Anatomy of the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is essentially a network of physical objects connected via the Internet, a buzzword for a new technology landscape that is reshaping the way we live and work. But is its potential understood and are we prepared for a new wave of industrial revolution?

The “things” are physical entities whose state or identity is capable of being relayed to a connected infrastructure. Almost anything to which a sensor can be attached – a plant, a cow in a field, the refrigerator in your home, a lamppost in the street or shipping container – can become a node or an endpoint in the IoT.





Sensors are components of “things’ that both collate and disseminate critical data on such things as temperature, altitude, velocity, illumination, motion, power, humidity, blood sugar, air quality, soil moisture or location… you name it. Mankind and technology are revolutionizing products and services, that were once analog and mechanical to complex systems that combine hardware, sensors, data storage, microprocessors, software and connectivity in multitude of ways.

These so-called smart or connected products have been made possible thanks to vast improvements and declining costs in data-processing power and device miniaturization, along with very sophisticated layered security. The products use sensors that can communicate either directly with the internet or with internet-connected devices, and by tapping ubiquitous wireless connectivity. Further, the software needed to analyze this data has improved dramatically, opening to the door to a new hyper-connected era of competition and growth.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

- Albert Einstein - 1879-1955, Theoretical Physicist

Random Cisco based networking questions - CCNA - Part 7

Here is another set of network based questions and answers to get the grey matter ticking.. have fun :-)




1. STP will work on which of the following devices?

A) Hub
B) Router
C) Switch
D) Repeater

2. What command would you use copy the current configuration to a TFTP host?

A) copy flash tftp
B) copy run tftp
C) copy tftp flash
D) copy nvram tftp

3. You are designing a subnet mask for the 172.22.0.0 network. You want 11 subnets with up to 3300 hosts on each subnet. What subnet mask should you use?

4. What would you do if you're locked out of a router because you forgot the password?

A) Call Cisco support
B) Issue the show run command to view the password
C) Perform the password recovery procedure
D) Press the reset button on the back of the router
5. What does Serial 0 is up, line protocol is down indicate?

A) Keepalive or framing issue
B) Carrier detect is not present
C) The interface is shutdown
D) The interface is functioning correctly

6. With full-duplex Ethernet no collisions can occur.

A) True
B) False

7. How would you disable CDP on a Cisco router or switch?

A) disable cdp
B) shutdown cdp
C) no cdp enable
D) no cdp run
E) You cannot disable CDP

8. What type of ACL is this and what is it performing?

Router(config)#access-list 150 deny tcp any host 172.32.14.2 eq 25

A) Standard ACL, deny all SMTP traffic to host 172.32.14.2
B) Standard ACL, deny all Telnet traffic to host 172.32.14.2
C) Extended ACL, deny all SMTP traffic to host 172.32.14.2
D) Extended ACL, deny all Telnet traffic to host 172.32.14.2
E) Named ACL, deny all SMTP traffic to host 172.32.14.2
9. What does the trace response N mean?

A) Network unreachable
B) Not forwarded due to ACL restriction
C) Protocol unreachable
D) Port could not be reached

10. What is the maximum size of an Ethernet packet when the frames have ISL tagging?(Include the size of headers and CRC)

A: 64 bytes
B: 1500 bytes
C: 1518 bytes
D: 1522 bytes
E: 1548 bytes













1. Correct Answer C 

The Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is a Data Link layer protocol that ensures a loop-free topology for a bridged LAN. 

Therefore STP will only operate on layer 2 devices such as bridges and switches.

2. Correct Answer B

The current configuration is known as the running-configuration (or 'run' for short). The copy command is in the format "copy " therefore copy from run to the tftp host (i.e. copy run tftp).

3. Correct Answer 255.255.240.0

4. Correct Answer C

To reset the password on a router interrupt the boot sequence, change the configuration register, reboot, copy startup-config to running-config and change the password.  Then reset the configuration register.

5. Correct Answer A

The various states of an interface:

Serial0 is up, line protocol is up - The interface is functioning correctly.

Serial0 is down, line protocol is down - This message usually represents a physical interface problem. The cable may be disconnected. This can also occur if this interface is connected to another router whose interface has been shutdown.

Serial0 is up, line protocol is down - The Physical layer connectivity is not the issue. The line protocol being down is either a clocking issue (keepalives) or a mismatch of the frame types being used on connected devices.

Serial0 is administratively down, line protocol is down - The interface has been manually shutdown using the shutdown command.

6. Correct Answer A

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full-duplex_Ethernet

7. Correct Answer D

To turn off CDP use the no cdp run command from the global configuration mode.

8. Correct Answer C

Router(config)#access-list 150 deny tcp any host 172.32.14.2 eq 25

Port 25 is SMTP. This extended ACL denies traffic from any source to host 172.32.14.2.

9. Correct Answer A

Cisco Trace Command Response Codes

Response Meaning
 * Timed out
 !H router received packet but did not forward it
 N network unreachable
 P protocol unreachable
 U port unreachable

10. Correct Answer: E

Cisco's proprietary VLAN tagging (ISL) has a maximum frame size of 1548 bytes.
IEEE 802.1q VLAN tagging has a maximum frame size of 1522 bytes.

Stay tuned more to come - have a great day.

I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. 

So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening.
Larry King