Book excerpt: By offering the new Service Routing Certification Program, Alcatel-Lucent is extending their reach and knowledge to networking professionals with a comprehensive demonstration of how to build smart, scalable networks. Serving as a course in a book from Alcatel-Lucentthe world leader in designing and developing scalable systemsthis resource pinpoints the pitfalls to avoid when building scalable networks, examines the most successful techniques available for engineers who are building and operating IP networks, and provides overviews of the Internet, IP routing and the IP layer, and the practice of opening the shortest path first.