Question

Computer Dynamics (p. 175 of your textbook) is a microcomputer software development company that has a 300-computer network. The company is located in three adjacent five-story buildings in an office park, with about 100 computers in each building. The LANs in each building are similar, but one building has the data center on the second floor. There are no other office locations. The current network is poorly designed for its current needs and must be completely replaced.

1. Develop a logical design for this enterprise campus that considers the seven network architecture components. There are no other campuses, so you can omit WAN access.

2. Document the assumptions you made in approaching this design.

3. Explain why you have designed the network in this way. Make sure your answers are numbered based on the question presented. Submit as a Microsoft Word document to the correct dropbox by the due date and time posted on the D2L course calendar.

Answer 1

The logical design of the enterprise campus would be as follows:

The LAN would be a Star network topology which contains wireless network along with the wired network.Based on number of users,size of the building and existing wired networks the company could use 802.11n access points.

The switches on each floor would connect to the main switch on the first floor of each building, which would then connect to a router in that building. The connections among the switches would be fiber.

Multi-mode fiber optic cable to connect all three buildings to the others is recommended.Main building contains data center on the second floor.Each LAN of the bilding would connect to the data switch.Internet, could be supported by connecting the gateway router directly into a port on the main data switch. The router could connect to a CSU which brought into the campus network a high-speed circuit. In this design everyone on campus could have Internet connectivity and also connect to any server or printer physically located at any of the other buildings.

For this situation, if we assume that all of the computers, including servers, can support the installation of a 10/100Mbps Ethernet card, the recommended approach for this company’s network needs would be to install Switched Ethernet switches and a supportive new cable plant that can run Ethernet. For example a Category 5 cable plant. Each of the computers would need to have installed a 10/100Mbps Ethernet NIC. Each computer would connect via CAT 5 to a port on the nearest switch. Each switch connected to a main switch in each building. The two main switches in the buildings would be connected together.

In order to link all of the computers in the main headquarters together, you could install an
Ethernet 10/100/1000Base-T 48 port switch. Due to the size of the building, each PC should be
able to connect to this switch with a UTP Cat 5e cable. A couple of wireless 802.11n access
points could be installed as well to provide wireless access.
The equipment for the WAN connectivity will be based on the preferences of the network
manager and the circuit options available.
It should be assumed that traffic management, security, and other software will be purchased as
the budget allows.

The equipment for the Internet access will be based on the preferences of the network manager and the circuit options available.