Reference no: EM132289195

PLEASE READ THE CASE BELOW AND ANSWER THE QUESTION

Data Link Layer

Th e NDAS’s board of directors has decided that NDAS will centralize communication along two major data links (Atlanta to Tampa and New Orleans to Tampa), as shown in Case Figure 4-1. You recommended leased T-1 lines from the offices to Atlanta and New Orleans, but the board of directors would not approve further cash outlays at this time. You hear a rumor that President Les Coone suggested to several board members that developments in data communication, such as these additional T-1 lines, might be overkill and that these conservative board members vetoed the funding for the additional leased circuits.

As you continue to work on the network plan, you perceive that you are becoming much more involved with the firm’s strategic planning initiatives for survival. You realize that NDAS will become dependent on its communication facilities for its very existence. In other words, the communication systems at NDAS are the foundation for the firm’s mission-critical applications.

You are burdened with all sorts of thoughts about potential problems and possible errors that can threaten NDAS’s communication capabilities. For example, you worry about recent major circuit and switch outages experienced by some of the leading common carriers. You recognize the fact that even though your operations were affected only slightly by these outages, someday NDAS could undergo a costly disruption of its communication network.

You do not view such a situation as a major competitive threat, because NDAS’s principal competitors have similar networks, and all the parcel delivery services would be paralyzed in the event of a disastrous outage. You do, however, want to examine sources of errors in networks and find reasonable error-control mechanisms that will provide NDAS with a competitive edge. For example, are there specialized techniques that can be used for error detection and correction in NDAS communication networks? You decide to research these possibilities further and add this project to your ever-growing list of things to do.

For now, you have been asked to explore the feasibility of integrating voice, video, and data traffic on to a single transmission circuit. You must determine whether this is a viable option. To make this decision, you want to examine the current transmission circuits and assess their ability to handle the anticipated work load.

Question

1. Prepare a position paper on the types of errors you can expect in the NDAS network and the steps you believe NDAS can take to prevent, detect, and correct these errors.