Company network architecture
Part I
In designing a network, several factors are considered and are dictated by the use of the network. Looking at the case in hand, the network is supposed to address the five departments each separately, communication within the departments and within the local geographical locations (California and New Jersey) and intercity communication between the two business units.
Looking at the five departments, each department should have its own network so as to operate effectively. This means that the department will have its own network architecture depending on the number of employees it has. The main objective of this departmental network is internal communication, data transfer and file sharing. These functions require speed but to hold the cost the network at affordable rates, use of UTP cables in horizontal cabling and workstations may be appropriate (Farr, 1988)
The departmental network architecture should comprise of a switch or a number of switches, hubs, servers, wireless routers and end user devices like work stations, laptops and IP phones.
The general outline of the network should be a shown below.
For IP phone communication, a special UTP cable may be used alongside an intercom so as to ensure fast and efficient communication.
Each departmental network is protected from unauthorized access by use of a firewall. This ensures that files in one department may not be read from another department thus cases of fraud and missing files or alteration remains low (Stephen, 1998). The firewall also enables protection of wireless network from any intruder to the department. This serves the same purpose of stopping unauthorized use of the departmental resources (Norbert, 2004).
The departmental network cabling is done mainly using UTP cables since the distance covered by one cable is approximated to be much below 800m. The speed is also enough since very few end user devices are capable of transferring data at rates of more than 100Mbs which is the limit of UTP cables (Farr, 1988).
Departmental networks are connected using routers and coaxial cables. The routers enable communication within the office network even if the end user devices are in different OSI layers. Coaxial cables are used to ensure speed within the office network. These cables are also much immune against electrical or magnetic interference. Some servers containing office databases that do not require protection may also be found in this part of the network architecture (Farr, 1988).
The data transfer in this section of the network requires a higher bandwidth than in the departmental networks thus a cable with higher bandwidth capacity than in the departmental networks has to be used. A coaxial cable may also run through all departmental heads’ offices so as to enable teleconferencing within the office (Penttinen, 2001).
For efficient and fast communication between the two head offices in California and New Jersey, an optic cable should be installed. This is because of the unlimited bandwidth associated with this type of cable, immunity against electromagnetic interferences and speed of propagation (speed of light) (Farr, 1988).
Use of wireless networks enable flexibility since the department may add some new devices which are Wi-Fi enabled thus access the network. The process of setting up these networks is also easy since it involves just the deployment of routers and setting up the security levels. The cabling also allows flexibility since the cost of cabling will remain low (Norbert, 2004).
The routers used in this network design should be a mixture of wired network routers and wireless routers. The wireless routers will work on wireless networks while the wired routers will work on cabled network. Since applications like teleconferencing are required large transmission bandwidth and a wireless network may not be in a position to meet this requirement, the wired network routers should have alternative routes to enable communication if one router fails (Penttinen, 2001).
Use of DHCP server may be necessary so as to reduce the process of configuring new devices into the network. This should not come at the expense of network security thus network passwords should remain in place. Other servers which should be present includes: DNS server, file server, e-mail servers and web servers.
Part II
This part deals with methodologies of the network design, strengths and weaknesses of the design and the relative position of the design in telecommunications standards.
Looking at the methodologies applied the basic approach which involves planning, outsourcing and operations and maintenance is applied. Planning for the business unit involves the actual accounting from the network design from planning to implementation. Outsourcing involves the source of the requirements in the network design. Operation and maintenance comes after the network has been set up and tested to prove its operation (Brunner, 2004).
A modular approach in network design is the basic application in this network design. The complex office network is broken down to small units each of which is easy to analyze, implement and test. There is also ease in the testing bit of the network since each departmental network is tested on its own. Trouble shooting is also addressed by this approach (Brunner, 2004).
The main strength of this design is ease of deployment and testing. This is mainly because the network part is small enough to concentrate on without confusion. The testing phase is also by parts thus easy to monitor the response of each and every part of the network. The second strength is ease of implementation of the design. The topography is easy to deploy and understand.
One main weakness the high number of equipment required. The high number of equipment increases the network implementation thus this design may be a little more expensive than expected.
Lastly, I can confidently say that I have a lot about network design from this project. The first thing that I can say I have learnt is a modular approach to network design. This approach has proven very efficient and updated. It has also eased my work in network implementation and design. The second thing that I have learnt is how to prescribe cables according to the devices that require linking.
Farr R. 1988. Telecommunications Traffic, Tariffs and Costs – An Introduction For Managers, Peter Peregrinus Ltd.
Penttinen A. 2001. Network Planning and Dimensioning: Introduction to Telegraphic Theory. Helsinki University of Technology.
Stephen K and Ran A. 1998. Security Architecture for the Internet Protocol. RFC 2401. Prentice hall Inc
Norbert N and Andreas S. 2004. Ambient Networks: An Architecture for Communication Networks Beyond 3G. IEEE Wireless Communications, Vol. 11, No. 2. Penguin publishers
