Cisco announced the availability of its Cisco CCNP Service Provider certification developed to validate the skills and knowledge of network engineers to deploy and optimize a next-generation carrier-grade network capable of rapid expansion to support new managed services.

The CCNP Service Provider certification coupled with the recent release of the CCNA Service Provider and current CCIE Service Provider certification provides networking engineers with a complete training and certification portfolio in IP next-generation networks (IP NGN).

Key facts:

• Professional-level CCNP Service Provider courses and exams deliver a deep understanding of major components of service provider networks and IP NGN infrastructure for delivering managed services.
• The training enables candidates to gain extensive hands-on experience in configuring and troubleshooting Cisco carrier-grade networking devices using native Cisco IOS and IOS XR operating systems.
• The certification validates an individual's ability to implement, validate end-to-end and optimize technologies including carrier routing (BGP, IS-IS, OSPF, Multicast), SP core network services (QoS, MPLS, MPLS-TE) and SP edge network services (Layer 2 VPNs, MPLSLayer 3 VPNs, Carrier Ethernet).

The certification is composed of the following courses and exams:

• SPROUTE (642-883): Deploying Cisco Service Provider Network Routing
• SPADVROUTE (642-885): Deploying Cisco Service Provider Advanced Network Routing
• SPCORE (642-887) Implementing Cisco Service Provider Next-Generation Core Network Services
• SPEDGE (642-889) Implementing Cisco SP NGN Edge Network Services.