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Question

Difficulty: EasySeparation of Control Plane and Data Plane

Network device architecture is divided into distinct functional planes to handle traffic and protocol processing efficiently. Which of the following functions is handled exclusively by the control plane?

  1. Exchanging routing protocol update messages to populate the routing information baseAnswer
  2. B
    Looking up destination IP addresses in the Forwarding Information Base to switch packets to output interfaces
  3. C
    Decrementing the IP Time-to-Live header field and recalculating header checksums on transit packets
  4. D
    Managing administrative SSH sessions and parsing configuration file commands entered by a network operator

Answer

Exchanging routing protocol update messages to populate the routing information base is a control plane function.
The correct answer identifies routing protocol message exchange (such as OSPF, BGP, or EIGRP updates) and routing table building as a control plane responsibility. The control plane is responsible for network intelligence, topology discovery, and determining path selection.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the primary responsibility of the control plane
The control plane makes decisions about how traffic should be routed by running routing protocols and maintaining the Routing Information Base (RIB).
Control plane processes run on the main CPU to establish network intelligence and topology awareness.
2
Differentiate control plane duties from data plane and management plane duties
Packet forwarding, FIB lookups, and TTL decrements belong to the data plane, while SSH/CLI user access belongs to the management plane.
Separating plane duties ensures packet forwarding hardware can operate at line rate without waiting for routing calculation updates.

Key Concept

Control Plane vs Data Plane Responsibilities
Estimated Time:45s
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Topics

Separation of Control Plane and Data Plane

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