{"id":"https://openalex.org/W7141159415","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2026.112236","title":"LLMs can pass the CCNA certification exam but do they understand networking?","display_name":"LLMs can pass the CCNA certification exam but do they understand networking?","publication_year":2026,"publication_date":"2026-03-27","ids":{"openalex":"https://openalex.org/W7141159415","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2026.112236"},"language":"en","primary_location":{"id":"doi:10.1016/j.comnet.2026.112236","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2026.112236","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S63392143","display_name":"Computer Networks","issn_l":"1389-1286","issn":["1389-1286","1872-7069"],"is_oa":false,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":true,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/P4310320990","host_organization_name":"Elsevier BV","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/P4310320990"],"host_organization_lineage_names":["Elsevier BV"],"type":"journal"},"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Computer Networks","raw_type":"journal-article"},"type":"article","indexed_in":["crossref"],"open_access":{"is_oa":true,"oa_status":"hybrid","oa_url":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2026.112236","any_repository_has_fulltext":false},"authorships":[{"author_position":"first","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5009947894","display_name":"Liam Daly Manocchio","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9268-2226"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I165143802","display_name":"The University of Queensland","ror":"https://ror.org/00rqy9422","country_code":"AU","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I165143802"]}],"countries":["AU"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Liam Daly Manocchio","raw_affiliation_strings":["School of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, QLD, Australia"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"School of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, QLD, Australia","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I165143802"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":null,"display_name":"Siamak Layeghy","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1229-2368"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I165143802","display_name":"The University of Queensland","ror":"https://ror.org/00rqy9422","country_code":"AU","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I165143802"]}],"countries":["AU"],"is_corresponding":true,"raw_author_name":"Siamak Layeghy","raw_affiliation_strings":["School of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, QLD, Australia"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1229-2368","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"School of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, QLD, Australia","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I165143802"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":null,"display_name":"Paul R B Houssel","orcid":null},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I165143802","display_name":"The University of Queensland","ror":"https://ror.org/00rqy9422","country_code":"AU","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I165143802"]}],"countries":["AU"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Paul R B Houssel","raw_affiliation_strings":["School of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, QLD, Australia"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"School of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, QLD, Australia","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I165143802"]}]},{"author_position":"last","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5078468070","display_name":"Marius Portmann","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1852-3961"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I165143802","display_name":"The University of Queensland","ror":"https://ror.org/00rqy9422","country_code":"AU","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I165143802"]}],"countries":["AU"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Marius Portmann","raw_affiliation_strings":["School of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, QLD, Australia"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"School of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, QLD, Australia","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I165143802"]}]}],"institutions":[],"countries_distinct_count":1,"institutions_distinct_count":1,"corresponding_author_ids":[],"corresponding_institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I165143802"],"apc_list":{"value":2370,"currency":"USD","value_usd":2370},"apc_paid":{"value":2370,"currency":"USD","value_usd":2370},"fwci":0.0,"has_fulltext":false,"cited_by_count":0,"citation_normalized_percentile":{"value":0.35051756,"is_in_top_1_percent":false,"is_in_top_10_percent":false},"cited_by_percentile_year":null,"biblio":{"volume":"282","issue":null,"first_page":"112236","last_page":"112236"},"is_retracted":false,"is_paratext":false,"is_xpac":false,"primary_topic":{"id":"https://openalex.org/T13607","display_name":"Academic Publishing and Open Access","score":0.07649999856948853,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1802","display_name":"Information Systems and Management"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/18","display_name":"Decision Sciences"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/2","display_name":"Social Sciences"}},"topics":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/T13607","display_name":"Academic Publishing and Open Access","score":0.07649999856948853,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1802","display_name":"Information Systems and Management"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/18","display_name":"Decision Sciences"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/2","display_name":"Social Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T13937","display_name":"Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Biomedical Research","score":0.04390000179409981,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1312","display_name":"Molecular Biology"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/13","display_name":"Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/1","display_name":"Life Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T11710","display_name":"Biomedical Text Mining and Ontologies","score":0.03709999844431877,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1312","display_name":"Molecular Biology"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/13","display_name":"Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/1","display_name":"Life Sciences"}}],"keywords":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/certification","display_name":"Certification","score":0.7242000102996826}],"concepts":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/C46304622","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q374814","display_name":"Certification","level":2,"score":0.7242000102996826},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C41008148","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21198","display_name":"Computer science","level":0,"score":0.6830000281333923},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C38652104","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3510521","display_name":"Computer security","level":1,"score":0.3903999924659729},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C39549134","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q133080","display_name":"Public relations","level":1,"score":0.353300005197525},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C136764020","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q466","display_name":"World Wide Web","level":1,"score":0.34150001406669617},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C110354214","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6314146","display_name":"Engineering management","level":1,"score":0.3098999857902527},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C108827166","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q175975","display_name":"Internet privacy","level":1,"score":0.3084999918937683},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C56739046","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q192060","display_name":"Knowledge management","level":1,"score":0.2989000082015991},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C76155785","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q418","display_name":"Telecommunications","level":1,"score":0.28439998626708984},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C509550671","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q126945","display_name":"Medical education","level":1,"score":0.26420000195503235}],"mesh":[],"locations_count":1,"locations":[{"id":"doi:10.1016/j.comnet.2026.112236","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2026.112236","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S63392143","display_name":"Computer Networks","issn_l":"1389-1286","issn":["1389-1286","1872-7069"],"is_oa":false,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":true,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/P4310320990","host_organization_name":"Elsevier BV","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/P4310320990"],"host_organization_lineage_names":["Elsevier BV"],"type":"journal"},"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Computer Networks","raw_type":"journal-article"}],"best_oa_location":{"id":"doi:10.1016/j.comnet.2026.112236","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2026.112236","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S63392143","display_name":"Computer Networks","issn_l":"1389-1286","issn":["1389-1286","1872-7069"],"is_oa":false,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":true,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/P4310320990","host_organization_name":"Elsevier BV","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/P4310320990"],"host_organization_lineage_names":["Elsevier BV"],"type":"journal"},"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Computer Networks","raw_type":"journal-article"},"sustainable_development_goals":[],"awards":[],"funders":[],"has_content":{"grobid_xml":false,"pdf":false},"content_urls":null,"referenced_works_count":6,"referenced_works":["https://openalex.org/W2051643126","https://openalex.org/W2075640998","https://openalex.org/W4391494845","https://openalex.org/W4400949264","https://openalex.org/W4407385829","https://openalex.org/W4416290734"],"related_works":[],"abstract_inverted_index":{"Large":[0],"language":[1],"models":[2,130],"(LLMs)":[3],"have":[4],"recently":[5],"demonstrated":[6],"significant":[7],"success":[8],"across":[9],"a":[10,30],"wide":[11],"range":[12],"of":[13,21,35,79],"domains.":[14],"Their":[15],"extensive":[16],"pre-training":[17],"on":[18,24,98],"vast":[19],"quantities":[20],"information":[22],"available":[23],"the":[25,46,76,80,99,113,133],"internet":[26],"endows":[27],"them":[28],"with":[29],"broad":[31],"and":[32,112,127],"general":[33],"understanding":[34,78],"many":[36],"areas.":[37],"This":[38],"presents":[39],"an":[40],"opportunity":[41],"to":[42,45,63,90],"apply":[43],"LLMs":[44,74],"networking":[47,81,93],"domain,":[48],"such":[49],"as":[50],"assisting":[51],"human":[52],"operators":[53],"in":[54,66],"maintaining":[55],"data":[56],"centers":[57],"or":[58],"helping":[59],"security":[60],"analysts":[61],"respond":[62],"network":[64],"attacks":[65],"time-sensitive":[67],"environments.":[68],"However,":[69],"it":[70],"remains":[71],"unclear":[72],"if":[73],"possess":[75],"necessary":[77],"domain.":[82],"To":[83],"evaluate":[84],"this,":[85],"we":[86],"assess":[87],"LLMs\u2019":[88],"ability":[89],"reason":[91],"about":[92],"by":[94],"testing":[95],"their":[96],"performance":[97],"Cisco":[100,107],"Certified":[101,108],"Network":[102],"Associate":[103],"(":[104],"CCNA":[105,134],"),":[106],"Support":[109],"Technician":[110],"(CCST)":[111],"Microsoft":[114],"Networking":[115],"Foundations":[116],"(N.F)":[117],"certifications,":[118],"industry-leading":[119],"exam.":[120],"Our":[121],"findings":[122],"reveal":[123],"that":[124,142],"various":[125],"open":[126],"closed":[128],"weights":[129],"can":[131],"pass":[132],"certification":[135],"but":[136],"encounter":[137],"difficulties":[138],"when":[139],"answering":[140],"questions":[141],"require":[143],"advanced":[144],"reasoning.":[145]},"counts_by_year":[],"updated_date":"2026-04-02T13:48:15.688549","created_date":"2026-03-28T00:00:00"}