An essential guide to understanding the Cisco IOS architecture

In-depth coverage of Cisco's IOS Software architecture provides crucial information to:

• Prevent network problems and optimize performance through more efficient design and configuration

• Isolate and resolve network problems more quickly and easily

• Apply the appropriate packet switching method, such as process switching, fast switching, optimum switching, or Cisco Express Forwarding (CEF)

• Understand the hardware architecture, packet buffering, and packet switching processes for shared memory routers (Cisco 1600, 2500, 3600, 4000, 4500, and 4700 series)

• Understand the hardware architecture, packet buffering, and packet switching processes for the Cisco 7200 series routers

• Understand the hardware architecture, packet buffering, and packet switching processes for the Cisco 7500 series routers

• Understand the hardware architecture, packet buffering, and packet switching processes for the Cisco GSR 12000 series routers

• Further your knowledge of how IOS Software implements Quality of Service (QoS)

Inside Cisco IOS Software Architecture offers crucial and hard-to-find information on Cisco's Internetwork Operating System (IOS) Software. IOS Software provides the means by which networking professionals configure and manage Cisco networking devices. Beyond understanding the Cisco IOS command set, comprehending what happens inside Cisco routers will help you as a network designer or engineer to perform your job more effectively. By understanding the internal operations of IOS Software, you will be able to take architectural considerations into account when designing networks and isolate problems more easily when troubleshooting networks. Inside Cisco IOS Software Architecture provides essential information on the internal aspects of IOS Software at this level, and it is an invaluable resource for better understanding the intricacies of IOS Software and how it affects your network.

Inide Cisco IOS Software Architecture begins with an overview of operating system concepts and the IOS Software infrastructure, including processes, memory management, CPU scheduling, packet buffers, and device drivers, as well as a discussion of packet switching architecture with detailed coverage of the various platform-independent switching methods, including process switching, fast switching, optimum switching, and Cisco Express Forwarding (CEF). The book then delves into the intricate details of the design and operation of platform-specific features, including the 1600, 2500, 4x00, 3600, 7200, 7500, and GSR Cisco routers. Finally, an overview of IOS Quality of Service (QoS) is provided, including descriptions of several QoS methods, such as priority queuing, custom queuing, weighted fair queuing, and modified deficit round robin.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 11 Ratings

The Book on Cisco Buffers - 2001-06-06
Reviewer Rating:
This book centers around buffer allocations and buffering problems. It will give you a better understanding of when different buffers are used. I think the title should have been "Cisco IOS Buffering, What you need to know".

You definitely have to read between the lines to fill in what all is happening to the data as it flows through the router in different ways. I feel that it is rather limited in it's descriptions of the IOS SW Architecture so don't expect to come away with the full details on how IOS does its job.

This is not a book for beginners.

A little stale - 2008-01-09
Reviewer Rating:
The book contains lots of useful information about how IOS works, however
the material is dated and does not cover routing platforms after the
2000-2001 timeframe.

Very Good Information - You need this. - 2003-07-01
Reviewer Rating:
I was looking for this information to supplement the information provided in the support exam documentation and the performance field guide from MG Hill, and online docs. This book has great information but does need to have a different name as I thought this would be more geared toward how the IOS was actually programmed and give a better understanding of IOS versions.

If you troubleshoot networks this is part of the magic bullet needed to help in understanding memory and memory pool allocation, IOS Resource Management, processes, CPU, buffers, and cache. The book spends quite a bit of time on large scale routers and needs to give a bit more focus on smaller scale equipement, also the information on Netflow is only 5 pages long

What there is is pretty good. - 2002-01-10
Reviewer Rating:
There is a lot of good information in this book that I've never seen anywhere else, so I'm going to give it 4 stars...though, it should be called something like "How some Cisco routers switch packets and use buffers". It is far from a thorough treatment of IOS internals- but what is there is well written and valuable. I especially enjoyed the discussions about the algorithms and data structures used by the various fast switching methods.

Deepens your understanding - 2001-04-08
Reviewer Rating:
I bought this book and read it cover to cover in about two weeks (which for me is pretty good). It's definitely not for beginners, in fact it really benefits people who are running BFRs like 7200 and bigger. Good detail about 7500 and 12000 architectures.

It also gave me a lot of little bits of knowledge that made sense but I hadn't thought about before. Example - if you have a 7206 stacked with fast ethernet cards but your only using half of them, IOS is allocating buffer space to every interface anyway, so pull those cards.

Other topics are queuing methods like weighted RED and a very coherent discussion of process/fast/CEF/distributed switching.

Pricey book but I thought it was worth it.

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