What you'll learn

There is a variety of networking hardware used to distribute network connections to end users. These include switches and routers, however there are other devices like wireless access points, modems, firewalls, load balancers, and gateways, just to name a few. This course, Introduction to Enterprise Network Infrastructure, will introduce you to data networking hardware and describe the associated protocols used for the hardware. Using the OSI model, first, you will examine physical layer technologies, looking at different types of copper and fiber optic connections. Next, you will look at Ethernet, a data link layer protocol, and understand it’s operation, as well as enhancements to ethernet like VLANs and port channel. Additionally, you will examine 802.11 wireless ethernet protocols and concepts. Then, you will move up to layer 3 and examine the role routers and routing protocols play. Finally, you will wrap up by examining other hardware used in networking like firewalls, gateways, load balancers and other devices. By the end of this course, you will have gained a better understanding of the basics of all the hardware and associated protocols used to move traffic between nodes on a network.