300-420 Exam Dumps : Designing Cisco Enterprise Networks

The requirement for end-to-end path verification identifies the Integrated Services model with RSVP. IntServ uses per-flow resource reservation, and RSVP signals the path between sender and receiver so devices along that path can admit or reject the requested service based on available resources. This makes IntServ appropriate when the design requires explicit end-to-end path validation and reservation for application flows. DiffServ works differently. In a DiffServ design, traffic is marked, normally with DSCP or CoS at the edge, and each hop applies a configured per-hop behavior. DiffServ is scalable and common in enterprise WAN and campus QoS designs, but it does not perform per-flow signaling or verify that every device in the path can reserve the requested resources. Marking traffic at the access layer is an important QoS design practice, but marking alone is not path verification. Therefore, when the customer explicitly requires end-to-end path verification for business-critical traffic, Cisco QoS architecture points to IntServ with RSVP rather than a pure DiffServ marking model.

DMVPN Phase 3 hub-and-spoke is the best design for this requirement. The customer wants secure dynamic site-to-site VPN connectivity for voice, video, and FTP, and also wants branches to communicate directly instead of hairpinning all traffic through headquarters. DMVPN supports dynamic spoke-to-spoke tunnels using multipoint GRE, NHRP, and IPsec protection. Phase 3 is more scalable than Phase 2 because the hub can send NHRP redirect messages and spokes can install shortcut routes, reducing the need for every spoke to maintain detailed next-hop information for every other spoke. That is important because the branch routers have limited memory. Phase 1 is hub-and-spoke only and does not provide dynamic spoke-to-spoke forwarding. A hierarchical Phase 3 design can be useful at very large scale, but the question describes a headquarters and remote branch design rather than multiple tiers of hubs. Phase 3 hub-and-spoke satisfies direct branch communication, security, and scale. Reference topics: DMVPN Phase 3, NHRP redirect, spoke-to-spoke tunnels, IPsec encryption, branch WAN scalability.

Nonstop Routing is the correct solution when the upstream router does not understand graceful restart messaging. Cisco NSF and graceful restart depend on helper behavior from neighboring routers. During a supervisor switchover, the restarting device asks neighbors to preserve forwarding and adjacency state while the control plane recovers. If the neighbor does not support or understand the graceful restart signaling, NSF cannot deliver the intended benefit and route recomputation may still occur. NSR is different because it synchronizes routing protocol state between the active and standby supervisor internally, allowing the switch to preserve routing operation during stateful switchover without requiring graceful restart support from the neighbor. Remote LFA FRR protects against data-plane failures by precomputing repair paths, but it does not address supervisor switchover route recomputation. Aggressive IS-IS timers may make failure detection faster, but they increase control-plane churn and do not solve the lack of graceful-restart helper support. Therefore, the Catalyst switch should use NSR for this design. Reference topics: IS-IS high availability, NSR, NSF, graceful restart helper support, stateful switchover.