TM257 Cisco networking (CCNA) part 1
End-of-module assessment
This item contains selected online content. It is for use alongside, not as a replacement for the module website, which is the primary study format and contains activities and resources that cannot be replicated in the printed versions.
Copyright © 2021 The Open University
Contents
Overview
Submission deadlines
Please note that your EMA must be submitted by 23.59 (UK local time) on 26 May2022. However, please note that for Questions 1 and 2, there are separate deadlines that must be met before this final date. You must check each question for the submission and completion requirements. You must read ahead and plan these into your schedule, as they link to the replacement virtual day school. Questions 3 and 4 should be completed in line with the final submission date of this EMA – when you submit your EMA, you MUST submit evidence for all four questions.
The submission cut-off date for the EMA is absolute. Neither the module team nor your tutor is able to grant a request for an extension to the deadlines given above. If you are likely to be away near the cut-off date, then your only recourse is to submit your EMA early. If you do not submit by the stated deadline, then your work will not count for assessment purposes and, as a consequence, you will not be able to pass the module. Therefore, the module team advises that you consider adding this date and time to your calendars.
Should you find yourself unable to submit the EMA by the specified deadline, you may be able to defer or postpone your EMA submission. Please seek advice from your Student Support Team. Further details relating to non-submission are provided in the AssessmentHandbook. However, the module team strongly advises that you should not leave this until the last minute; the sooner you do this, the easier it will be for you.
Please make careful note of the following: for the purposes of Section 4.6 of the ‘Assessment Handbook’ (Resits and resubmissions), the two parts of the EMA constitute separate tasks and both must be attempted in order to be eligible for a resit/resubmission.
Introduction
The project that you will submit towards the end of TM257 takes the place of an examination and so is referred to as the ‘examinable component’ or the ‘end-of-module assessment’ (or ‘EMA’). You must submit your EMA work via the eTMA system.
Although you will be using the eTMA system, this is not a TMA; it is equivalent to an exam, hence your marks will not be returned to you via the eTMA system. Your EMA will be marked in the same way as an exam and you will be informed of your results as outlined in the AssessmentHandbook.
Aims
The aim of the EMA is for you to demonstrate what you have learned about Cisco Networking and present your practical experience and understanding of the broad domain of subjects covered. It is an academic exercise in that you are expected to justify your choices and, where appropriate, to contrast them with alternatives.
Learning outcomes
On achieving a pass grade for the EMA, you will have demonstrated that you have an awareness of:
- fundamental technological concepts, principles and techniques associated with computers and digital communication systems, as used in local (LAN) and wide area networks (WAN)
- how switches and routers are configured to provide network services
- IP (versions 4 and 6) addresses are used by routers and how this facilitates network design
- some of the social, safety, commercial and organisational issues that need to be considered when planning communication networks
- some technological and utilisation trends in information and communication technologies and of the implications of these trends in future network developments.
Plagiarism and collusion
The EMA should be regarded as the equivalent of an examination, and all the rules that you might expect of an examination environment apply. In particular, the work that you submit must be your own and not undertaken in collaboration with anyone else, whether they are an OU student or not.
Nor may you use, or reword, extracts taken from other websites, textbooks, manufacturers’ data sheets and the like without acknowledging them as quotations and citing the source of the quotation. Uncited extracts may be viewed as plagiarism even though that wasn’t the intent.
The University employs special tools to detect attempts at plagiarism and collusion in all EMA reports and submitted files and may require students to explain any inconsistencies in their work. The penalties for plagiarism, or collusion, range from loss of marks for part of the EMA to failure of the module. In extreme cases, you may be required to attend a disciplinary hearing.
So, please be careful when preparing your EMA. Make sure that you copy the URLs of useful documents so that you can reference them properly and earn marks by demonstrating that you know how to cite and reference third-party materials. By all means, share ideas with other students, but write your own report and create your own files.
If you require clarification on the rules, review Appendix 1 of the AssessmentHandbook, contact your tutor, or post a message to the TM257 forums.
General guidelines
Scope
The EMA is wide-ranging and has been designed so that all students should be able to make good progress towards the overall goals.
You will be examined on your project submission, and not on the sophistication of the solution that you have developed. Avoid the temptation to tweak your solution towards perfection, especially if this leaves you short of time to address all of the various questions posed. You will gain better marks if you attempt all parts of the EMA, even if some are incomplete, than if you complete a few parts well.
Commitment
Commitment can be considered in terms of time and attitude. The EMA is nominally equivalent to six weeks (60 hours) of self-directed study, including your work on the virtual day school. However, because of the stop-start nature of the work, it may be difficult to measure how much time you are devoting to the project. People also work at different paces, and some students need longer to get up to speed than others. Do not underestimate the time that you will need to complete all the activities; it will almost certainly take longer than you think it is going to!
The question of attitude is also extremely important. There are ups and downs in all project work, and you will inevitably discover some dead ends. These can be very demoralising unless you cope with them constructively. Try to keep an open mind so that if one approach is not working, you can try another. If you suspect that you are on the wrong track, make sure that you contact your tutor or post to the forums without delay.
Managing your EMA
Please be aware that the first two questions are part of the virtual day school. Please read these with care and follow the instructions provided.
For Questions 3 and 4, beware of spending excessive amounts of time at your computer. Ideally, you should plan ahead and structure your approach. For the question using Packet Tracer, make sure that you keep different copies and different versions so that you can roll back if you create issues.
Your support system
By the time you reach this project, you should be quite familiar with the concepts and techniques covered by the module. Your project is an opportunity to apply these concepts to a practical problem.
You will inevitably need to refer back to the materials in the earlier blocks of TM257 in order to remind yourself of the details. Your EMA is largely in your own hands. The University’s obligation is twofold:
- to give you the best possible support
- to see that your work is properly assessed.
Your tutor and the various support forums will be your immediate point of contact for all TM257 EMA-related problems.
The Open University encourages students to set up informal meetings among themselves to discuss their studies. The forums are an ideal place to do this, and you should take the opportunity to talk to other students who are doing the TM257 EMA. You should bear in mind, however, that in TM257, the EMA replaces a conventional examination. It is up to you to ensure that any help that you give to fellow students, or receive from them, is of an entirely general nature.
Use of references
Should you decide to cite other works (not only external sources, but also module texts and diagrams) from which you have quoted results, taken tables or reproduced figures, you must clearly indicate this in your report.
Diagrams should include a citation in the caption. Text should be enclosed within single or double quotation marks and given a citation. All citations should be expanded upon in a table of references at the end of the report.
The purpose of the table of references is to make those works easily identifiable if the reader wishes to look anything up. You must acknowledge all your sources of information, whether publications or people. You will be penalised if you try to claim as your own work something that is not.
Failure to refer to and cite any external material you use to produce your report will result in a penalty being applied. Citing only Cisco content and Cisco sources along with Wikipedia as a primary source will limit the marks you will receive. For further details on referencing, go to OUCiteThemRightreferencing.
Question 1 (20 marks)
You will have one attempt at the CCNA2 – Switching, Wireless and Routing Essentials final exam. This will be available from 19/03/22 to 24/04/22 (at 23:59). During this assessment, youmust:
- Ensure that you have completed the coursefeedback in advance – otherwise, you will not be able to access the assessment.
- Avoid dipping in and then exiting; this will lock the assessment and cause you considerable inconvenience as your tutor attempts to unlock it.
- Avoid leaving it until 24 April!
- Ensure that you have attempted the final and not the practice final.
- Be aware that we will set this assessment for 90 minutes duration! However, you may select the time you wish to attempt it, within the extended window.
- Contact your tutor if you encounter any unanticipated issues.
The mark for this question is a conversion of the Cisco CCNA2 Routing and Switching Essentials final grade (FinalExamGrade) for this module. To confirm this grade, please include your full CCNA2 ‘class name’ from NetAcad so that the EMA marker can access the correct gradebook.
You must enter your score into this assignment using the following formula (you may round up to the nearest whole number if you get a decimal result):
- finalScore = (0.2 * FinalExamGrade) For example:
- FinalExamGrade is 77
- FinalScore is (0.2 * 77) = 15.4
- Therefore, rounded up, the final mark is 16.
Question 2 (30 marks)
During the virtual day school, you will build a complex network infrastructure using Packet Tracer. Linked to this resource is a base network, created by the module team for all students to work from.
The virtual day school is a separate activity – you must read more where you must:
- Complete the activity by 29 April at 23:59 – you must submit this to your tutor, who will have up to 14 days to mark this. You can submit this earlier, at any time before this date. You must send to your tutor the mark sheet and the Packet Tracer file.
- Include the completed Packet Tracer file in your final EMA submission – the filename must be in the form of <your personal identifier>-TM257-21J-Q2.pkt (e.g X1234567- TM257-21J-Q2).
- Please include a copy of your returned and marked mark sheet – from your tutor in the EMA, as well as your original Packet Tracer submission … you can either copy/ paste or include as part of a zipped folder submission. If you do not do this, you will not attract these marks for the EMA.
Your tutor cannot help you with this activity; it is not guided and must be completed independently. Please ensure that you use the latest version of Packet Tracer and make a note of the version used. Also, ensure that you retain saved versions for your benefit.
Question 3 (25 marks)
This links to your experiences from the virtual day school and Question 2.
You were asked to implement dot1q trunking during the virtual day school. Explain how this works and how this compares to the alternate Cisco Inter-Switch Link (ISL). You will be required to do additional research for this question beyond some of the Cisco content and you must cite any sources using ‘Cite Them Right’ referencing. The maximum word count for this question is 500 words, excluding any diagrams. You will be penalised if you exceed the word count by 10% or more.
Question 4 (25 marks)
You are working on a free-form Packet Tracer activity. As seen in Figure 1, you have been given the ‘Somerset Levels’ network.
The purpose of this TMA question is to fix the network.
Figure 1 The Somerset Levels Network
Please consider the following requirements for the Somerset Levels network:
- It should have static routes running on all segments.
- The mask for the VLAN 10 and VLAN 20 segments is 255.255.255.224, where every other subnet mask should be 255.255.255.0.
- All devices in all local networks should be able to ping and browse everywhere.
*The Glastonbury Tor webserver does not require configuration; do not add or remove anything on this device. Its role is to act as a destination for interesting traffic when you are testing and troubleshooting this system.
There are four issues with the current network that you are required to resolve. Do not add/remove any of the routers, switches, workstations or cables. To complete this activity, you must:
- Briefly, in no more than 150 words, explain how you approached the challenge.
(5 marks)
- Identify each issue, giving succinct evidence of how you discovered the issue and the resolution. (4markspererror,max16marks)
- Present evidence that you can browse to the website hosted on the Glastonbury Tor server from all PCs. (1mark)
- A text-based (not image) copy of the routing table on Street. (1mark)
- A text-based (not image) copy of the ‘show ip interfaces brief’ command output on Wells. (1mark)
- Evidence that you can ping from PC0 to PC1. (1mark)
A copy of the ‘broken network’ is available via this PacketTracerfile.
Finally!
You must submit, with your EMA document, all Packet Tracer files – each should be saved with your OUPIin the file name (you may have to edit the file name to meet any file naming limitations set by the EMA submission system). These activities were created using v7.3.1.
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