What's new in Cisco Packet Tracer 9.0
Packet Tracer 9.0 open beta is a major update. It has been designed as the Cisco answer to the growing number of cyberattacks targeting industrial (OT) networks, as well as the shortage of skilled workers in industrial cybersecurity. Cisco collaborated with NTNU, WSUTECH, ATINA, GLVIA, AkerSolutions and Ford to build the new Industrial Networking Essentials curricula and develop Cisco Packet Tracer 9.0 industrial labs.
Target audience is students in manufacturing and utility (energy power) as well as network engineers wanting to upskill to address industrial network security challenges.
Packet Tracer 9.0 open beta features the following new network devices and servers required to build an emulated network compliant with the Purdue model:
- Switching: A new Catalyst IE-3400 (IE-3400-8P2S-A) rugged multilayer switch for industrial environment with 10 gigabit ethernet ports
- Security: A new ISA-3000 (ISA-3000-2C2F-K9) industrial firewall featuring two 1GbE SFP ports, two 10/100/1000Base-T ports, and one management port.
- Servers:
- A new Data Historian server which can store date received from a CIP data collector in local databases.
- A new Cyber Observers server, inspired by Cisco Cyber Vision, which acts as a device emulating cyber threats and mitigations in the network. The included dashboard shows network vulnerabilities detected in the network by configuring network device firmware versions with a locally configurable threat database.
Sample industrial network
The following industrial network diagram features three catalyst IE-3400 industrial switches connected in a single-mode optical loop connecting industrial PLC devices. The optical loop is connected to an ISA-3000 firewall securing industrial network and segmenting PLC from industrial data servers and workstations. A data historian server stores PLC data displayed as charts on a supervisory workstation.
IOS router images available in Packet Tracer 9.0.0
Cisco packet Tracer features both IOS 12 and IOS 15 routers, as well as base, advip, universal, universal_security, adv_security, iox, and foundation_sets images IOS feature sets.
Connect the router to a TFTP server, download the selected image, and use the boot system flash <IOS IMAGE> command to boot router on the selected IOS image.
| IOS 12 | IOS 12 advip |
2600_12.4 | 2600_advip_12.4 |
2800_12.3 2800_12.4 | 2800_advip_12.4 |
1841_12.3 1841_12.4 | 1841_advip_12.4 |
| IOS 15 universal | IOS 15 universal_security | IOS 15 adv_security | IOS15 iox | IOS 15 foundation_suite |
| 2800_advip_15.1 | ||||
| 1900_universal_base_15.1 | 1900_universal_security_15.1 | 1900_foundation_suite_15.3 | ||
2900_universal_base_15.1 2900_universal_uc_15.1 | 2900_universal_security_15.1 2900_universal_security_uc_15.1 | 2900_foundation_suite_15.3 | ||
800_universal_base_15.2 800_universal_base_15.4 | 800_adv_security_15.2 800_adv_security_15.4 | 800_adv_security_15.5_iox | ||
829_universal_15.5 829_universal_15.6 | ||||
1240_universal_15.4 1240_universal_15.6.3 | ||||
4300_universal_15.4 | 4300_universal_security_15.4 | |||
4331_universal_16.6.4 | 4331_universal_security_16.6.4 | |||
| 8200_universal_security_17.6.3 | ||||
8340_universalk9_17.8.1 |
Labs compatible with Packet Tracer 9.0.0
The following labs demonstrate the capabilities of Packet Tracer 9.0 and are designed to help better understand how the emulated industrial network devices and endpoints can be used efficiently.
The first lab simulates an industrial smart grid including power meters and power generation sites connected to a WAN industrial network.
The second lab emulatees a cement factory for mixing raw materials. The lab features multiple PLC, industrial switches, as well as a remote cybersecurity server.
