Question

Project is to pick a LAN topology that would be best for the following considerations when opening a new office for a fictional company:

Your task is to choose one of the possible locations (chosen location is Rochester New York) and deliver a report to the team with key considerations and recommendations for the setup of the network infrastructure at the new office. This office will be home to 50 employees, including the new executive vice president of sales and marketing. All the possible sites have offices located on the third floor of an office building with access to fiber, cable, and T1 internet service providers. In addition to the standard network, the site must support live video teleconferencing calls with employees based at the other sites, as well as reliably send print jobs to billboard printers located in the satellite office in Austin.

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

I. Introduction: Summarize the key considerations of the project. For example, what are the “must haves?” What are the constraints?

II. LAN topology

A. Describe possible LAN topologies that could be used at the new location.

B. Compare the identified LAN topology possibilities based on their relative strengths and weaknesses in regard to support practices.

C. Based on your comparison, determine the appropriate LAN topology for this location to allow for optimal support practices. Be sure to explain your reasoning.

Answer 1

A.

There are many topologies which are used in LAN(local area network). In the above condition, there are two topology which is suitable for this condition.

1. Star Topology.

2. Mesh Topology.

• Star topology: Star topology is a common type of topology that is designed for local area network(LAN). In star topology, the most important device is HUB. Hub is the central connection point where all nodes are connected to this HUB through coaxial or fiber cable. This central connection point is attached to the nodes where a node can communicate between another node via HUB.
• Mesh topology: Mesh topology is a common type of topology that is also designed for LAN network. In mesh topology, each and every nodes are connected each other by using fiber cables or coaxial cables. So, if one node get disconnect then other nodes can be working fine. In mesh topology, multiple LAN can be connect by using fiber cables.

B.

The strengths of a star topology are:

• This topology is proves out to be reliable if suppose one system fails then all the others will continue to work.
• It gives high-performance there will be no data collisions.The Star or Hub topology is one of the simplest and famous community topology observed in maximum workplaces and domestic networks. It has become very popular in long run because of the cost and the ease of troubleshooting.
• Less damage or suffering in case of a single system failure without affecting the entire network.
• It is very much easy to connect new nodes or devices. In the same way components are easy to be removed as well.

The weaknesses of a star topology are:

• It is very much expensive installing the setup as this type of network uses the maximum amount of cable (network cable is expensive).
• More added hardware setups are required (like hubs or switches) which puts an added cost.
• If assume hub or transfer fails, all of the gadgets which are related to it may not have community connection.
• Length of the cable is also an important concern which is very much complicated, more expensive than linear bus topology.

The strengths of a Mesh topology are:

• Scalability. These networks has no need of any additional routers.
• Problem Resistant.
• Easy maintainability.
• Improved Work access for Each of the Node.

The weaknesses of a Mesh topology are:

• Every node in a mesh network has a lot of responsibilities to fulfill is not only just sending messages but the node can act as the central router.
• Each time we add a new node it makes the entire system more complex.
• Increase the range of the system is added it will receive huge number of unwanted complications due to huge data load.
• At the initial point we have to face major latency issues as a initial setup is very much complicated and time consuming and need to check that every message is routed properly from the start to the end.

C.

• According to me for this current condition and situation i can suggest star topology to be convenient for the timing and it will step out as the best one. There are many other reasons but the best reason is that every system is actually connected to the central node server router or hub due to which proper network distribution happens and their transmission within the network passes from the central hub to all its branches.In case if there is a problem that one of the branches gets affected it won't affect the other branches to stop their work.
• Star topology is one of the most computer convenient in network technology which can be mainly used for official use connection services connecting use number of machines and systems. Using star protocol topology the best facility that any organization gets that is to have all the important data backup on the hub into a particular private folder which is secured as well and this way if in case there is a network issue the entire material gets and remains backed up and stored.
• It provides security and privacy for any organization to deal with this kind of technology network. Star topology is very much reliable and one of the oldest common technology which is popular among the network service area. There are repeaters in the connection which will also help to improve the network service. It is very much easy to add new devices to the network without any sort of interrupting within the nodes. During problems it is very much easy to troubleshoot and shutdown the problem as it also supports better performance are the best performance support among all the other topologies available.

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