ACE Routing Edge Specialist
EXAM OVERVIEW
Arista Certified Engineer (ACE) Routing Engineering Specialist – Level 3
This certification is a required milestone toward achieving the ACE Routing Specialist – Level 3, it provides a comprehensive foundation in MPLS WAN and segment routing architectures using Arista technologies. The course progresses through structured lessons covering MPLS fundamentals, Layer 2 and Layer 3 VPN services with EVPN and BGP, RSVP-TE tunnels, segment routing and traffic engineering, and SR-WAN with DCI. Through extensive hands-on labs, candidates develop practical skills in designing, operating, and troubleshooting scalable WAN infrastructures. This specialist track prepares professionals for service provider and advanced WAN roles while strengthening readiness for Arista certification and real-world deployments.
Introducing the All-New ACE Self-Service Certification Exams!
Take your Arista certification on your terms. All ACE exams are now remote, hands-on, and fully practical, with a strong focus on real-world CLI-based configuration and operational validation. Open book? Absolutely. Use your lab guides, notes, and configuration references just as you would in a production environment. Flexible, self-paced, and designed to assess real engineering skills—not memorization.
Exam Blue Print
MPLS Overview
MPLS Basics
- Introduction to MPLS labels
- MPLS packet and devices
- Establishing LDP sessions
- MPLS flow and terminology
- MPLS control plane & data plane tables
- IGP routing & MPLS control plane convergence
- MPLS data plane
- Penultimate hop popping (PHP)
- MPLS services vs. applications vs transport
MPLS troubleshooting basics
- Route aggregation in an MPLS domain
- Loop detection with TTL propagation
- IGP vs. LDP convergence
- Show commands walkthrough & LDP label distribution
Layer 2 VPN services
Virtual private networks
- Overview of VPNs
- Use of VRFs in VPN architecture
- VPN control plane
- VPN data plane
- Benefits of MPLS
MPLS L2 VPN Basics
- Introduction to E-Line services and LDP pseudowires
- Point-to-point layer 2 services
- Multipoint Layer 2 VPN service
- Configurating E-Line with LDP pseudowire
EVPN Overview
- Introduction to EVPN
- EVPN terminology
- VRF operation
- EVPN route type 2 (MAC-IP)
Ethernet VPN implementations
- Static flow aware transport (FAT) support on EVPN VPWS
- E-Line with EVPN VPWS
- E-LAN with EVPN type-2 (L2EVPN)
L3VPN with BGP
BGP as PE-CE protocol
- Configuring common AS number in multiple sites
- Allowas-In
L3VPN advanced services
- Overlapping VPNs
- Configuring overlapping VPNs
- Share service VPNs
- Configuring shared service VPN
- Managed service VPNs
- Configuring managed service VPN
MPLS Tunnels
MPLS RSVP-TE elements
- Introduction to TE
- Tunnel and link attributes overview
- RSVP path and reservation concepts
- RSVP Parth state table and RSVP error messages
- MPLS RSVP TE configuration
- MPLS RSVP TE explicit path configuration
MPLS RSVP tunnel protection
- Tunnel protection via multiple tunnels
- MPLS TE – RSVP – FRR
- RSVP FRR facility bypass data plane
- Configuring FRR node-protection bypass
Segment Routing
Segment routing fundamentals and transitions
- BGP-SR fundamentals – building the MPLS foundation
- Segment routing – Overview
- Segment routing foundations and basic traffic engineering
- LDP vs. segment routing – foundations and protocols
- LDP vs. segment routing – a comparative overview
- Exploring segment routing and traffic engineering in MPLS networks
- MPLS transport SR options
- MPLS core with SR-TE
- Advanced segment routing – Global significance and network types
- Advanced Segment routing – Traffic engineering and proxy sets
Segment routing traffic engineering and steering
- Traffic steering and service mapping case study
- IS-IS SR TE configuration
- SR-TE choosing best candidate paths
- Verify and test SR-TE policy
- Implementing SR-TE for color steering
- Steering traffic into SR-TE policies
- Configuring color steering with SR-TE policy
SR-WAN and DCI
- MPLS Inter-AS Deployment Scenarios
- L2 Connectivity Over MPLS-SR WAN
- DCI with BGP L3VPN and EVPN Connectivity Challenges
- L3 Connectivity over MPLS-SR WAN
- DCI EVPN VXLAN DC with MPLS-SR WAN
- Case Study – L2 and L3 Connectivity over MPLS-SR WAN
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q1. I currently hold Arista Certified Engineer (ACE) L3 Cloud Journey man. Willl this automatically converted to a new Arista Certification?
Your ACE L3 will be convereted to a new certification Arista Certified Engineer (ACE) Data Center Specialist as the old courses and certification were more focused on Data Center technologies.
Q2. How do you earn an ACE Professional Level certification (ACE-Level 5)
You must pass both the Operations Specialist exam and the Engineering Specialist exam within the same track (e.g., Data Center, Campus, Routing, Automation). Once both are completed, the Level 5 Professional certification is automatically awarded—there is no separate exam.
Q2. Can I enter the ACE program at a higher level?
Yes. Arista lets you attempt Specialist or higher-level exams aligned with your experience. However, those exams will test knowledge from the foundational levels upward