IT331 Week 5
CSMA-CD is not used in wireless because it cannot detect whether a collision occurred or not, therefore, it will be of no use.
2.0 Price and performance
Considering the fact that about 100 employees will be connected to the network, I would recommend the use of wired network because wired LAN offers superior performance as compared to wireless LAN. It is prudent to use Ethernet switches since they are cheaper and also utilizes the available bandwidth. Ethernet switches are relatively cheaper than hubs hence most recommended (Laude, 2002). It is also important to note that hubs may suffer performance slowdown hence with 1000MBPs; several switches can be deployed to ensure everyone is connected without problems.
Software packages such as Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) are often free and cheaper hence can be used to aid in connection alongside Ethernet cables. Since the office area covers a distance less than 2,000 feet, it is only secure to utilize wired network with fast Ethernet. The table 2.2 below shows the prices of some of the network components required for a wired LAN.
The wired network equipment cost much less and can be manageable. Implementation time for LAN network is much lower and cheaper as compared to WAN network. The details in the table above are represented in the chart below.
Figure 2.2 Equipment price representations yearly from 1997 to 2012.
Source: Author (2017)
The choice of wired network and Ethernet switches and cables enhance network speeds for all the users even if the number of users increases. Users will be able to send and receive emails promptly because of the fast Ethernet speeds that come along with the use of LAN network.
Physical and virtual Design
Physical Design refers to the actual layout of a network with components such as switches, cables, firewall, workstations, printers and routers among others. On the other side, virtual design refers to the logical aspect of the network where the network design is completed using tools such as VMware (Radja, 2015). Virtual design is completed on paper then logically designed with Microsoft switches that are used during the integration of both the virtual and physical designs. Microsoft’s hyper-vision is used when providing security to virtual network especially on VM path. It is only possible to use various tools to access the virtual network such as DHCP snooping tools, Net-Flow, encapsulated remote, and port analyzer.
Physical design is expensive as compared to virtual designs that do not require physical components (Marau, 2006). Virtual designs are easy to troubleshoot as compared to physical designs that take the time to completely troubleshoot in case of any challenge. A virtual network cannot be physically damaged as compared to a physical design that is easily interrupted because of physical occurrences. However, both virtual and physical designs can be represented on paper and also configured using switches. It is also possible to integrate both physical and virtual designs using switches. Virtual and physical designs can be used concurrently to facilitate communication between offices.
Switches
Switches are defined as devices used to make or break electric circuits. In this case, switches are defined as a node used to connect two or more components within a given network. A network switch is grouped into two, managed switches and unmanaged switches. Managed switches are those that have been configured to accommodate other devices in the network. They are mostly used in network design. Unmanaged switches are those that have not been configured and often work out of the box since they are not designed to be configured (Radja, 2015). In this case, managed switches are commonly used to complete networks both virtually and physically. Unmanaged switches are only used at home but managed switches are used both at home and offices.
Managed switches have several ports that are used to connect devices such as routers, workstations, printers, servers, and firewall. They are completely different from hubs in many ways such as the number of ports and configurations. Hubs are used when connecting different Ethernet devices in order to form a single device while switches are used when joining multiple devices within the local area network. The figure 4.1 below illustrates how a normal switch looks like. Both the hub and the switch can be used interchangeably but cannot be configured the same way.
Figure 4.1 Net-gear Network Switch: blitzconnects.com
Source: netgear.com
References
Laude, J. P. (2002). DWDM fundamentals, components, and applications. Boston, London: Artech House. Retrieved from <https://www.osapublishing.org/viewmedia.cfm?id=68848&seq=0>
Marau, R., Almeida, L., & Pedreiras, P. (2006). Enhancing real-time communication over costs ethernet switches. In WFCS (Vol. 6, pp. 295-302). Retrieved from <http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.384.188&rep=rep1&type=pdf>
Radja, P. (2015). The Overview of Wired and Wireless Networks and the Need for the Transition from Wired to Wireless Networks. International Journal of Industrial Electronics and Electrical Engineering. Retrieved from <http://pep.ijieee.org.in/journal_pdf/11-176-143885218152-56.pdf>
