The solo in Communication Breakdown is very typical of early Jimmy Page. During this stage of his career he used a lot of licks based on the E pentatonic minor scale. This is one such example. Due to the fast speed it's not beginner-friendly. However, if you endeavour to play these licks at a much slower pace you will still learn some good classic rock licks. As always, the speed will come with practice.

The solo starts with the 1st finger holding 2 notes at fret 12 on the highest 2 strings. Notice that these fingers remain in this position throughout the licks. These 2 notes are E and B, which are the strongest 2 notes from the E pentatonic minor scale. All the little bends, pull offs, etc 'work' around these 2 notes.

Halfway through the solo he shifts down to fret 9. He still uses the scale pattern of the E pentatonic minor scale. Except at fret 9 it becomes C# pentatonic minor. It still works fine over the backing music here even though it isn't a perfect fit in terms of traditional use of backing chords and lead scales.

Although he bases most of the solo on the standard E pentatonic scale pattern, sometimes he does add in other notes. You don't have to rigidly stick to scales to make solos sound good. But it does give you a ballpark notion of what to play. If you become familiar with the scale, and especially licks / phrases commonly used with that scale you will have a better idea of how to learn the solo. Some of the lead phrases he uses here are very common in rock music. Especially the opening phrases.

If you are a beginner interested in learning scales, then work through the various Jamzone / Theory articles on the site. For the scales used in this solo, we recommend the following starting places:

E pentatonic minor scale

Natural minor scales