Introduction
With the advent of wireless connectivity and the need to have connectivity of wireless devices within an organization, there has been the need to have wireless networks. The planning and deployment of wireless networks is an issue of concern that should be taken into consideration in the entire process. This paper will focus on wireless deployment plan that will be used in the campus. The campus would like to make use of wireless networks that will be useful for mobility of employees, faculty members and the students within the campus.
Wireless Deployment Plan Overview
The wireless plan will be used to deploy a wireless network to the campus that has many buildings in a given area. The wireless network will be useful in undertaking and carrying out the required office tasks. This task is for employees. For the students, the network will enable them to have the wireless network which will meet the network requirements of the company. The campus has many buildings that will all have to be connected and covered by the wireless network. In each of the buildings, there will be a need to have access points that will be used to access the wireless network. There will be routers that will be used in the campus that will manage the access of the network.
There will be security of the network which will ensure that there are secure connections and that the users will not be the source of attacks to the network. At all times, it is important to ensure that there is an understanding of the users and their behaviors. It will help to have secure connections to the network. There will be many devices that will be used in setting up a wireless network. These devices include routers, access points and switches. The switches that will be used to configure wireless devices belonging to users who might want to have a connection to desktop computers. Purpose and Scope
The purpose of the wireless network will be to provide wireless network plan that will be used by the campus in setting their wireless network. The plan will be used in addressing the needs of the wireless users in the campus. The plan will cover one campus with many buildings. For the sake of this paper, the plan will cover ten buildings. Most of the other buildings will have the same requirements with one building. The devices that will be used will be similar to equipment that have been suggested and configured in most of the buildings.
Wireless Network Equipment and Devices
There will be different network equipment that will be used in a wireless network. These devices have different functions in the building. Some of the devices that will be used in a wireless plan include:
Wireless Routers – They will be required in order have traffic control in the network. The routers will be the ones that will provide the wireless spectrum that will be used in the network. There will be different subnets that will be connected and configured in the network. The different subnets will have different IP addresses. The subnets will be connected through the router. The router will also forward packets from one subnet to another. There will be different routers that will be used to connect the different buildings.
Access point – it is the device that enables the clients to connect to the network. Access points are enabled in such a manner that they can receive and transmit radio frames from a wireless network. They can communicate with the network. The difference with a router is that the access point does not interconnect subnets. It only enables the clients to connect with one another. The different buildings will have different access points. There will be buildings that will have more than one access points because of the size of the network that is being interconnected (Al-Turjman, Hassanein, & Ibnkahla, 2013).
Gateway – there will be the use of gateways that will be used to connect one network to another network. In most cases, it will be a computer that has two network interface cards. In current developments, gateways are integrated with the router and firewall.
Wireless Network Device Configuration
There will be a need to configure the network in order to have better and enhanced connectivity. The wireless routers will be set in such a manner that they will be able to assign IP addresses for a given range. There will be a need to have interface activating in order for the wireless devices to get a connection. The routers will also be configured for security purposes. There will be a need to ensure that there is enhanced security on the network in order to have the right network configurations in the entire network.
The access points will pick the IP addresses from the wireless routers. The range in which they can operate will be configured into the wireless network that has been already configured. The network will use class C IP addressing scheme. It is one of the most reliable IP addresses with the current network. Wireless Client Configuration and Access
There will be a need to configure the wireless clients in order to ensure that they can access the network. The wireless clients will be configured so that they can access the network through setting the wireless settings. The wireless devices will get the IP addresses automatically. Since the network will have security settings, the clients will have the users get the password for the network. The operating system will be configured so that they can have access control for the use of the device. There will be the device security and a wireless network security. The clients will be responsible for their device security while the wireless network security will be the responsibility of the computer technicians.
Wireless Network Staffing, Training, and Support Requirements
For a network to be effective, there will be a need to have training of the staff and the employees who will use the network. It is important to understand the network requirements of the users and have ways in which the users will understand the procedures and requirements before they use the network. The users will be trained on how to use the network and the extent in which they can use the wireless network. The training will be conducted as per the department. The various departmental heads will organize to have the training of their staff. The most important training that will be done will be that of the security of the network. Most attacks will come from careless network users who do not care how they use the network. It is important to understand these connections and have ways in which the staff will be able to connect to the network with responsibility from their side (Pereira et al., 2011).
There will also be a training for the management. The issue of access control plays a significant role in any network management process. The different access levels will mean that there will be training of people in a different access cadres.
Wireless Network Security Requirements
Security is a significant requirement in any network. There will be a need to implement security of the network. The current standard that will be used in the campus wireless network will be Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2). It is important to understand the requirements of the network in order to have the wireless network secure. The WPA2 will be used on an enterprise edition because of the size of the network in the campus. It is important to understand the network requirements and have ways in which the network will be protected in the entire process (Benyamina, Hafid, & Gendreau, 2012).
There will also be a need to have authentication of the devices that will be used in the network. The devices will have to be registered in the network. For a device to be connected to the network, they will have to be registered with a user. The user will take the responsibility of the damages or security issues that will come as a result of the use of the device. It is important to understand these requirements and have measures that will ensure that there is secure network connection. All users will be required to access the network with the use of a password that will be useful in accessing the network. The users will be required to be responsible for the passwords for the different networks. It will be important and prudent for the users to have ways in which they will be able to understand the network requirements. Also, they should have ways in which the network will be accessed and managed (Guinard et al., 2011,).
Terms and Definitions
Subnet – it is a part of a network that has been derived from logical division of a network
Wireless device – it is a device that can connect to a wireless network
LAN – Local Area Network
WPA -Wi-Fi Protected Access
Conclusion
Wireless networks are becoming popular with the advent of mobile devices. There is a need to plan wireless networks so that they can accommodate expansion of the networks. It will help to understand the expansion and the network requirements for future expansion of the networks. Security is a key component that need to be included in the network. Security will help to enhance the connectivity of the networks and will also ensure that there is an understanding of the network on the way it has been designed. Network security should be included in security policy of the campus. All the buildings should be secured with WPA2 in order to have outsiders having to access the network formally through some point. There should be close monitoring of a wireless network in order to have an understanding of the users and their attempts to break into some point.
References
Al-Turjman, F. M., Hassanein, H. S., & Ibnkahla, M. A. (2013). Efficient deployment of wireless sensor networks targeting environment monitoring applications. Computer Communications, 36(2), 135-148.
Benyamina, D., Hafid, A., & Gendreau, M. (2012). Wireless mesh networks design—a survey. Communications Surveys & Tutorials, IEEE, 14(2), 299-310.
Guinard, A., Aslam, M. S., Pusceddu, D., Rea, S., McGibney, A., & Pesch, D. (2011, October). Design and deployment tool for in-building wireless sensor networks: A performance discussion. In Local Computer Networks (LCN), 2011 IEEE 36th Conference on (pp. 649-656). IEEE.
Pereira, V., Sa Silva, J., Granjal, J., Silva, R., Monteiro, E., & Pan, Q. (2011, February). A taxonomy of wireless sensor networks with QoS. In New Technologies, Mobility and Security (NTMS), 2011 4th IFIP International Conference on (pp. 1-4). IEEE.
