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350-501
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CCNP Service Provider Core

SPCOR 350-501 trains service‑provider engineers to design, deploy, and troubleshoot carrier‑grade MPLS and segment‑routing architectures, covering core networking, services, automation, and assurance, and ensures compliance with industry standards.

120
Minutes
100
Questions
$400
Exam Cost

Who Should Take This

Network engineers with three to five years of experience in carrier‑grade MPLS, segment routing, and service provider environments will benefit from this certification. It equips them to validate expertise in designing resilient architectures, optimizing service delivery, and implementing automation and assurance frameworks for modern telco networks.

What's Covered

1 All domains in the Cisco CCNP Service Provider Core (SPCOR 350-501) exam: Architecture
2 , Networking
3 , MPLS and Segment Routing
4 , Services
5 , and Automation and Assurance

What's Included in AccelaStudy® AI

Adaptive Knowledge Graph
Practice Questions
Lesson Modules
Console Simulator Labs
Exam Tips & Strategy
20 Activity Formats

Course Outline

60 learning goals
1 Domain 1: Architecture
4 topics

Service provider network design

  • Evaluate service provider network topology models including hierarchical core-aggregation-access, flat leaf-spine, and ring architectures to assess scalability and resilience for carrier-grade deployments.
  • Design a carrier ethernet network architecture using MEF service definitions (E-Line, E-LAN, E-Tree) to deliver differentiated connectivity services over a converged transport infrastructure.

IOS XR platform and operations

  • Configure Cisco IOS XR platform fundamentals including configuration commit model, rollback, administrative distance, process isolation, and sysadmin vs XR VM architecture.
  • Implement IOS XR software lifecycle operations including SMU installation, package upgrades, ISSU, and configuration replace to maintain carrier-grade availability during maintenance windows.
  • Compare IOS XR, IOS XE, and NX-OS operating system architectures to evaluate platform suitability for service provider, enterprise, and data center network roles.

Transport technologies

  • Evaluate DWDM, CWDM, and coherent optics technologies to assess wavelength capacity, reach, and spectral efficiency for service provider long-haul and metro transport requirements.
  • Analyze ethernet transport technologies including 802.1ad (Q-in-Q), 802.1ah (PBB), and pseudowire emulation to assess their applicability for carrier ethernet service delivery.

SP high availability

  • Configure IOS XR non-stop routing (NSR) and non-stop forwarding (NSF) with graceful restart to maintain forwarding continuity during route processor switchover events in carrier-grade routers.
  • Design a carrier-grade high availability architecture with redundant route processors, BFD fast detection, and protocol-level graceful restart to achieve five-nines availability for SP core services.
2 Domain 2: Networking
5 topics

IS-IS routing

  • Configure IS-IS for IPv4 and IPv6 in a multi-level (Level-1/Level-2) SP backbone with NET addressing, metric styles, and area boundaries for scalable IGP operation.
  • Implement IS-IS route leaking, summarization, and overload-bit advertisement to control route distribution between IS-IS levels and protect the core from route table explosion.
  • Analyze IS-IS adjacency formation, LSP flooding, SPF computation, and TLV extensions to diagnose convergence anomalies and routing instabilities in large-scale SP topologies.

BGP advanced features

  • Configure BGP route reflectors and confederations in IOS XR to scale iBGP within large autonomous systems without full-mesh peering between PE routers.
  • Implement BGP communities (standard, extended, large) and route policies to control route advertisement, traffic engineering, and customer prefix filtering across peering and transit sessions.
  • Configure BGP add-path, ORF, and graceful restart to improve route diversity, reduce update overhead, and maintain forwarding continuity during BGP session restarts in SP environments.
  • Design a BGP peering and route policy architecture for a multi-homed service provider, planning transit, peering, and customer BGP relationships with appropriate community tagging and filtering.

Multicast in SP networks

  • Configure PIM-SM with static RP, Auto-RP, and BSR for multicast distribution in service provider networks to support IPTV, video distribution, and multicast-enabled customer services.
  • Implement SSM (Source-Specific Multicast) and MSDP for inter-domain multicast to optimize bandwidth utilization and enable multicast service delivery across AS boundaries.
  • Evaluate multicast distribution tree types (shared tree, source tree, SPT switchover) to assess bandwidth efficiency and latency tradeoffs for large-scale video delivery services.

IPv6 in SP environments

  • Implement IPv6 transition mechanisms including dual-stack, 6PE, 6VPE, NAT64, and DS-Lite to enable IPv6 service delivery while maintaining IPv4 customer connectivity.
  • Design an IPv6 migration strategy for a service provider network, planning address allocation (PA/PI), transition mechanism selection, and phased deployment across core, aggregation, and access tiers.

OSPF in SP environments

  • Configure OSPFv2 and OSPFv3 on IOS XR with multi-area design, stub areas, and NSSA for service provider aggregation networks where IS-IS is not the preferred IGP.
  • Compare IS-IS and OSPF for service provider IGP deployment considering convergence speed, scalability, extensibility for segment routing, and operational complexity tradeoffs.
3 Domain 3: MPLS and Segment Routing
3 topics

MPLS fundamentals

  • Configure MPLS LDP on IOS XR routers to establish label distribution, build label forwarding tables, and enable label-switched path forwarding across the service provider core.
  • Analyze MPLS label operations (push, swap, pop) and PHP behavior to trace packet forwarding paths and troubleshoot label imposition and disposition issues across the MPLS domain.
  • Implement MPLS OAM including LSP ping, LSP traceroute, and BFD over MPLS to verify label-switched path integrity and detect forwarding failures in the MPLS transport network.

MPLS traffic engineering

  • Configure RSVP-TE tunnels with explicit and dynamic path options to establish bandwidth-guaranteed LSPs that route traffic along specified or computed paths through the MPLS core.
  • Implement MPLS-TE FRR with facility backup and one-to-one backup protection to achieve sub-50ms failover for protected LSPs during link or node failures.
  • Evaluate MPLS-TE bandwidth management strategies including auto-bandwidth, auto-mesh, and CBTS to optimize tunnel capacity allocation across the SP transport network.

Segment routing

  • Configure segment routing with MPLS data plane (SR-MPLS) using IS-IS or OSPF extensions to distribute prefix and adjacency SIDs for source-routed forwarding without LDP or RSVP signaling.
  • Implement SR-TE policies with explicit segment lists and on-demand next-hop (ODN) to steer traffic along computed paths based on constraints such as latency, affinity, and disjointness.
  • Configure TI-LFA (Topology-Independent Loop-Free Alternate) with segment routing to provide automatic sub-50ms protection for all destinations without pre-computed backup tunnels.
  • Compare SR-MPLS and SRv6 data plane approaches to evaluate their tradeoffs in terms of encapsulation overhead, hardware support, service chaining, and network programmability.
  • Design a segment routing migration strategy from LDP/RSVP-TE to SR-MPLS, planning coexistence mechanisms, SID allocation, and phased LDP decommissioning across the SP backbone.
4 Domain 4: Services
5 topics

L3VPN services

  • Configure MPLS L3VPN on PE routers with VRF instances, MP-BGP VPNv4/VPNv6 address families, and route distinguishers to provide isolated IP routing services for enterprise customers.
  • Implement PE-CE routing with BGP, OSPF, and static routes, configuring route targets for hub-and-spoke, full-mesh, and extranet VPN topologies to meet diverse customer connectivity requirements.
  • Analyze L3VPN route propagation through RD, RT import/export, and MP-BGP next-hop resolution to diagnose customer route visibility and forwarding issues in multi-PE VPN deployments.
  • Design an inter-AS L3VPN architecture using Option A, B, or C to extend VPN services across autonomous system boundaries for inter-provider or multi-region service delivery.

L2VPN services

  • Configure VPWS (Virtual Private Wire Service) using pseudowires with targeted LDP signaling to deliver point-to-point Layer 2 connectivity between customer sites across the MPLS backbone.
  • Implement VPLS (Virtual Private LAN Service) with BGP autodiscovery and LDP signaling to provide multipoint Layer 2 Ethernet connectivity emulating a LAN service across the SP network.
  • Configure EVPN with MPLS data plane to deliver multi-homing, MAC mobility, and ARP suppression capabilities that overcome VPLS limitations for modern L2VPN service delivery.
  • Compare VPWS, VPLS, and EVPN to recommend the optimal L2VPN technology based on customer multi-homing requirements, MAC scale, and service flexibility demands.

Multicast VPN services

  • Configure mVPN Profile 0 (default MDT with GRE) and Profile 6 (partitioned MDT with mLDP) to deliver multicast services within L3VPN customer networks across the SP MPLS backbone.
  • Evaluate mVPN profile tradeoffs between GRE-based, mLDP-based, and P2MP-TE-based approaches to select the optimal multicast transport for given bandwidth and scale requirements.

QoS for service delivery

  • Configure DiffServ QoS policies on PE and P routers to classify, mark, police, and schedule customer traffic according to SLA-defined per-class bandwidth, latency, and loss guarantees.
  • Implement MPLS DiffServ-TE with multiple class types and preemption priorities to provide bandwidth-guaranteed traffic engineering tunnels that honor per-class QoS requirements.
  • Design an end-to-end SP QoS architecture mapping customer SLA classes to MPLS EXP bits, planning classification at PE ingress, per-hop behavior at core P routers, and enforcement at egress PE.

Segment routing based services

  • Configure L3VPN services over segment routing transport using SR-MPLS labels for VPN prefix forwarding to deliver MPLS VPN services without LDP dependency in the core.
  • Implement EVPN services over segment routing with SR-TE policy steering to combine modern L2/L3 VPN service delivery with traffic-engineered transport across the SP backbone.
  • Design a next-generation SP service architecture migrating from LDP-based L2/L3 VPN to segment routing based services, planning coexistence, service migration sequencing, and customer impact minimization.
5 Domain 5: Automation and Assurance
3 topics

SP automation and orchestration

  • Deploy Cisco NSO to orchestrate service provisioning across multi-vendor SP networks using YANG service models and device NEDs for L2VPN, L3VPN, and segment routing services.
  • Configure NETCONF and RESTCONF on IOS XR devices to programmatically retrieve operational state and push configuration changes using YANG-modeled data structures.
  • Implement Python automation scripts using ncclient and YANG models to automate routine SP operations including interface provisioning, VRF configuration, and route policy deployment.
  • Design a service provider network automation architecture integrating NSO orchestration, YANG models, and CI/CD pipelines for automated service lifecycle management from order to activation.

Telemetry and assurance

  • Configure model-driven telemetry on IOS XR with gRPC dial-out subscriptions to stream real-time operational data including interface counters, BGP state, and MPLS label information to collectors.
  • Compare SNMP polling, streaming telemetry, and syslog-based monitoring approaches to evaluate their suitability for carrier-grade network visibility at scale and near-real-time alerting.

SP security

  • Configure CoPP on IOS XR routers to rate-limit and filter control plane traffic classes, protecting the route processor from DDoS attacks and excessive protocol traffic.
  • Implement uRPF (strict and loose modes) and RTBH (Remotely Triggered Black Hole) routing to mitigate DDoS attacks and spoofed source traffic at SP network ingress points.
  • Configure BGP RPKI origin validation to detect and reject routes with invalid origin AS attestations, protecting the SP routing table from route hijack and route leak incidents.
  • Design a comprehensive SP infrastructure security architecture integrating CoPP, uRPF, RPKI, BGP prefix filtering, and MPLS label security to protect the carrier network from internal and external threats.

Scope

Included Topics

  • All domains in the Cisco CCNP Service Provider Core (SPCOR 350-501) exam: Architecture (15%), Networking (30%), MPLS and Segment Routing (20%), Services (20%), and Automation and Assurance (15%).
  • Service provider architecture including Cisco IOS XR platform, carrier ethernet services, hierarchical network design for SP environments, and service provider network topology patterns.
  • SP networking including IS-IS, OSPFv2/v3 for SP, BGP advanced features (communities, confederations, ORF, add-path), IPv6 transition mechanisms, and multicast (PIM-SM, MSDP, SSM) in SP environments.
  • MPLS technologies including LDP, RSVP-TE, MPLS traffic engineering, MPLS OAM, and segment routing with SR-MPLS and SRv6 for modern SP transport architectures.
  • SP services including L2VPN (VPWS, VPLS, EVPN), L3VPN (MPLS VPN, 6VPE), multicast VPN (mVPN profiles), and ethernet services (E-Line, E-LAN, E-Tree) delivered over MPLS and segment routing.
  • SP automation including Cisco NSO, YANG models, NETCONF/RESTCONF, model-driven telemetry, and Python scripting for service provisioning and network lifecycle management.
  • SP security including CoPP, uRPF, RTBH, BGP security (RPKI, route filtering), MPLS infrastructure security, and management plane hardening for carrier-grade networks.
  • SP QoS including DiffServ in MPLS networks, traffic engineering with RSVP-TE and SR-TE, bandwidth management, and class-based QoS policy design for service delivery.

Not Covered

  • Enterprise campus networking technologies (SD-Access, SD-WAN, wireless LAN) covered by the ENCOR exam rather than SPCOR.
  • Data center fabric technologies (ACI, NX-OS, VXLAN/EVPN in DC context) covered by the DCCOR exam rather than SPCOR.
  • Optical transport layer engineering, DWDM channel planning, and fiber plant design at the physical layer engineering depth not tested on SPCOR.
  • Regulatory compliance, telecommunications law, and carrier interconnect commercial agreements not tested on SPCOR.

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