Building My First Internet Service Provider Simulation in Cisco Packet Tracer
🛠️ Tool Used
I used CISCO Packet Tracer (CPT) to create a simulated ISP network consisting of three topologies: bus, tree, and star — forming a hybrid topology.
🎯 Purpose
The objective of this simulation was to enhance my practical understanding of:
- Real-world networking topologies
- Routing methods and protocols
- Internet Service Provider (ISP) system design
📐 Design Overview
The setup included:
- A core router linked to three sub-routers, each managing a different topology
- LAN-to-LAN communication through routers
- OSPF as the primary routing protocol to handle dynamic routing
🔁 Why I Used OSPF?
OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) is an Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) ideal for routing within a single autonomous system. While manual routing is possible, OSPF is more scalable and manageable in larger network topologies, hence its selection for this simulation.
🌐 Simulating the Internet
To represent a minimal form of the internet:
- I connected a separate router labeled as the “Internet Router”
- DNS and HTTP servers were attached to simulate global communication
📘 What I Learned
- How routing protocols like OSPF function in practice
- Router memory management of neighboring routers
- Configuring DHCP for assigning private IPs across topologies
- Simulating DNS-based HTTP traffic using a dummy web server
Since Cisco Packet Tracer doesn't allow real code execution, I mimicked services like Google Search with local server labels for demonstration.
🧠 Final Thoughts
This simulation project gave me a deeper understanding of Internet-level communication. It acted as a powerful hands-on introduction to real-world networking and ISP configuration — a stepping stone into the domain of Computer Communication & Networking.