JNCIP-SP study plan

JNCIP-SP · Give each week a clear focus.

8 weeks · About 8 hours per week

Week 1

Service Provider Routing and Switching

Map the JNCIP-SP blueprint into a personal gap list, tagging each objective as strong, weak, or unknown based on current hands-on experience
Build a lab topology of at least four routers plus two CE devices that supports IS-IS, MPLS, L3VPN, and BGP address families
Configure and verify IS-IS levels, metrics, and route leaking between Level 1 and Level 2, then document the resulting RIB entries
Capture baseline show-command output for every protocol you will later break and fix

A one-page gap matrix plus a saved baseline configuration archive and baseline output log for the full lab topology

Week 2

Configure OSPF areas including a non-backbone area and verify inter-area summarization behavior
Tune IS-IS and OSPF convergence by adjusting hello and dead intervals and observing adjacency loss timing
Compare OSPF and IS-IS route preference in a dual-protocol scenario and predict the active RIB before verifying
Introduce a deliberate MTU mismatch and document the symptoms and the corrective action

A convergence timing table recording measured adjacency loss and reconvergence for both OSPF and IS-IS under three timer profiles

Week 3

Enable RSVP-signaled LSPs across the core and verify label bindings hop by hop
Configure LDP alongside RSVP and explain which LSP wins for a given prefix and why
Build a traffic engineering tunnel with an explicit path and confirm it appears in the forwarding table
Break the IGP under a TE tunnel and describe the resulting tunnel state change

A hop-by-hop label stack diagram for two LSPs, one signaled by RSVP and one by LDP, verified against live output

Week 4

Configure a full-mesh IBGP overlay with an IGP underlay and verify loopback-to-loopback reachability for all peers
Apply and test route reflectors, then compare the RIB with and without a second reflector for redundancy
Configure confederation-style sub-AS routing and list the attribute differences versus route reflection
Tune BGP best-path selection by manipulating local preference, MED, and AS path length in turn

A written best-path decision trace for five prefixes showing each tiebreak step actually evaluated on the live routers

Week 5

Configure an L3VPN with VRF tables, route targets, and MP-BGP VPNv4 address family across the core
Verify label allocation for VPN routes and trace the two-label stack from PE ingress to PE egress
Test route target import and export mismatches and document the resulting VRF table state
Implement hub-and-spoke and any-to-any VPN topologies and contrast their route target design

A verified end-to-end L3VPN lab with a table of VRF routes, route targets, and label stacks for at least three customer prefixes

Week 6

Configure IPv6 on the core with IS-IS multi-topology and verify dual-stack forwarding
Set up 6PE and 6VPE and compare the encapsulation and label behavior of each
Configure carrier-grade NAT or stateful firewall services at the service edge and verify translation behavior
Deploy a Layer 2 VPN or EVPN-style service and confirm MAC learning across the core

A dual-stack service edge lab report covering IPv6 reachability, 6PE or 6VPE label verification, and one Layer 2 service

Week 7

Configure CoS classification, scheduling, and shaping on a provider edge interface and verify per-class behavior
Introduce congestion and measure queue drops and latency per forwarding class
Configure a routing policy to set and match BGP communities for customer traffic engineering
Simulate a core link failure and record the failover path and reconvergence time under traffic

A quality-of-service verification sheet showing per-class throughput and drop counts before and after congestion, plus a measured failover time

Week 8

Rebuild the entire lab from a blank configuration set in under three hours without notes
Complete a timed practice set of scenario questions and log every miss with the underlying concept
Re-drill each logged miss with a hands-on lab until the concept verifies cleanly
Write a one-page troubleshooting checklist covering IGP, BGP, MPLS, and VPN failure signatures

A timed full-lab rebuild log with completion time, a scored practice-set summary, and the finished troubleshooting checklist

Week 2: Can explain and demonstrate OSPF and IS-IS adjacency formation, summarization, and convergence timing without reference notes

Week 4: Can trace BGP best-path selection for an arbitrary prefix and predict the active route before checking the router

Week 6: Can build a working L3VPN and a dual-stack service edge from scratch and verify label stacks end to end

Week 8: Completes the full lab rebuild within the three-hour target and scores at least 80 percent on the timed practice set