Module 5

WAN Concepts

ITNET04
WAN Connectivity
Module Objectives

Module Title: WAN Concepts

Module Objectives:
• Explain the purpose of a WAN and how it operates
• Compare WAN connectivity options for small to medium-sized business networks.
• Select WAN access technologies to satisfy business requirements.
Module References:
 CCNAv7 ENSA– Module 7

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1.1 WAN Technologies
Overview

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Purpose of WANs
Evolving Networks

Small Campus Branch Distributed

Office LAN Offices Network

 Companies often start out as small offices and can continue growing until they span multiple
offices in various geographic locations
 Throughout their growth, companies expect their networks to scale accordingly

 Company sites often need to stay connected, while simultaneously perform optimally and deliver
an increasing array of services and applications to support productivity and profitability.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 4
Purpose of WANs
Why a WAN?
A WAN operates beyond the geographic scope of a LAN and is required to connect beyond
the boundaries of the LAN
 WANs are used to interconnect the
enterprise LAN to remote LANs in branch
sites and telecommuter sites.
 A WAN is owned by a service provider
whereas a LAN is typically owned by an
organization.
 An organization must pay a fee to use
the WAN service provider’s network
services to connect remote sites.
 WANs providers offer low to high
bandwidth speeds, over long distances.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 5
Purpose of WANs
 Without WANs, LANs would be a series of
Are WANs Necessary? isolated networks.
 As organizations expand, businesses require
the ability to communicate between
geographically separated sites. For example:
• Regional or branch offices of an organization
need to be able to communicate and share
data with the central site.
• Organizations need to share information with
other customer organizations.
• Employees who travel on company business
frequently need to access the corporate
network.
 In addition, consumers now commonly
communicate over the Internet with banks,
stores, and other providers of goods and
services.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 6
Purpose of WANs  Interconnecting multiple sites across WANs can

WAN Topologies involve a variety of service provider technologies and

WAN topologies. There are four Common WAN
topologies.
 Point-to-Point topology

• Employs a point-to-point circuit between two endpoints

• Typically involves a dedicated leased-line connection
such as a T1/E1 line.
• Transparent to the customer network and appears to
be a direct physical link between two endpoints
 Hub-and-Spoke

• Applicable when a private network connection

between multiple sites is required
• A single interface to the hub can be shared by all
spoke circuits.
• Spoke sites can be interconnected through the hub
site using virtual circuits and routed subinterfaces at
the hub. © 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 7
Purpose of WANs
WAN Topologies (Cont.)
 Full Mesh

• A disadvantage of the hub-and-spoke topology is that

all communication has to go through the hub.
• With a full mesh topology using virtual circuits, any
site can communicate directly with any other site.
• A disadvantage is the large number of virtual circuits
that need to be configured and maintained.
 Dual-homed Topology

• Provides redundancy and load balancing however

they are more expensive to implement than single-
homed topologies.
• Requires additional networking hardware including
routers and switches.
• More difficult to implement since they require
complex configurations.
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WAN Operations
 WAN operations focus primarily on the physical
WANs in the OSI Model and data link layer of the OSI Model.
 Data link layer requirements include physical
addressing, flow control and encapsulation.
 WAN access standards are defined and managed
by a number of recognized authorities:
• TIA/EIA (Telecommunications Industry Association and the
Electronic Industries Alliance)
• ISO (International Organization for Standardization)
• IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)

 Layer 1 protocols describe how to provide

electrical, mechanical, operational, and functional
connects to the services of a communications
service provider.
 Layer 2 protocols define how data is encapsulated
and the mechanisms for transferring the resulting
frames. © 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 9
WAN Operations
 One primary difference between a WAN
Common WAN Terminology and a LAN is that a company must
subscribe to an outside WAN service
provider to use WAN carrier network
services.
 Terminology commonly used to describe
WAN connections:
• Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) –
Consists of devices and inside wiring
located on the enterprise edge connecting to
a carrier

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 10
WAN Operations
 One primary difference between a WAN
Common WAN Terminology and a LAN is that a company must
subscribe to an outside WAN service
provider to use WAN carrier network
services.
 Terminology commonly used to describe
WAN connections:
• Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) –
Consists of devices and inside wiring
located on the enterprise edge connecting to
a carrier
• Data Communications Equipment (DCE)
– Also called circuit-terminating equipment,
the DCE consists of devices that put data on
the local loop. The DCE primarily provides
an interface to connect subscribers to a
communication link on the WAN cloud.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 11
WAN Operations
Common WAN Terminology (Cont.) • Data Terminal Equipment (DTE) – The
customer devices that pass the data from a
customer network or host computer for
transmission over the WAN. The DTE
connects to the local loop through the DCE.
• Demarcation Point – This is a point
established in a building to separate
customer equipment from service provider
equipment.
• Local Loop (“last mile”) – The actual
copper or fiber cable that connects the CPE
to the CO of the service provider.
• Central Office (CO) – The CO is the local
service provider facility or building that
connects the CPE to the provider network.
• Toll network – This consists of the long-
haul, all-digital, fiber-optic communications
lines and other equipment inside the WAN
provider network.
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WAN Operations
WAN Terminology - Local Setting
• Where is the demarcation
point?

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WAN Operations
 There are many types of devices that are
WAN Devices specific to WAN environments:
• Dialup modem – Legacy WAN technology
that converts (modulates) the digital signals
produced by a computer into voice
frequencies which are transmitted over the
analog lines of the public telephone
network to another modem for
demodulation.
• Access server – Legacy technology where
the server controls and coordinates dialup
modem, dial-in and dial-out user
communications.
• Broadband modem – A type of digital
modem used with high-speed DSL or cable
Internet service. Both operate in a similar
manner to the voiceband modem, but use
higher broadband frequencies and
transmission speeds.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 14
WAN Operations
WAN Devices (Cont.)
• CSU/DSU - Digital-leased lines require a
CSU and a DSU. The CSU provides
termination for the digital signal and
ensures connection integrity through error
correction and line monitoring. The DSU
converts line frames into frames that the
LAN can interpret and vice versa.
• Router – Provides internetworking and
WAN access interface ports that are used
to connect to the service provider.
• Core router/Multilayer switch – A router
or multilayer switch that resides within the
middle or backbone of the WAN.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 15
WAN Operations
Serial Communication
• Almost all network communications
occur using a serial communication
delivery. Serial communication transmits
bits sequentially over a single channel.
• In contrast, parallel communications
simultaneously transmit several bits
using multiple wires.
• As the cable length increases, the
synchronization timing between multiple
channels becomes more sensitive to
distance. For this reason, parallel
communication is limited to very short
distances

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 16
WAN Operations
Circuit Switching
• A circuit-switched network is one that
establishes a dedicated circuit (or channel)
between nodes and terminals before the
users may communicate.
• Dynamically establishes a dedicated virtual
connection for voice or data between a
sender and a receiver.
• Communication can't start until the
connection is established through the
service provider network.
• Dialing a number to make a call is an
example of circuit switching technology.
• The two most common types of circuit-
switched WAN technologies
• Public switched telephone network (PSTN)
• Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN).

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 17
WAN Operations
Network communication is commonly
Packet Switching implemented using packet-switching
• Segments traffic data into packets that are
routed over a shared network.
• A circuit does not need to be established
and many pairs of nodes can communicate
over the same channel.
• Much less expensive and more flexible
than circuit switching but more prone to
latency and jitter
• Common types of packet-switched WAN
technologies are:
• Ethernet WAN (Metro Ethernet),
• Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
• Frame Relay
• Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM).
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 18
WAN Operations
SDH, SONET, and DWDM
• Service provider networks use fiber-optic infrastructures to transport user data between
destinations. Fiber-optic cable is far superior to copper cable for long distance
transmissions due to its much lower attenuation and interference.
• There are two optical fiber OSI layer 1 standards available to service providers that define
how to transfer multiple data, voice, and video communications over optical fiber using
lasers or light-emitting diodes (LEDs) over great distances.
• SDH - Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) is a global standard for transporting data over fiber-
optic cable.
• SONET - Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET) is the North American standard that provides
the same services as SDH.
• DWDM - Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) is a newer technology that increases the
data-carrying capacity of SDH and SONET by simultaneously sending multiple streams of data
(multiplexing) using different wavelengths of light.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 19
WAN Operations
ISP Connectivity Options
• An organization usually signs a
service level agreement (SLA) with
a service provider. The SLA
outlines the expected services
relating to the reliability and
availability of the connection.
• The service provider may or may
not be the actual carrier. A carrier
owns and maintains the physical
connection and equipment between
the provider and the customer.
Typically, an organization will
choose either a single-carrier or
dual-carrier WAN connection.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 20
WAN Operations
ISP Connectivity Options
There are different ways an organization can connect to an ISP. The choice depends on the needs and
budget of the organization.

• Single-homed –Single connection to

the ISP using one link. Provides no
redundancy and is the least expensive
solution.

• Multihomed -The client connects to

two different ISPs. This design
provides increased redundancy and
enables load-balancing, but it can be
expensive.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 21
WAN Operations
ISP Connectivity Options
There are different ways an organization can connect to an ISP. The choice depends on the needs and
budget of the organization.

• Dual-homed - Connects to the same ISP

using two links. Provides both
redundancy and load balancing.
However, the organization loses internet
connectivity if the ISP experiences an
outage.
• Dual-multihomed - Most resilient
topology but most expensive option. The
client connects with redundant links to
multiple ISPs. This topology provides the
most redundancy possible.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 22
4.2. Traditional WAN Connectivity

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Traditional WAN Connectivity
Traditional WAN Connectivity Options
• When LANs appeared in the 1980s, Traditional
WAN Options
organizations began to see the need to
interconnect with other locations.
• To do so, they needed their networks to Dedicated Switched
connect to the local loop of a service
provider.
Circuit Packet
• This was accomplished by using Leased Lines
Switched Switched
dedicated lines, or by using switched
services from a service provider.
E1, E3 PSTN Frame Relay

T1, T3 ISDN ATM

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 24
Traditional WAN Connectivity
Leased Lines
Point-to-point lines could be leased from a
service provider and were called “leased lines”.
The term refers to the fact that the organization
pays a monthly lease fee to a service provider
to use the line.
• Leased lines vary in price priced based on
the bandwidth required and the distance
between the two connected points.
• There are two systems used to define the digital capacity of a copper media serial link:
• T-carrier - Used in North America, T-carrier provides T1 links supporting bandwidth up to 1.544 Mbps
and T3 links supporting bandwidth up to 43.7 Mbps.
• E-carrier – Used in Europe, E-carrier provides E1 links supporting bandwidth up to 2.048 Mbps and E3
links supporting bandwidth up to 34.368 Mbps.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 25
Traditional WAN Connectivity
Leased Lines
The table summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of leased lines.
Advantages
Simplicity Point-to-point communication links require minimal expertise to install and maintain.

Quality Point-to-point communication links usually offer high quality service, if they have
adequate bandwidth.
Availability Constant availability is essential for some applications, such as e-commerce. Point-
to-point communication links provide permanent, dedicated capacity which is
required for VoIP or Video over IP.

Disadvantages
Cost Point-to-point links are generally the most expensive type of WAN access. The cost
of leased line solutions can become significant when they are used to connect many
sites over increasing distances.
Limited WAN traffic is often variable, and leased lines have a fixed capacity, so that the
flexibility bandwidth of the line seldom matches the need exactly.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 26
Traditional WAN Connectivity
Circuit-Switch Options
Circuit-switched connections are provided by Public Service Telephone Network (PSTN)
carriers. The local loop connecting the CPE to the CO is copper media.

Dialup
• Traditional local loops can transport binary
computer data through the voice telephone
network using a voiceband modem.
• A modem modulates the binary data into an
analog signal at the source and
demodulates the analog signal to binary
data at the destination.
• The physical characteristics of the local
loop and its connection to the PSTN limit
the rate of the signal to less than 56 kbps.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 27
Traditional WAN Connectivity
Circuit-Switch Options
Circuit-switched connections are provided by Public Service Telephone Network (PSTN)
carriers. The local loop connecting the CPE to the CO is copper media.

Integrated Services Digital Network

(ISDN)
• ISDN is a circuit-switching technology that
enables the PSTN local loop to carry digital
signals.
• Allows two or more signals, or bit streams,
to be transferred as subchannels in one
communication channel.
• Provided higher capacity switched
connections than dialup access – from 45
Kbps to 2.048 Mbps.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 28
Traditional WAN Connectivity
Packet-Switch Options
Packet switching segments data into packets that are routed over a shared network. It allows
many pairs of nodes to communicate over the same channel.

Frame Relay
• Frame Relay is a simple Layer 2 non-broadcast
multi-access (NBMA) WAN technology that is
used to interconnect enterprise LANs.
• Creates virtual circuits which are uniquely
identified by a data-link connection identifier
(DLCI).
• An edge router can use a single physical
interface to support multiple virtual circuits
connecting to different sites
• Provided higher capacity switched connections
than dialup access – from 45 Kbps to 2.048
Mbps.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 29
Traditional WAN Connectivity
Packet-Switch Options
Packet switching segments data into packets that are routed over a shared network. It allows
many pairs of nodes to communicate over the same channel.

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)

• Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
technology is capable of transferring
voice, video, and data through private and
public networks.

• ATM is built on a cell-based architecture

rather than on a frame-based architecture.
ATM cells are always a fixed length of 53
bytes.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 30
4.3. Modern WAN Connectivity

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 31
Modern WAN Connectivity
Modern WANs Modern WAN
Options

Modern WANS have more connectivity

Dedicated Switched Internet
options than traditional WANs.
• Enterprises now require faster and
Packet Broadband
more flexible WAN connectivity Broadband
Switched VPN
options.
• Traditional WAN connectivity options Dark Fiber Ethernet WAN Wired Wireless
have rapidly declined in use because
they are either no longer available, too
MPLS DSL Municipal WiFi
expensive, or have limited bandwidth.

Cellular
Cable
Broadband

Optical Fiber Satellite

WiMAX
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 32
Modern WAN Connectivity
Dedicated Broadband
• Dedicated broadband commonly refers to fiber
cabling that is installed independently by an
organization to connect remote locations directly
together.
• Dark fiber can be also leased or purchased from
a service provider. This refers to fiber cabling that
are already preinstalled but are not yet in use
• Suitable for organizations that require high
security and high bandwidth point-to-point
communications, and full control of their network
infrastructure

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 33
Modern WAN Connectivity
Ethernet WAN
• Ethernet WANs have gained in popularity and are now commonly being used to replace the
traditional WAN links
• Service providers offer Ethernet WAN service using fiber-optic cable which can reach distances of
up to 5 km.
• The Ethernet WAN service can go by many names,
including the following:
• Metropolitan Ethernet (Metro E)
• Ethernet over MPLS (EoMPLS)
• Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS)
• Benefits of Ethernet WAN are:
• Reduced expenses and administration
• Easy integration with existing networks
• Enhanced business productivity

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 34
Modern WAN Connectivity
Multiprotocol Label Sswitching
Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a high-performance service provider WAN routing
technology to interconnect clients without regard to access method or payload.
• Supports a variety of client access methods (e.g., Ethernet, DSL, Cable, Frame Relay).
• Can encapsulate all types of protocols including IPv4 and IPv6 traffic.
• An MPLS router can be a customer edge (CE) router, a provider edge (PE) router, or an
internal provider (P) router.
• MPLS routers are label switched routers (LSRs). They attach labels to packets that are then
used by other MPLS routers to forward traffic.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 35
Modern WAN Connectivity
Internet-Based Connectivity Internet-
based
• Internet-based connections are classified as
public WAN connections because they share
Wired Wireless
infrastructure and resources with other
subscribers of an ISP
• Are also called ‘Broadband Internet’ which Municipal
DSL
refers to always-on high-speed Internet WiFi
connections, usually offering bandwidths that
exceed 200 kbps in at least one direction Cellular
Cable
• Several technologies available, the most Broadband
common are:
• Cable Optical
Satellite
• Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) Fiber
• Fiber
• Wireless (Cellular, Satellite, Municipal WiFi) WiMAX
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 36
Internet-Based Connectivity
Cable Technology
 Cable system uses a coaxial cable that
carries radio frequency (RF) signals across
the network to provide Internet access,
digital cable television, and telephone
service.
 Hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network enables
high-speed data.
 The Data over Cable Service Interface
Specification (DOCSIS) is the standard for
carrying high-bandwidth data over an
existing cable system
 Is considered a shared medium so
subscribers on the same cable share
bandwidth

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 37
Internet-Based Connectivity
Cable Technology
 Two types of equipment are required to send signals upstream and downstream on
a cable system:

• Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) at the headend of the cable operator. The
headend is a router with databases for providing Internet services to cable
subscribers.
• Cable Modem (CM) on the subscriber end. © 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 38
Internet-Based Connectivity
Digital Subscriber Line
 DSL is an always-on connection technology that uses existing twisted-pair telephone lines to
transport high-bandwidth data, and provides IP services to subscribers.

• Asymmetric DSL (ADSL) provides higher

downstream bandwidth to the user than upload
bandwidth.
• Symmetric DSL (SDSL) provides the same
capacity in both directions.
• Very High Speed DSL (VDSL) also provides
higher downstream than upstream bandwidth but
has higher capacity than ADSL
 DSL data rates are affected by distance from the
central office. For satisfactory service, the local loop
length must be less than 5.5 km (assuming all
copper infrastructure and without repeater).

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 39
Internet-Based Connectivity
Digital Subscriber Line  The DSL connection is set up between the
customer premises equipment (CPE) and the
DSL access multiplexer (DSLAM) device
located at the Central Office (CO).
 Key components in the DSL connection:
• Transceiver - Usually a modem in a router which
connects the computer of the teleworker to the
DSL.
• Microfilter – Connected to the same line to filter
out the voice signal for connection to a telephone
• DSLAM - Located at the CO of the carrier, it
combines individual DSL connections from users
into one high-capacity link to an ISP.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 40
Internet-Based Connectivity
Digital Subscriber Line  The DSL connection is set up between the
DSLAM Cabinet customer premises equipment (CPE) and the
DSL access multiplexer (DSLAM) device
located at the Central Office (CO).
 Key components in the DSL connection:
• Transceiver - Usually a modem in a router which
connects the computer of the teleworker to the
DSL and converts Ethernet to DSL signals.
DSL Modem
• Microfilter – Connected to the same line to filter
out the voice signal for connection to a telephone
• DSLAM - Located at the CO of the carrier, it
combines individual DSL connections from users
into one high-capacity link to an ISP.
 Advantage of DSL over cable technology is
that DSL is not a shared medium. Each user
Microfilter has a separate direct connection to the
DSLAM. © 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 41
Internet-Based Connectivity
Optical Fiber
 Uses an Optical Distribution Network from the central office until the customer premises and is
currently the broadband technology offering the highest data rates
 Many municipalities, cities, and providers install fiber-optic cable to the user location. This is
commonly referred to as Fiber to the x (FTTx) and includes the following:
• Fiber to the Home (FTTH) - Fiber reaches the boundary of
the residence and subscribers use an Optical Network
Unit /Terminal (ONU or ONT) to connect to the network
• Fiber to the Building (FTTB) - Fiber reaches the boundary
of the building with the final connection to the individual
living space being made via alternative means.
• Fiber to the Node/Neighborhood (FTTN) – Optical cabling
reaches an optical node that converts optical signals to a
format acceptable for twisted pair or coaxial cable to the
premise.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 42
Internet-Based Connectivity
Wireless Internet-Based Broadband
• Wireless options are less expensive to implement compared to other WAN connectivity
options because they use radio waves instead of wired media to transmit data.
• Wireless signals can be negatively affected by factors such as distance from radio towers,
interference from other sources and weather.
• Municipal Wi-Fi - Most municipal wireless
networks use a mesh of interconnected access
points as shown in figure.
• Cellular/mobile - Mobile phones use radio waves
to communicate through nearby cell towers.
Cellular speeds continue to increase.
• Satellite Internet - Used in locations where land-
based Internet access is not available.
• WiMAX - has largely been replaced by LTE for
mobile access, and cable or DSL for fixed
access.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 43
Internet-Based Connectivity
Cellular Broadband
 Cellular service is a wireless broadband
technology used to connect users and
remote locations where no other WAN
access technology is available.
 Mobile device has a small radio antenna,
and the provider has a much larger antenna
sitting at the top of the tower somewhere
within kilometers of the device.

 There are two common cellular industry terms:

• 3G/4G/5G Wireless – Abbreviation for 3 rd, 4th, and 5th generation cellular access.
• Long-Term Evolution (LTE) – Refers to the current popular mobile broadband standard used. It is
considered to be a fourth generation (4G) technology.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 44
Internet-Based Connectivity
Cellular Broadband

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 45
Internet-Based Connectivity
Satellite Internet
• Used in locations where land-based Internet access is not available, or for temporary installations that
are continually on the move.
• 3 ways to connect to Internet using satellites:
• One-way multicast are used for IP multicast-based data, audio, and video distribution.
• One-way terrestrial return use traditional dialup access to send outbound data through a modem and
receive downloads from the satellite.
• Two-way satellite sends data from remote sites via satellite to a hub. The hub then sends the data
to the Internet.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 46
Internet-Based Connectivity
VPN Technology
VPNs can be used to address security concerns incurred when a remote office worker uses broadband
services to access the corporate WAN over the internet.
A VPN is an encrypted connection between private networks over a public network. VPN tunnels are routed
through the internet from the private network of the company to the remote site or employee host.
There are several benefits to using VPN:
• Cost savings - Eliminates expensive, dedicated WAN links and modem banks.
• Security - Advanced encryption and authentication protocols protect data from unauthorized access.
• Scalability - Corporations can add large amounts of capacity without adding significant infrastructure.
• Compatibility with broadband technology - Supported by broadband service providers such as DSL and
cable.
VPNs are commonly implemented as the following:
• Site-to-site VPN - VPN settings are configured on routers. Clients are unaware that their data is being
encrypted.
• Remote Access - The user is aware and initiates remote access connection. For example, using HTTPS in
a browser to connect to your bank. Alternatively, the user can run VPN client software on their host to
connect to and authenticate with the destination device.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 47
Internet-Based Connectivity
Virtual Private Network Technology
 A VPN is an encrypted connection between
private networks over a public network,
such as the Internet.
 Due to security risks of sending sensitive
data over the public Internet infrastructure,,
VPNs can be used to address security
concerns incurred when a remote office
worker uses broadband services to access
the corporate WAN over the internet
 Instead of using a dedicated WAN
connection, a VPN uses virtual connections
called VPN tunnels, which are routed
through the Internet from the private
network of the company to the remote site
or employee host.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 48
Internet-Based Connectivity
Virtual Private Network Technology
There are several benefits to using VPN:
• Cost savings - Eliminates expensive, dedicated WAN links and modem banks.
• Security - Advanced encryption and authentication protocols protect data from
unauthorized access.
• Scalability - Corporations can add large amounts of capacity without adding significant
infrastructure.
• Compatibility with broadband technology - Supported by broadband service providers
such as DSL and cable.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 49
Questions?
Module Summary
What Did You Learn In This Module?
• A Wide Area Network (WAN) is required to connect beyond the boundary of the LAN.
• A private WAN is a connection that is dedicated to a single customer.
• A public WAN connection is typically provided by an ISP or telecommunications service
provider using the internet.
• WANs are implemented using the following logical topologies: Point-to-Point, Hub-and-
Spoke, Dual-homed, Mesh
• Modern WAN standards cover Layer 1 and Layer 2 specifications
• Layer 1 protocol standards define how to transfer data over optical fiber using lasers or
LEDs (SDH, SONET, and DWDM)
• Layer 2 protocols define how data will be encapsulated into a frame (broadband, wireless,
Ethernet WAN, MPLS, Frame Relay, ATM etc)
• ISP connectivity options include single-homed, dual-homed, multihomed, and dual-
multihomed.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 51
Module Summary
What Did You Learn In This Module?
• Leased lines are a traditional connectivity option that provided a direct point-to-point link
between 2 sites.
• Circuit-switching establishes a dedicated circuit (or channel) between nodes and terminals
before the users may communicate.
• Dialup used the PSTN to carry low bandwidth analog data transfers
• ISDN enabled the PSTN local loop to carry digital signals.
• Packet switching segments data into packets that are routed over a shared network.
• Frame Relay is a simple Layer 2 NBMA WAN technology used to interconnect enterprise LANs.
• ATM technology is capable of transferring voice, video, and data through private and public
networks using a cell-based architecture
• Modern WAN connectivity options include dedicated broadband, Ethernet WAN and MPLS
(packet-switched), along with various wired and wireless version of internet-based
broadband.
• MPLS is a high-performance service provider WAN routing technology to interconnect clients.
MPLS supports a variety of client access methods
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 52
Module Summary
What Did You Learn In This Module?
• Internet-based broadband connectivity is an alternative to using dedicated WAN options.
• Cable - Uses the cable TV network to carry data. Bandwidth is shared by many users. therefore, data
rates are often slow during high-usage hours in areas with over-subscription.
• DSL - Uses telephone lines to carry data. Has limited bandwidth that is distance sensitive
• Fiber - This option uses optical fiber infrastructure and is currently the fastest wires option available.
• Cellular/Mobile - Uses the cellular phone network which can reach high speeds with modern 4G/5G
technology. With this option, coverage is often the main issue
• Municipal Wi-Fi - Uses a mesh Wi-Fi network deployed in a city or municipality.
• Satellite - This option is expensive and provides limited capacity per subscriber. Typically used when
no other option is available.
• VPN enable secure routing of data through the internet from the private network of the
company to the remote site or employee host using encryption.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 53