Question

. Star Smoothie in Summerville, South Carolina specializes in smoothies but also sells light breakfast and lunch items as well as coffee, tea, and soda. The owner noticed that many customers bring their computers to do work while enjoying a smoothie. He wants to support these customers by offering them wireless Internet access. A recent customer survey also indicated that many customers loved the smoothies but were frustrated by the time to wait in line and to wait for the smoothie to be made. One of the employees suggests that an order-ahead application would allow customers to choose and pay for a smoothie from their phones and then just stop in at the specified time to pick them up. The owner wants to integrate support for making and fulfilling such orders. Currently the only forms of communication the shop owners have are a telephone and a credit card machine for payments. The owner has asked you to design a network that will allow customer Internet access, will support the order-ahead idea, and will allow customers to move inventory, finances, and other records to electronic systems.

You have already conducted a needs analysis for the network of the business you are working with. The next step is to translate that understanding of various users in terms of what they need into a specific list of design requirements. This will serve as a checklist for your design. For each item, you should provide a brief description of why that specific requirement is necessary.

Possible examples include:

• Password-protected guest wireless access: The business wants to allow customers to access the Internet, but does not want general open access. This customer access should not give access to other network resources or computers and should not allow customers to access one another’s computers when logged on.
• Shared data storage with version control: Employees often collaborate on documents and other materials. Common, shared access is needed for these materials. Employees should know when someone else is working on the materials or when changes have been made to support collaboration without inadvertently losing work.
• Internet access: All computers on the company network need to be able to access the Internet through a shared modem.

Assignment (3–5 pages):

Create a list consisting of at least ten specific requirements for the network you are designing. Explain each requirement in terms of the needs of the business you have chosen to work with.

Answer 1

The least ten specific requirements along with the explanation for the network to be designed are as follows:

1. Switches and Hubs requirement: For designing a network which consist of the computers which are connected to each other, the basic requirement for developing a network is to have the switches/Hubs in order to connect the computers with each other in the Ethernet network.
2. Requirement of the Modems and the Routers: In order to setting up the network, the routers and the modems are very useful and needed also.
3. Cable for the Network: Along with the hubs or the switches, the cables are also used for the connection between the computers.
4. Network Adapter: There must be a Network interface card of the computer which refers to the adapter of the network. With the NIC, the computers will be able to connect through the network.
5. Peripheral Devices: Sometimes the peripheral devices such as mouse, speakers, disk drive etc are required for the user interface.
6. Computer Antivirus: In order to protect computers from the malicious activities or the viruses, the antiviruses must be installed in the computer to protect the data.
7. Firewalls: To restrict the interfaces or the users which are not authorized in the network, the firewalls are required for the protection.
8. Data storage systems: There must be software in the computer that stores the data in the database. It is useful to store the data and to manage as per the requirements.
9. Monitoring software: The software which monitors the activities happening in the network.For monitoring the activities, it would be better to have a software installed in the device.
10. Access control requirements: Required the software in the device in order to perform the access control.