Reference no: EM132523530

ICT703 Network Technology and Management - University of the Sunshine Coast

Background

You have obtained a contract position at a large organisation. Your contract responsibilities include preparing a proposal for a data communications network to serve the organisation's requirements.

Network Scope
The proposed network needs to serve the organisation's Central Office and two of its remote offices. The Central Office, located in Brisbane, contains five departments to be served by this network. Each remote office contains four departments to be served. The North Office is located in North Lakes, about 30 Km from the Central Office. The South Office is located in Helensvale, about 65 Km from the Central Office. This network is mainly intended for administrative purposes.

Objectives of the Network

The network to be designed to achieve several specific operational objectives:
1. Secure Service: The main objective of this network is to provide secure administrative computing service to the Central Office and two adjoint offices. It is to be designed to be functionally and physically isolated from access by people not employed by the organisation so as to minimize the risk of unauthorized use.
2. Integration and Update: Presently there are many LANs in the organisation, but much of the equipment is out of date, many of the LANs are incompatible with each other, and not connected in a system-wide network. Your proposal should describe a WAN that integrates and updates these LANs to support productive collaboration across the system.
3. Versatile Information Processing: The network should enable users to retrieve, process, and store ASCII and non-ASCII text, still graphics, audio, and video from any connected computer.
4. Collaboration: The network should combine the power and capabilities of diverse equipment across the three offices to provide a collaborative medium that helps users combine their skills regardless of their physical location. A well-designed network for this organisation will enable people to share information and ideas easily so they can work more efficiently and productively.
5. Scalability: The design should be scalable so that more remote offices can be added as funding becomes available without having to redo the installed network.

Intended Users
The primary users of the network at the Central Office are three administrators, three secretaries, ten members of the Technical Department, eight members of the Human Resource Department, six members of the Finance/Accounting Department, and three members of the Computer Services Department. At the remote offices the primary users are four administrators, four secretaries, four members of the Computer Services Department, sixteen members of the Human Resource Department, and two members of the Finance/Accounting Department.

Clients and the public are secondary users of the network in that they may receive information produced on the network, but they will not directly use the network.

Data Types
The types of data served by the network will be reports, bulletins, accounting information, personnel profiles, and web pages. The majority of the data will be text (ASCII and non-ASCII), but there will be some still graphics and possibly a small amount of voice and video (primarily for PC- based teleconferencing).

Data Sources
Data will be created and used at all end stations on the network. The data will be produced by software applications in Windows 10, primarily Dream Weaver and Office 2016 Professional (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and Outlook). Other data sources to be supported on at least a limited basis will Windows 10 Accessories (Paint, Notepad, etc.), NetMeeting, Media Player, and Photoshop. Note that the network will be not accessible from outside.
Network Needs Analysis
Numbers of Users and Priority Levels
At the Central Office, the users will be administrators, secretaries, and members of four departments. At the adjoint offices, the users will be administrators, secretaries, and members of three departments. The maximum estimated number of users on the network at any given time is 100, including 33 regular users in the Central Office, 30 regular users in the North Office, 30 regular users in the South Office, and seven otherwise unanticipated users.

Three priority levels to be supported: management (top priority), user (medium priority), and background (low priority). Note that these designations do not correspond to administrative levels in the organisation; rather, they are network service levels. Network management processes will receive top-priority service; most network processes will receive medium-priority service; a few processes (e.g., e-mail transfers, backup, etc.) will be given low-priority service. It should be noted that network management will usually consume a small amount of the available bandwidth; this means that management and user processes will usually enjoy identical support. Background processes will also usually receive more than adequate service, but they will be delayed as needed to maintain support for management and user services.

Transmission Speed Requirements
The network is to be transparent to the users. Thus, remotely executed applications, file transfers, and so forth should ideally appear to operate as quickly as processes executed within an end- station. Interviews with users to ascertain their needs and expectations indicate that an average throughput of 20 mbps per user within each LAN and 10 mbps per user between LANs will more than support the needed performance in most cases (teleconferencing being the possible exception).

Load Variation Estimates
Interviews with users and observation of LAN use at the three locations yielded data on hourly average and peak loads from January to March, 2020. The data indicate that the highest average traffic volume will occur from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The peak network traffic volume is expected at two times during the day: 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon and 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. At night and on weekends the network traffic is minimal except for the daily backups of the PCs to the LAN servers in the remote offices and several batch data transfers anticipated from the remote offices to the Central Office. The data indicate the following network design parameters:
• The average required throughput on any LAN during work hours (7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.) will be only about 0.2 mbps.
• The average required throughput on the WAN during work hours (7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.) will be only 0.04 mbps.
• The peak expected traffic load on any LAN will be about 10.4 mbps.
• The peak expected traffic load on the WAN will be about 6.4 mbps.
Note: to avoid user complaints, the network should be designed for the peak traffic loads, not the average throughput.

Storage Requirements
Storage requirements need to be large enough to store all data. Interviews and observations of users' present and anticipated storage requirements indicate that each user will need an average of 100 MB of server space (in addition to secondary storage on local PCs); the maximum estimated server-side storage requirement per user is about 1 GB. Additionally, the network operating system will occupy about 500 MB on each LAN server. Taking price-performance issues into account, each PC will have a minimum storage capacity of 10 GB, each LAN server will have a minimum storage capacity of 20 GB. A main data server in the Central Office will have a 36 GB capacity.

Reliability Requirements
In keeping with user expectations and industry standards, both the LANs and the WAN are expected to operate at 99.9% uptime and an undiscovered error rate of .001%.

Security Requirements
Firewalls to be used so unauthorized users will be restricted. Part of the security will be Users accounts and passwords that will give limited access. There should be different access capabilities for network managers and users.

Design Assumptions
• Wireless internet access should be made available in all departments.
• In response to the organisation's enquiries regarding their IPv4 needs, their ISP has advised
that they can use this block of public IPv4 addresses: 186.132.192.192/27
• Each department at each location should maintain an individual network, while all the departments should be able to communicate with each other, and any necessary internal server(s), and access the Internet. Network management protocols must be deployed to make identification and management of network devices easy and convenient.

Assignment Requirements and Deliverables
You are to prepare a formal proposal report for the above organisation, which should include the following details (Activities 1-5) in the main body of the report. The proposal should cover the details asked in Activities 1-5 for the above case study and justify suitable technologies to enhance the organisation's communications and networking within and outside the organisation. Be sure to include all necessary information and network diagrams.
After you have gathered all the appropriate information, it is time to do some research. You must now use your knowledge and research skills to propose an appropriate technical solution for their limited budget and time requirements. When developing a plan, it is often easier to start at the end user and then work back toward the network and any shared resources, and then finally, any external connections to the Internet or other networks.

Problem 1
Develop and demonstrate a complete network layout plan for the organisation. Because the organisation has limited funds available for this project, it is important that where possible only equipment designed for the small business and home markets be used.

Problem 2
After the network layout has been selected, it is time to look at the workflow and decide on any shared components and network technology to support this workflow. This can include such things as shared printers, scanners, and storage as well as any firewalls, routers, switches, access points and integrated service routers. When planning a network infrastructure, always plan into the future. For larger companies, because it is usually a substantial investment, the infrastructure should have a lifetime of about 10 years. For smaller companies and home users, the investment is significantly less and change occurs more frequently.
Using the Internet and locally available resources, research available high-speed colour copiers/printers/scanners, access points, switches and routers that are suitable for the organisation's offices. In your report include a write-up for at least two devices of each equipment type and provide supporting details to justify your selection. Included in the write-up should be a description of the device, including the manufacturer, the model, the seller, the cost, and a brief summary of the manufacturer specifications.

Problem 3
It is necessary to plan the Internet connectivity, and which services are provided by the ISP and which services must be provided in-house. Larger companies usually provide services in-house, while small businesses and individuals normally rely on an ISP to provide these services. Most ISPs offer a variety of services and service levels.
In your report include the specifics of internal services (networking and security) that must be offered by the organisation, and the devices and protocols that provide these services. Provide supporting details to justify your answer.

Problem 4
After the equipment has been selected and the required services planned, the physical and logical installation is planned out. Physical installation includes the location of equipment and devices, along with how and when these devices are to be installed. In the business environment, it is important to minimize disruption of the normal work processes. Therefore, most installations, changes, and upgrades are done during hours when there is minimal business activity. Physical installation should also consider such things as adequate power outlets and ventilation, as well as the location of any necessary data drops. Planning for physical installation is out of the scope of this assignment.
Equally as important as planning the physical layout of the network and equipment is planning the logical layout. This includes such things as subnetting, addressing, naming, data flow, and security measures. Servers and some network devices are assigned static IP addresses to allow them to be easily identified on the network and to also provide a mechanism for controlling access to these devices. Most other devices can be assigned addresses using DHCP. Note that both a server and its backup server must be accessed via the same public IP address.

Devise subnetting and addressing schemes for the organisation. The schemes must provide servers and some other network devices (where necessary) with a static address and allow all other hosts to be configured via DHCP. Identify and list the details of all internal and external subnets and the ranges of useable IP addresses (and default gateways) for DHCP within each internal subnet, and also assign an appropriate IP address (and default gateways) to network devices that should use a static IP address.
Use the following tables to report the required setups for subnetting and addressing.

Problem 5
The organisation is concerned that their files and resources may be vulnerable through the wired or wireless networks. Explain how the use of public and private IP addresses together may address this concern and provide a security plan that allows only the organisation's employees to connect to the network and gain access to company information and resources.
Prepare and Present the Proposal
All gathered information and the proposed technical solution must be assembled into a format that makes sense to the organisation who has asked you to provide a solution. The formal report usually contains many different sections, including:
• Title page
• Executive Summary
• Tables of Contents, Figures and Tables
• Introduction
• Project proposal, comprising needs statement, goals and objectives, methodology and timetable, technical solutions and evaluation, budget summary, and future plans.
• Recommendations and Conclusions
• Bibliography and List of Refences
• Appended information
The report is often presented to various groups for approval. When presenting the report, present it in a confident, professional, and enthusiastic manner. The report must be technically accurate and free from spelling and grammatical errors.
The report must be written in Microsoft Word. Multiple files will not be accepted. Report Structure: The report must be formatted using the following guidelines:
• Paragraph text: Use 11-point Calibri single line spacing
• Headings: Use Arial in an appropriate type size
• Margins: 2.0cm on all margins
• Header: Report title
• Footer: Page numbering - up to and including the Table of Contents use roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv), restart numbering using conventional numerals (1, 2, 3, 4) from the first page after the Table of Contents.
• Title Page must not contain headers or footers
• The report is to be structured as a formal business report.

Attachment:- Network Technology and Management.rar