JN0-281 Exam Preparation Material | Data Center, Associate (JNCIA-DC)

Explanation:
An access port is a Layer 2 switch interface mode intended for an endpoint that belongs to a single VLAN. Traffic on an access port is associated with exactly one VLAN, and frames are typically transmitted and received untagged on the wire. The switch internally maps that untagged traffic into the configured access VLAN, placing the endpoint into the correct broadcast domain. This behavior is widely used for server access, management ports, out of band devices, and any endpoint that does not tag VLANs.
By contrast, trunk ports are designed to carry multiple VLANs simultaneously, usually with 802.1Q tagging, and are typically used between switches, to routers, to virtualization hosts, or to appliances that handle multiple VLANs. That is why assigning multiple VLANs to an access port is not the standard access mode behavior.
An access port does not have to connect to a router or a firewall. It can connect directly to any Ethernet endpoint. Routing between VLANs is provided by a Layer 3 interface such as an IRB interface on the switch or an external routed device, but that is independent of whether the endpoint connects on an access port.
Verification sources from Juniper documentation
https://www.juniper.net/documentation/us/en/software/junos/multicast-l2/topics/topic-map/bridging-and-vlans.html
https://www.juniper.net/documentation/us/en/software/junos/multicast-l2/topics/task/interfaces-configuring-ethernet-switching-access.html

Explanation:
The diagram shows multiple autonomous systems, with each device labeled with a different AS number. Because the peers are in different autonomous systems, the correct BGP session type is external BGP. In a typical Juniper data center IP fabric underlay, this design is intentional: EBGP is used between leaf and spine devices to simplify policy boundaries, improve operational clarity, and avoid the additional mechanisms commonly required in large internal BGP designs.
In an EBGP-based underlay, neighbors are most commonly formed over the directly connected point-to-point links between leaf and spine. That means the BGP peering is established using the IP addresses configured on those physical routed interfaces, not loopback addresses. Using physically connected addresses aligns with the default EBGP behavior where the TTL is one hop, and it reduces configuration complexity because no multihop settings or additional reachability dependencies are required to bring up the session.
Peering using loopbacks is possible, but it typically requires EBGP multihop and a routing method to ensure reachability to the remote loopback before BGP can establish. That approach is more
common for overlay control-plane sessions or for specific design requirements, rather than for the simplest and most common underlay implementation. Therefore, the two true statements are that the exhibit uses EBGP and that devices should peer using physically connected IP addresses.

Explanation:
In Ethernet switching, the bridge table is the data structure that maps MAC addresses to the switch interfaces where those MAC addresses were learned. Juniper commonly describes this function as the Ethernet switching table and also refers to it as the forwarding table in Layer 2 contexts. The concept is the same: the switch learns source MAC addresses from incoming frames, associates them with an ingress port and VLAN or bridge domain, and then uses that learned information to forward future frames to the correct egress port as known unicast.
Calling it a forwarding table is accurate because its primary operational purpose is deciding how to forward Layer 2 frames efficiently. When a destination MAC is present in the table, the switch performs a unicast forward to the learned port. When a destination MAC is not present, the switch treats it as unknown unicast and floods it within the VLAN or bridge domain, while still learning the source MAC for future use.
The term forwarding information table is more strongly associated with Layer 3 routing, where a FIB represents resolved next hops for IP prefixes in the forwarding plane. That is a different structure than the Layer 2 bridge or MAC table. The other options are not standard Juniper terms for this function.
Verification sources from Juniper documentation
https://www.juniper.net/documentation/us/en/software/junos/multicast-l2/topics/topic-map/ethernet-switching-components.html
https://www.juniper.net/documentation/us/en/software/junos/multicast-l2/topics/concept/ethernet-switching-table-understanding.html

Explanation:
On Junos switching platforms commonly used in data centers, a VLAN is a Layer 2 construct that defines a broadcast domain. To make a VLAN usable, you define the VLAN using a name and typically a VLAN ID, then associate Layer 2 interfaces with it so traffic entering those interfaces is placed into that VLAN. Without membership on interfaces, the VLAN exists in configuration but does not carry user traffic, because no ports participate in that broadcast domain.
Trunk mode interfaces are specifically designed to carry traffic for multiple VLANs over a single
physical link, such as between switches, to servers using tagging, or to other network devices that understand VLAN tags. In Junos, trunking is implemented by allowing a list of VLAN IDs on the trunk so the interface accepts and forwards frames for those VLANs. This makes statement C correct.
An IRB interface is not mandatory for every VLAN. IRB is used when you want Layer 3 routing for a VLAN, typically to provide a default gateway and enable inter VLAN routing. Pure Layer 2 VLANs do not require IRB, which makes statement A incorrect.
Access mode interfaces are intended to connect to a single endpoint and carry traffic for a single VLAN, so assigning multiple VLANs to an access interface is not correct in standard access mode behavior, making statement D incorrect.

Explanation:
An IP fabric underlay is the routed foundation of a modern leaf-spine data center. Its purpose is to provide scalable, deterministic Layer 3 reachability between all fabric nodes, typically using point-to-point routed links between leaves and spines. In this design, EBGP is commonly used as an underlay routing protocol because it scales well, supports clear policy boundaries, and enables fast convergence and operational simplicity. Each leaf forms EBGP sessions to each spine, advertising loopback addresses and link subnets so that overlay endpoints and control plane services can reach one another reliably.
RSTP is a Layer 2 spanning tree mechanism and is not the standard protocol for a routed underlay. EVPN is an overlay control plane used to distribute tenant reachability and multihoming information; it is not the underlay routing protocol itself. VXLAN is a data plane encapsulation used by the overlay to transport Layer 2 segments across a Layer 3 fabric; it also is not the underlay routing protocol.
In Juniper data center architectures, the underlay is intentionally kept simple and purely routed, while overlays such as EVPN VXLAN deliver multi-tenant Layer 2 and Layer 3 services on top of that underlay. EBGP fits the underlay requirement among the provided options.