Skip to Content | Skip to Footer

Cisco Systems, Inc. ®

Best Practices Technical White Papers

Improve Your Network's Performance
White papers and videos in the following categories can help you improve your network's performance.

Network Operations Management
Network Routing Protocols
Network Redundancy

  • Near Field Communication (NFC)
    NFC is a new technology developed for pairing two devices over a very short distance.
  • Indoor Location-Based Services (LBS)
    Indoor LBS is currently in an emerging phase with promising perspectives. Numerous indoor LBS-based applications could create intelligent environments.
  • Location-Based Services (LBS)
    Location-based services (LBS) have been developed that benefit from the network resources, determining the user's closest facilities, places of interest, traffic directions, etc. It's even possible to use LBS for parental control of children, assistance for the handicapped, online gaming or social networking.
  • DPI Design for High Availability in Small Sites
    As Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) has become more entrenched in multiple areas of the network, it has also become a strategic investment for almost all Tier-1 and Tier-2 service providers (SPs). This article focuses primarily on the application of DPI in the mobile space, as the need to enforce policies there has the greatest impact, but the various design aspects discussed here may be applied in other environments as well.
  • Voice Implementations in 4G Networks
    Deploying voice services in the 4G network means first deciding which path to take, and it is generally not the same path for every operator. This decision depends on the level of investment in the infrastructure, the projected return on investment (ROI), and the complexity of the network design.
  • Mobile Service Delivery Platform
    This white paper discusses how the explosive growth of wireless data access in 3G networks has led to demands for change in mobile network architecture.
  • Voice Over Long Term Evolution (LTE) (765 KB)
    3GPP-standardized Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology was introduced with the intention of being used as a capacity-improved data access technology only.
  • Service-Oriented Telephony Architectures (510 KB)
    This white paper discusses architectural designs as well as the interfaces and standards behind the solutions.
  • Video Quality in Service Provider IPTV Deployments (868KB)
    This white paper describes the issues with service provider Internet Protocol television (IPTV) deployments and how Cisco combats these issues with a state-of-the-art solution: Visual Quality Experience (VQE).
  • Cisco TelePresence Collaboration (357KB)
    Learn about how Cisco TelePresence's interoperability features deliver any-to-any capabilities so that organizations with standards-based videoconferencing technologies can participate in Cisco TelePresence meetings.
  • First Mile Wireless: What Generation? (275KB)
    This white paper was prepared by NIL Data Communications Ltd.
  • Data center interconnect L2 vs. L3 decision (330KB)
    This white paper outlines various ways in which access technologies can be used for data center interconnection.
  • Going Virtual with Collaboration and Virtualization (784KB)
    New White paper: GOING VIRTUAL -WITH COLLABORATION AND VIRTUALIZATION
  • *New* Cisco TelePresence: A Practical Deployment Guide (594KB)
    A practical guide to Cisco TelePresence deployments including advice on necessary steps and procedures.
  • Data Center Interconnect (349KB)
    This white paper describes options for connecting two geographically dispersed data centers that are running the same services.
  • Evolving Towards the "Green" Data Center (792KB)
    Decrease the carbon footprint of your data center and lower its powering and cooling costs.
  • Group Encrypted Transport VPN (GET VPN) (382KB)
    GET VPN enables any-to-any connectivity like TED, but doesn’t result in packet drops and IKE setup delay. Learn the advantages and challenges of using GET VPN.
  • Add a VPN To An Enterprise Network With Multi VRF Functionality (512KB)
    Learn to use Multi-VRF functionality to implement tightly controlled VPNs across a traditional enterprise IP network without changing the network core or introducing MPLS VPN functionality.
  • Dynamic Multipoint VPNs (DMVPNs) (2.9MB)
    Learn the advantages and challenges of using DMVPN,a combination of IPsec, multipoint GRE tunnels and Next-Hop Resolution Protocol (NHRP)technologies.
  • Flexible Extranet Implementation (797KB)
    Use MPLS VPN technology to create flexible extranets that are easily integrated with the networks of external partners.
  • Secure Time Management (354KB)
    Learn how to execute an NTP attack on an unprotected network and the safeguards to prevent similar attacks.
  • Keep Track Of Router Configurations With Configuration Archive (285KB)
    Learn how to find a backup of a working configuration, revert to a previous configuration, and more.
  • Replacing a Configuration on a Working Router (296KB)
    Find out how Cisco has enabled you to more easily roll back a configuration to its previous known state with the Configuration Replace and Rollback in IOS release 12.3(7)T and release 12.4.
  • Perfect Load-Balancing: How Close Can You Get? (526KB)
    See how you can deploy MPLS Traffic Engineering (MPLS-TE) in your enterprise network to achieve optimal load-balancing.
  • Enhance The IOS User Interface (299KB)
    See how you can use simple filters provided by Cisco IOS to pick only the information you need from printouts, and how togenerate tailored printouts (with Tcl shell.
  • Cisco Router – The Swiss Army Knife of Network Services (370KB)
    Discusses how to use the router as a proxy DNS server to reduce the load on a corporate DNS server, fix addressing problems, or to trace DNS requests.
  • Router Configuration Management – Too Good to Be True? (297KB)
    Learn about the benefits of Cisco IOS relese 12.4, its features and current limitations.
  • Bring Your Network Closer To 5 Nines With Graceful Shutdown (660KB)
    Use the stub router advertisement functionality built into the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routing protocol to implement graceful shutdown and reduce network downtime.
  • The Never Ending Story of IP Fragmentation (528KB)
    Find the reasons behind IP fragmentation, a description of how Path MTU discovery works and the various mechanisms you can use to alleviate problems.
  • Designing Fast Converging BGP Networks (471KB)
    Optimize BGP convergence with BGP selective address tracking without overloading the routers.
  • It’s Good To Be On Time (417KB)
    Describes the importance of time synchronization for networking devices, the basics of Network Time Protocol, and how to use it on Cisco routers and IOS based switches
  • Scaling EIGRP Networks With Stub Routers (435KB)
    Explore the typical problems that the EIGRP stub routers help to solve, see how they improve network stability, and implement a fully redundant remote location.
  • Scaling EIGRP Networks With Stub Routers Video (2.5MB)
    Video presentation: Explores the typical problems that the EIGRP stub routers help to solve, how they improve network stability, and implement a fully redundant remote location.
  • IP Core Network Intelligence: Essential Components and Drivers (234KB)
    Uncover the essential components and drivers of IP core network intelligence.
  • Network Security Policies: Best Practices (16KB)
    Learn how to develop and implement a network security policy, including preparation, prevention, and response.
  • Capacity and Performance Management (56KB)
    Reviews general capacity and performance issues, best practices, and how to develop a capacity planning strategy.
  • Change Management (45KB)
    This paper provides a template for change management that promotes high-availability networks.
  • Network Time Protocol (106KB)
    This paper describes a hypothetical process definition for conducting network management functions for the Network Time Protocol (NTP).
  • Performance Management (36KB)
    Learn about success factors, performance indicators, and get a process map for performance management. Also discusses availability, response time, accuracy, utilization, and capacity planning.
  • Service Level Management (86KB)
    This paper describes service-level management and service-level agreements (SLAs) for high-availability networks.

 

  • Designing Site-to-Site IPsec VPNs (521KB)
    An introduction to Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE); learn about the main advantages and challenges using GRE tunneling over IPsec.
  • Changing the Routing Protocol in Your Network (369KB)
    Selecting the right IP routing protocol is one of the most important decisions in the network design phase. This article provides practical suggestions on how to do that in a moderately complex network.
  • Load Balancing in BGP Networks (1MB)
    Demonstrates how to load balance between a pair of edge routers, and across parallel links in adjacent autonomous systems, and between EBGP and IBGP routes.
  • Increasing the Stability of Your Network (498KB)
    See how you can use the Cisco IP Event Dampening to increase the stability of your network, and cope with scenarios that are beyond the scope of this feature.
  • Scaling EIGRP Networks With Stub Routers Video (2.5MB)
    Video presentation: Explores the typical problems that the EIGRP stub routers help to solve, how they improve network stability, and implement a fully redundant remote location.
  • When OSPF Becomes a Distance Vector Protocol (546KB)
    Contrary to common wisdom, OSPF is not a pure link-state protocol. In this article you will learn how to prevent persistent routing instabilities when using the OSPF protocol.

 

  • Servers in Small Site Multi-Homing (409KB)
    If you want to deploy local mail server within your LAN or have a special application that cannot be hosted anywhere else, learn about the challenges you’ll face and get several design and deployment guidelines.
  • Scalable Policy Routing (411KB)
    Does policy routing give you nightmares? Learn about the most flexible solution and how to build a network with BGP with satisfying results.
  • Redundant Small Site Multi-Homing (891KB)
    Demonstrates how to implement a fully redundant Internet connectivity without having an allocated public IP address space or autonomous system number.
  • Small Site Multihoming (639KB)
    Learn how to connect a small remote site to more than one ISP without having to run BGP with all of your ISPs, and how to increase availability with service-level agreement monitoring.
  • Small Site Multihoming - VOD (2.5MB)
    Learn how to connect a small remote site to more than one ISP without having to run BGP with all of your ISPs and how to increase availability with service-level agreement monitoring.

 
| Terms & Conditions | Privacy Statement | Cookie Policy | Trademarks