Arista ACE Specialist - WAN Routing study guide
Arista ACE Specialist - WAN Routing · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Arista ACE Specialist - WAN Routing credential is an independent study resource for network engineers who design, deploy, and operate wide-area and software-defined WAN environments built on Arista platforms. It is aimed at engineers with hands-on routing experience who want to validate depth in WAN architecture rather than general data center switching: enterprise WAN planners, service provider edge engineers, and SD-WAN operations staff preparing for design or escalation roles. The exam is organized into four equally weighted domains, each contributing 25 percent of the blueprint: WAN and SD-WAN Architecture; Routing Protocols and Path Selection; SD-WAN Overlay, Policy and Traffic Steering; and Operations, Observability and Troubleshooting. Questions are multiple choice and stress applied reasoning - choosing an overlay or path-selection approach for a stated requirement, interpreting routing behavior, or diagnosing a policy outcome - rather than recall of marketing terminology. The Arista ACE Specialist - WAN Routing study guide has 4 sections and about 1,521 words.
01WAN and SD-WAN Architecture
A solid grasp of WAN and SD-WAN architecture is foundational for the Arista ACE Specialist - WAN Routing exam. You must understand the evolution from traditional hub-and-spoke WANs to modern SD-WAN solutions, including the separation of control and data planes, the role of overlay tunnels, and the concept of a fabric.
316 words, about 2 min02Routing Protocols and Path Selection
This domain tests your knowledge of dynamic routing protocols (OSPF, BGP) and how they interact with SD-WAN path selection. You must understand how OSPF areas and BGP attributes (AS-path, local preference, MED, weight) influence route selection, and how SD-WAN overlays can override traditional routing decisions using application-aware policies.
312 words, about 2 min03SD-WAN Overlay
The SD-WAN overlay is the logical network built on top of the physical underlay. It typically uses tunnels such as VXLAN, IPsec, or GRE to create a virtual mesh between edge devices.
310 words, about 2 min04Policy and Traffic Steering
Policy and traffic steering are at the heart of SD-WAN’s value proposition. You must understand how policies are defined (centrally via CloudVision) and enforced (at the edge) to steer traffic based on application, user, or network conditions.
583 words, about 3 min