Getting Started in Wireless: Wired Foundation Skills

Getting Started in Wireless: Wired Foundation Skills

By CWNP On 11/05/2013 - 13 Comments

Wired networking is a key topic to understand in order to be a successful wireless professional. This post covers a few of the places where wired and wireless overlap and some suggestions on how to get started learning.

By: Tom Carpenter

One of the key topics in our CWTS course and in Robert Bartz' CWTS Official Study Guide is wired networking. In both content sources, we cover it lightly. To be an effective wireless networking engineer or administrator, you must understand wired networking.

If you are new to wireless and thinking, "But why is this a key topic? Aren't they completely separate?"

Just consider all of the ways that wireless LANs touch wired networking technologies and traditional networking technologies used on both wired and wireless:

• Ethernet for links to the infrastructure
• Ethernet for links to controllers and cloud management solutions
• Power over Ethernet for power provisioning
• IP communications
• TCP/UDP ports and applications
• Filtering and monitoring solutions
• SNMP
• Encryption protocols (Layer 3 and higher)
• Encoding methods

And this is just a drop in the bucket! If you're going to be a successful wireless LAN professional, you will need to know wired networking and higher layer networking technologies well.

Here are a few great places to start learning:

• CWTS Official Study Guide (Second Edition) Robert Bartz, Sybex, 2012 (http://cwnp.com/product/cwtssg/)
• CWNP CWTS Official course: Find a class! (http://cwnp.com/training/findaclass/)
• The TCP/IP Guide: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Internet Protocols Reference, Charles Kozierok, No Starch Press, 2005 (still one of the best out there)
• Networking Essentials (3rd Edition), Jeffrey Beasley, Pearson IT, 2012
• A Practical Guide to Advanced Networking (3rd Edition), Jeffrey Beasley, Pearson IT, 2012

From those in the industry already, do you have any great recommendations for resources to learn about networking essential topics? Comment below!

Tagged with: wired, wireless, networking, learning, key topics, professional

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