Question

Apteryx, based in Queen Street, have approached you to gain some insight into their planned development of the company’s IT setup. The management wish to expand the company and as such they want to be able to connect the new satellite offices to their main office in Queen Street. The two new satellite offices will be in Otara and on Waiheke Island. But it turns out that the management knows nothing about the technology involved in connecting the new satellite office to the main office. Your task is to develop a report which will educate the management on the basics of networking.

The following must be included in your report;

a) the conceptual concepts e.g. topologies and layered models

b) using the concept of OSI and TCP/IP models compare the process a human would send a message against how a computer would do the same.

c) type of equipment they will need to purchase to achieve their goals, provide a discussion on the types of equipment.

d) the complexity involved in providing a complete solution.

Answer 1

Ans:

a. Conceptual Concepts:

1. Topologies:

A network arrangement connecting nodes of sender and receiver is called network topology.

The topologies we might use in this case are:

i) Mesh Topology:

Every center is connected to another center.

Advantage: Very robust

Disadvantage: Cost will be high

ii) Star topology:

All nodes are connected to central hub.

2. Transmission Modes:

i) Simplex mode:

Only the satellite center will be able to send information to other centers.

ii) Full Duplex mode (preferred):

All the centers can send information to each other simultaneously.

b. Comparison:

Human	Computer
1. Very slow in sending the information.	1. Very fast as compared to humans.
2. Multiple people required if a lot of information is to be transferred.	2. Can trasnfer huge amount of data simultaneously.
3. Chances of errors are high.	3. Chances of errors are pretty less.
4. Information will be stored in human brain and will be sent.	4. The packet will first be encrypted to enable security using presentation layer, then the information will be released through the process port using transport layer, after this the network layer will ensure network to network delivery and then the data link layer will ensure delivery to particular pc on the center.

4th point compares things on the basis of OSI model.

c. Equipments required:

1. Hub:

A central PC will act as a hub on the satellite center which will do the task of transferring the information everywhere else.

2. Repeater:

Required if the signal weakens on the way.

3. Router:

To gather and send packets on thorugh from a particular center.

4. Optical Cable:

Will act as medium for the transfer of data.

d. Complexity involved:

1. Need to gather permission to setup wires or wireless connection to connect different centers.

2. Cost will be a bit higher to setup the medium and make connections.

3. Multiple PCs and several devices listed above will required.

4. Cost of damage and maintanence will be added.