Effective February 1, 2007, the SP Optical Exam no longer qualifies a candidate for the CCIE SP lab exam, but can be used for recertification only. The SP Optical written exam has 100 multiple-choice questions and is two hours in duration. Half of the questions cover general knowledge on IP networking and the other half covers the specific technology
area, which appears below. The topic areas listed are general guidelines for the type of content
that is likely to appear on the exam. Please note, however, that other relevant or related topic
areas may also appear.
Design: areas, virtual links, stub, not so stubby areas (NSSA), area border router (ABR) / autonomous system boundary router (ASBR) redistributions, media dependencies, external vs. internal, summarization
ATM: Switched Virtual Connection (SVC) / Permanent Virtual Connection
(PVC), ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL), Service Specific Connection Oriented Protocol (SSCOP),
User-Network Interface (UNI) / Network-Network Interface (NNI), Interim Local Management
Interface (ILMI), Cell format, Quality of Service (QoS), RFC 1483 & 1577, Private Network-Network
Interface (PNNI), Interim-Interswitch Signaling Protocol (IISP), mapping
Optical Fundamental Principles
Technology
Attenuation
Loss
Dispersion
Non-linear effects
Four wave mixing
PMD
Phase modulation
Return loss
SONET
Technology
Products
ONS 15454 SONET
ONS 15327 SONET
Design Case
Troubleshooting
SDH
Technology
Products
ONS 15454 SDH
ONS 15302 SDH
ONS 15305 SDH
Design Case
Troubleshooting
WDM - DWDM/CWDM
Technology
Transponder
EDFA
Optical amplifier
Multiplexer
Demultiplexer
Optical
Spectrum analysis
Wavelength conversion
ITU channels
Gain tilt/flatteness
Optical signal to noise (OSNR)
Products
ONS 15216
ONS 15454 MSTP
ONS 15501 EDFA
ONS 15800/801
Design Case
Troubleshooting
DPT/RPR/PoS/Metro Ethernet
Technology
Products
ONS 15190
ONS 15104
G Series Cards for ONS 15454
Design Case
Troubleshooting
NMS
Technology
Products
CTM
CTC
Metro Planner
SAN
Technology
Products
ONS 15530
ONS 15540
Preparation Materials
The materials listed below can be helpful in preparing for exams. The list is only suggested,
however, and other books or resources may also cover the same topics.