Network+

Exam objectives

1. 1.0Networking Concepts23% of the exam

   • 1.1Explain concepts related to the OSI reference model
   • 1.2Compare and contrast networking appliances, applications and functions
     • Physical and virtual appliances: router, switch, firewall, IDS/IPS, load balancer, proxy, NAS, SAN, wireless AP and controller
     • Applications: content delivery network (CDN)
     • Functions: VPN, quality of service (QoS), time to live (TTL)
   • 1.3Summarize cloud concepts and connectivity options
     • NFV, VPC, network security groups and lists, cloud gateways (internet, NAT)
     • Cloud connectivity: VPN and direct connect
     • Deployment models (public, private, hybrid) and service models (SaaS, IaaS, PaaS)
     • Scalability, elasticity and multitenancy
   • 1.4Explain common networking ports, protocols, services and traffic types
     • Common protocols and their ports (FTP to SIP)
     • IP protocol types: ICMP, TCP, UDP, GRE, IPsec (AH, ESP, IKE)
     • Traffic types: unicast, multicast, anycast, broadcast
   • 1.5Compare and contrast transmission media and transceivers
     • Wireless media: 802.11, cellular, satellite
     • Wired media: 802.3, single-mode vs multimode fiber, DAC, twisted pair categories, coaxial, plenum
     • Transceivers (Ethernet, Fibre Channel; SFP, QSFP) and connectors (SC, LC, ST, MPO, RJ11, RJ45, F-type, BNC)
   • 1.6Compare and contrast network topologies, architectures and types
     • Mesh, hybrid, star/hub-and-spoke, point to point
     • Spine and leaf, three-tier hierarchical, collapsed core
     • Traffic flows: north-south and east-west
   • 1.7Given a scenario, use appropriate IPv4 network addressing
     • Public vs private addresses (RFC 1918, APIPA) and loopback
     • Subnetting with VLSM and CIDR
     • IPv4 address classes A–E
   • 1.8Summarize evolving use cases for modern network environments
     • SDN and SD-WAN
     • VXLAN and data-center interconnect
     • Zero trust architecture and SASE/SSE
     • Infrastructure as code and source control
     • IPv6: address exhaustion, dual stack, tunneling, NAT64
2. 2.0Network Implementation20% of the exam

   • 2.1Explain characteristics of routing technologies
     • Static and dynamic routing (BGP, EIGRP, OSPF)
     • Route selection: administrative distance, prefix length, metric
     • Address translation (NAT, PAT), FHRP, virtual IP, subinterfaces
   • 2.2Given a scenario, configure switching technologies and features
     • VLANs, VLAN database and SVIs
     • Interface configuration: native and voice VLAN, 802.1Q tagging, link aggregation, speed, duplex
     • Spanning tree, MTU and jumbo frames
   • 2.3Given a scenario, select and configure wireless devices and technologies
     • Channels, channel width, non-overlapping channels and regulatory rules (802.11h)
     • Frequency bands (2.4, 5, 6 GHz), band steering, SSID/BSSID/ESSID
     • Network types: mesh, ad hoc, point to point, infrastructure
     • Encryption (WPA2, WPA3), guest networks and captive portals, PSK vs enterprise
     • Antennas and autonomous vs lightweight access points
   • 2.4Explain important factors of physical installations
     • Locations (MDF, IDF), racks, port-side exhaust/intake, patch and fiber panels, lockable cabinets
     • Power: UPS, PDU, power load and voltage
     • Environment: temperature, humidity, fire suppression
3. 3.0Network Operations19% of the exam

   • 3.1Explain the purpose of organizational processes and procedures
     • Documentation: physical and logical diagrams, rack and cable maps, asset inventory, IPAM, SLA, wireless heat maps
     • Life-cycle management: EOL, EOS, patches, firmware, decommissioning
     • Change and configuration management: production, backup and golden configurations
   • 3.2Given a scenario, use network monitoring technologies
     • SNMP: traps, MIB, v2c and v3, community strings
     • Flow data, packet capture, port mirroring, baselines and anomaly alerts
     • Log aggregation (syslog, SIEM) and API integration
     • Solutions: discovery, traffic, performance, availability and configuration monitoring
   • 3.3Explain disaster recovery (DR) concepts
     • DR metrics: RPO, RTO, MTTR, MTBF
     • DR sites (cold, warm, hot) and active-active vs active-passive
     • Testing: tabletop exercises and validation tests
   • 3.4Given a scenario, implement IPv4 and IPv6 network services
     • DHCP: scope, lease, reservations, options, exclusions, relay; SLAAC
     • DNS: record types, zones, authoritative and recursive servers, DNSSEC, DoH, DoT, hosts file
     • Time: NTP, PTP, NTS
   • 3.5Compare and contrast network access and management methods
     • Site-to-site and client-to-site VPN, split vs full tunnel, clientless
     • Connection methods: SSH, GUI, API, console; jump box
     • In-band vs out-of-band management
4. 4.0Network Security14% of the exam

   • 4.1Explain the importance of basic network security concepts
     • Encryption (in transit, at rest), certificates and PKI
     • Identity and access: MFA, SSO, RADIUS, LDAP, SAML, TACACS+, least privilege, RBAC, geofencing
     • Physical security and deception (honeypot, honeynet)
     • Security terms (risk, vulnerability, exploit, threat, CIA), compliance (PCI DSS, GDPR, data locality)
     • Segmentation for IoT/IIoT, SCADA/ICS/OT, guest and BYOD
   • 4.2Summarize various types of attacks and their impact to the network
     • DoS/DDoS, VLAN hopping, MAC flooding
     • ARP and DNS poisoning/spoofing, on-path attacks
     • Rogue devices (DHCP, AP), evil twin
     • Social engineering and malware
   • 4.3Given a scenario, apply network security features, defense techniques and solutions
     • Device hardening: unused ports and services, default passwords
     • Network access control: port security, 802.1X, MAC filtering
     • Key management, ACLs, URL and content filtering
     • Zones: trusted, untrusted, screened subnet
5. 5.0Network Troubleshooting24% of the exam

   • 5.1Explain the troubleshooting methodology
   • 5.2Given a scenario, troubleshoot common cabling and physical interface issues
     • Cable issues: wrong cable type, crosstalk, interference, attenuation, termination, TX/RX transposed
     • Interface issues: CRC errors, runts, giants, drops, err-disabled, admin down, suspended
     • Hardware issues: PoE budget and standards, transceiver mismatch and signal strength
   • 5.3Given a scenario, troubleshoot common issues with network services
     • Switching issues: STP loops and roles, wrong VLAN, ACLs
     • Routing issues: routing table and default routes
     • Addressing issues: pool exhaustion, wrong gateway, duplicate IP, wrong mask
   • 5.4Given a scenario, troubleshoot common performance issues
     • Congestion, bottlenecks, bandwidth and throughput
     • Latency, packet loss and jitter
     • Wireless: interference, channel overlap, coverage, disassociation, roaming
   • 5.5Given a scenario, use the appropriate tool or protocol to solve networking issues
     • Command-line tools: ping, traceroute, nslookup, dig, tcpdump, netstat, ipconfig/ip, arp
     • Other software: protocol analyzer, Nmap, LLDP/CDP, speed test
     • Hardware tools: toner, cable tester, tap, Wi-Fi analyzer, visual fault locator
     • Device commands: show mac-address-table, route, interface, config, arp, vlan, power