CCIE Service Provider Lab Changes

As the world evolves around us all, so do the topics of the various CCIE lab exams! Networkers did not yield any earth-shattering information that we did not already know, but it highlighted some areas of interest for us.

IPv6 will be coming to a Service Provider CCIE exam near you. This shouldn't be a surprise as it has been in the R&S CCIE exam for over a year now. What will make it interesting, of course, is just how much EXTRA stuff expanding other topics like MPLS labeling, VPN creation, VPNv6 routes and other stuff like that which will need to be discussed and dissected along the way.

IOS-XR may be coming in at some point. Most likely in the form of a GSR router. No, I have no details on exact models or what exciting level of software/modules/stuff will be included with it! Just watch for further announcements! In my own personal opinion, with the use of the GSR we may also find some SONET links added into our topology with the 7200VXR routers already being used. I have no other basis than my warped sense of humor for that, and thinking that it "just makes sense".

Those were the techniques discussed during the CCIE Service Provider Labtorial at Networkers this year! Nothing (as of this morning) has made it up on Cisco's web site, so no official timeframe is established at this point. January 1 seems like an awfully good target, but no official news yet.

The "labtorial" in case you were wondering about that name seems to represent either a shift or a "test the waters" approach to a new way for the CCIE information. Students were given different lab tasks to perform on remote equipment via provided laptops, and from what I hear this was very well received by attendees!