Written By Amrit Hanspal, Senior Manager, Service Provider Lead, Network OS Tech Group

Cisco Live in San Francisco (next week!) offers a host of learning opportunities if you are part of a Service Provider, or a large Enterprise that offers services to internal groups. Let my blog be your guide to help you chart out all the different sessions that Cisco has to offer during the week, with a specific focus on the software capabilities of the routing and switching platforms in 4 key areas -IPv6, SDN, MPLS Transport & Ethernet Services, and IP Routing.

First up, IPv6! The exhaustion of IPv4 is not the only driving force for IPv6 adoption. Service Provider IPv6 deployments are rapidly ramping up with a majority of SPs looking towards IPv6. Join us for a recap on 'IPv6 -From Intro to Intermediate'(Session ID: BRKRST-2116)or join us to hear about our experiences in 'Service Provider IPv6 Deployment'(Session ID: BRKSPG-3300)where our IPv6 gurus highlight deployment best practices and real-world challenges. Security is key in IPv6 -and that's the focus of 'IPv6 Security Threats & Mitigations'(Session ID: BRKSEC-2003).And since we are dealing with the networking, don't worry, we got you covered with a Troubleshooting IPv6 session(Session ID: BRKRST-2304).See the full list of learning opportunities at here.

Next up, is SDN -Software Defined Networking. The industry's latestbuzzword is sure to mean different things to different folks. In true Cisco style, we will start you off with an understanding of the 'SDN -From Concepts to Reality'(Session ID: BRKRST-2051)to help you translate SDN into tangible business benefits of simplified operations and accelerated. The CiscoONE framework has a key building block in terms of onePK -join us for an in-depth look with 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to onePK'(Session ID: BRKRST-2117)to extend the capabilities of Cisco Routers and Switches. Understanding how to develop applications with onePK requires an understanding of the software development process -pick up some key tips in 'ONE Software Development Lifecycle(Session ID: BRKRST-2777).If you want to get your hands dirty, we would be delighted to work with you in an instructor led lab in 'Advanced Network Programming & Automation'(Session ID: LTRNMS-3601).See the full list of learning opportunities here.

MPLS is at the heart of every Service Provider deployment. It is a technology that is more than a decade old, but it continues to evolve and deliver new service paradigms for SP -even in 2014! If you have missed the fun, join us in a baseline session of 'Introduction to MPLS'(Session ID: BRKMPL-1100). Core and Optical Transport is driven by the high rate of 100GE Optical interfaces market adoption. With the transport market driving towards 100GE, the higher bandwidth drives the need to use traffic engineering and resiliency mechanisms like MPLS TE & Fast Reroute respectively -learn from our experiences with 'Deploying MPLS Traffic Engineering"(Session ID: BRKMPL-2100). MPLS based Ethernet services are widely deployed and we share best practices in 'Deploying MPLS Layer 2 VPNs'(Session ID: BRKMPL-2101). Join us for a sneak peak into the future of MPLS with two key sessions. The first is 'EVPN & PBB-EVPN: Next Gen MPLS L2 VPN(Session ID: BRKMPL-2101)where we highlight the convergence of L2 and L3 VPN offerings by using BGP to scale MAC addresses & IP Prefixes. The second is 'Advanced Topics and Future Directions in MPLS'(Session ID: BRKMPL-3101)that introduces SDN programmatic paradigm into MPLS with Segment Routing. See the full list of learning opportunities here.

Last, but not least, is IP Routing. BGP is now the control protocol for a number of key edge solutions -join us to get the latest in a wide variety of enhancements being made to BGP (GSHUT, DDoS, etc.) in 'Advances in BGP'(Session ID: BRKRST-3371).The IGP protocols of ISIS, OSPF, and EIGRP are key to Service Providers -join us to learn how these are being deployed in today's environment with 'ISIS Deployment(Session ID: BRKRST-2338),'OSPF Deployment'(Session ID: BRKRST-2337)and 'EIGRP Deployment'(Session ID: BRKRST-2336). See the full list of learning opportunities here.

Hope this helps provide you with a quick, but simple guide to many of our learning opportunities at Cisco Live. We look forward to seeing you in one of the sessions or at one of our demos in the World of Solutions.