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Cisco 642-311 SONET Certification Exam

Cisco 642-311 SONET Certification Exam

Cisco Optical SONET Exam 642-311... Continue Below To Cisco SONET 642-311 Certification Exam Information and Cisco Articles. The real Cisco SONET 642-162 Certification Exam has a duration of a 120 - 240 minutes and 175 - 185 questions to complete.

The Cisco Optical SONET 642-311 exam is one of the two qualifying theater exams available to candidates pursuing the Cisco Optical Specialist certification. The Cisco 642-311 SONET exam tests materials covered in the recommended Cisco Optical Specialist curriculum: Cisco ONS 15454 SONET Turn Up, Text, Provisioning, and Operation Training (OCTPO); Cisco ONS 15216 Provisioning and Operation Training (OPODA); and Optical Fundamentals (OF). This exam is recommended for candidates in US, Canada, and Korea. The Cisco 642-311 SONET exam will certify that the successful candidate has important knowledge and skills necessary to understand the protocols, principles, and underlying technologies of optical systems, such as fiber optic fundamentals, SONET, SDH, DWDM, and optical cross connects. In addition, a Cisco Optical Specialist will be able to design, configure, build, operate, and troubleshoot Cisco optical networking products, (including ONS 15454, & ONS 15216) in METRO/Regional and METRO/Access network environment. All these objectives are designated from the Cisco.com website. Please note that the SONET 642-311 exam topics and objectives may change without notice, since technologies are always changing.

SONET 642-311 Exam Objectives:

Optical Fundamentals

  • Describe Light and Fiber Optic Basics (Characteristics of Light, Properties and Components of Optical Fiber, Reflection, Refraction, and Fiber Types)
  • Describe Passive Components of an Optical Network ( What is a Passive Component? and Attenuators)
  • Describe Active Components of an Optical Network (Optical Transmitters, Receivers, and Regenerator)
  • Explain the Factors that Impact Optical System Design (Optical Power, Optical Power Budget, splicing loss, margin tolerances, Optical Attenuation and Loss, Single Channel Power vs. Composite Power, Dispersion, Other NON-linearities, and Chirp, source modulation technique.)
  • Explain signal regeneration (What are the three Rs, What are the two Rs, Signal Regeneration in Real Networks)

Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) Principles

  • Explain Dispersion in DWDM Systems (Harmonics, Measuring Dispersion, Effects of Dispersion on Telecom Signals, Polarization Mode Dispersion, Calculating Dispersion Budget)
  • Describe Optical filters [Characteristics of Filters, Types of filters, Thin Film Filters, Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG)]
  • Explain the Characteristics and Structure of Multiplexers (Characteristics of Multiplexers, Structure of an ADD/Drop, Thin Film Multiplexer, Fiber Bragg Grating Multiplexer, Arrayed Wave Guide.)
  • Compare Types of Lasers and Receivers (Direct modulation, external modulation) for DWDM Transmission
  • Describe Optical Amplification Options (Design and understand the Functionality of EDFA, Optical Gain, Building Feedback into an Amplifier, Gain Competition, Raman Amplifiers.)
  • Explain OSNR (What is OSNR?, OSNR Calculation in one amplifier, OSNR Calculation in Multiple amplifiers, Limitations due to OSNR.)

Service Provisioning, Operation and Troubleshooting (216 DWDM)

  • Describe the components of the ONS 15216 system, supported configurations, and network applications
  • Describe the functions and characteristics of the DWDM system created by combining ONS 15454 OC-48 ELR cards and ONS 15216 DWDM filters
  • Describe the functions, characteristics, and applications of the ONS 15216 OADMs
  • Describe the functions, characteristics, and applications of the ONS 15216 EDFAs
  • Describe the functions and characteristics of the ONS 15216 DCU

SONET Principles

  • Given various SONET hierarchy levels, compute the bit rates, identify the main protection switching concepts for UPSR, BLSR, and Linear Configurations.
  • Compare and contrast UPSR and BLSR ring technology (capacity, application, node limiatations, design constraints, traffic flow and APS.)
  • Analyze optical characteristics related to SONET Overhead (Identify the SONET overhead bytes at the line, section, and path that directly relate to SONET OAM&P. (SES, APS, etc.)
  • Define SPE (Synchronous Payload Envelope) and describe it's size, Frame sizing (STS, OC-N), Interleaving vs. Concatenation vs. Scrambling (GR-253, section 5.1).
  • Describe the methods used to encapsulate DS-3's into STS's (and possibly DS-1's into VT1.5's to STS's)
  • Troubleshoot Optical Network Problems Related to SONET. Identify the procedure for performing loopback tests to the client and to the network. Given several major failure conditions and their associated alarm indicators, describe how they would affect users, AIS vs LOS alarms, pointer issues, errored seconds, BIP-8 CRC checking, APS Trouble types (see GR-253, section 6.2.1.1.6)
  • Implement Synchronization Timing in a SONET Network (Describe the synchronization timing modes, Describe Sync Status Messaging (SSM) and Sync. Distribution.
  • Explain the key differences and similarites of SONET and SDH (overhead information, multiplexing, payload mapping, protection schemes, synchronization, and performance monitoring.)
  • Describe the internetworking principles between SONET and SDH and the method of transporting SDH over Sonet (SS bits, DCC, line rate)

Service Provisioning, Operation and Troubleshooting (15454 SONET)

  • Describe the procedures for configuring a Cisco ONS 15454 in a Data Communications Network.
  • Describe the shelf layout, shelf hardware, and backplane interfaces
  • Set the timing parameters in the ONS 15454 from the CTC Timing subtab
  • Describe the following protection schemes and their application to the ONS 15454. (1+1 (one plus one) protection, 1:1 (one for one) protection, 1:N (one for "N") protection)
  • Identify the following, as applied to an ONS 15454. (Typical point-to-point optical fiber routing, 1+1 protection groups, Typical linear add/drop multiplexer (ADM) configuration optical fiber routing.)
  • Describe the procedures for creating circuits and their impact on the crossconnect matrices (VT and STS, linear vs. ring)
  • Describe the operation and application of unidirectional path-switched ring (UPSR) in the 15454. [Typical optical fiber routing, UPSR STS protection, Typical signal paths, Automatic protection switching, Major steps required to create a UPSR, UPSR dual ring interconnect (integrated and traditional)]
  • Identify a virtual tributary (VT) circuit and a VT tunnel, and how each applies to the ONS 15454
  • Describe the operation and application of BLSR rings in the ONS 15454 (Typical two-fiber BLSR optical fiber routing, BLSR STS protection, Typical signal paths, Automatic protection switching, Protection channel access, Major steps to create a two-fiber BLSR, Four-fiber BLSR span switching, Four-fiber BLSR ring switching, Two-fiber to four-fiber BLSR upgrade.)
  • Describe the Ethernet card types and their application in the ONS 15454
  • Identify the major steps needed to add or remove a node to an existing BLSR Ring
  • Describe PPMN (Path Protected Mesh Network) in the ONS 15454 and how it compares with UPSR and BLSR.
  • Describe the protocol and operation of the ONS 15454 DCC and interoperability requirements in a multi-vendor environment.
Cisco Optical Specialist Certification Exams
Cisco 642-311 SONET Certification Exam (Cisco Optical SONET Exam)
Cisco 642-321 SDN Certification Exam (Cisco Optical SDH Exam)
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