to Cisco Systems to defy conventional wisdom and write a book that provides ISP operators with a practical, yet comprehensive guide to best common practices of software and router management. This is the kind of book I wish I could have gotten my hands on three years ago when I was managing an ISP business. Oh well, better late than never.

If you have a Cisco router in your network, and many of you do since IDC research says Cisco owns about 60 percent of the global market, you're going to want to pick up a copy of Cisco ISP Essentials for your library.

Written by Barry Raveendran Greene, a Senior Consultant in the Internet Architectures Group of Consulting Engineering, Office of the CTO, at Cisco Systems and Philip Smith, a Consultant with the same, the book is a far more detailed offspring of Cisco's IOS Essentials Whitepaper. Greene has 22 years of experience in systems integration, security, operations, maintenance, management, and training on a variety of computer, internetworking and telecommunications technologies. Prior to joining Cisco, Smith spent five years at PIPEX, the first commercial ISP in the U.K. So if anybody knows the ins and outs of Cisco routers and best practices for Cisco IOS software, odds are good these two tenured engineers do.

The book is intended for ISPs, not other types of non-commercial networks, even though some of the ideas and suggestions made by the authors could be applied successfully to such networks as well. All types of network engineers would benefit from reading Cisco ISP Essentials, but engineers working for ISPs will definitely benefit the most.

The 400-page-plus book has five chapters plus detailed appendices, a recommended reading guide, and an in-depth glossary. The first chapter takes the reader through software and router management. We are introduced step-by-step, to the many nuances of Cisco IOS management. Details include layers of configuration techniques, working with the command-line interface, and handling the status information that the router can make available to system administrators.

The second chapter introduces features like the loop-back interface, interface configuration good practices, CEF, and NetFlow—each miscellaneous feature a precursor to setting up router protocols and network security, which is covered in chapter three. The authors cover the major issues facing ISPs with the configuration and feature set available among major routing protocols. These include HSRP, IGP design, and the extensive feature set now available with BGP implementation in Cisco IOS.

Security takes center stage in chapter four. It contains extensive discussion for defeating denial of service (DoS) attacks, and addresses major router-supported security features. Topics covered include router access, routing protocol security, and network security.

In chapter five the authors neatly mesh together all the elements covered in previous chapters to help build an ISP backbone—all the way from network design and layout to positioning and implementing higher level services. As a result, the book is best read in order, because each chapter assumes knowledge of the content covered in previous chapters—there's no chance to read the last page to figure out how the book ends.

Since the book is intended for all levels of network engineers, it allows both experts and beginners to be at ease with the presentation. The appendixes provide volumes of reference materials, like route flap damping configurations, and an extensive list of popular management and monitoring tools for ISPs. Included among the references is a sample configuration of a simple ISP network using the IOS principles put forth by the authors.

This is just they type of publication I would have liked to have had my hands on, back when I was in the ISP business. It provides straightforward, practical tactics that just about any ISP operator could utilize. And it sure would have helped with network planning and retooling.

Network planning is, unfortunaltely, often left to circumstance. ISP folks find themselves adding elements and functions as needed, based on clients' demands for new services. Haphazard network designs are tough to manage and usually end up wasting much time and technical support.

ISP network planning must be treated as seriously as any core business imperative. In order to build the best possible network with the funds your ISP has available, make sure that network planning is a joint effort between network engineers and business managers. Cisco ISP Essentials demonstrates the best network practices, and that makes this book a great place to start if you're interested in learning about building a new network or making the best of an old network design.

—End