From: Howard C. Berkowitz (hcb@xxxxxxxxxxxx)
Date: Sat Feb 16 2002 - 11:06:12 GMT-3
At 11:26 PM -0500 2/15/02, Przemyslaw Karwasiecki wrote:
>All,
>
>If I can share my $.002 in this discussion:
>
>I am very far from saying that you need to compile in your brain
>ASN.1 specification of protocol to understand how it works,
>>or, even more, how to use it to solve problems meant to be solved,
I have a serious question for you: should a CCIE candidate at least
know what ASN.1 is, the difference between the written language and
the Basic Encoding Rules, and the type-length-value concept? I tend
to think so, because if you don't, sooner or later you'll get stuck
trying to figure out SNMP. The TLV concept extends into lots of other
protocols, such as ISIS. IPv6 is a variant with Type implying a fixed
length, followed by Value.
Arguing against that is there will not be any serious SNMP on the lab
exam, and probably not on the written.
>
>But....
>
>Sometimes it is simpler to look up how LSA are exchanged in OSPF,
>or when exactly BGP speaker says "withdraw", or etc, etc, etc...
You also touch on a question that the formal literature is more
precise in its language. I'm not saying that a candidate doesn't
have to know, backwards and forwards, Cisco's concept of
redistribution. But personally, I find it much easier to understand
when I think of importing with acceptance policies and exporting with
advertising policies.
I think this sort of study helps the CCIE candidate understand the
problem better--it's not just an abstract theory. I certainly didn't
understand BGP until I started thinking in these terms.
>
>Probably, this can be partially explained by fact that it is not
>very common to have a technical text written as clearly as in
>Howard's books. That's why, sometimes, to find ultimate clarification
>about some protocol behaviour, I like to see it in Ethereal :-)
The old button:
"Real Programmers don't document.
If it was hard to write
It should be hard to understand."
>Even if this is beyond scope of CCIE exam....
>
>Just my $.002
>
>Przemek
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