Network Design Project: LAN Design and Infrastructure for a Company

This project details the design of a local area network (LAN) for a company, addressing specific requirements and assumptions. The design incorporates a hybrid topology, primarily mesh, with bus and star topologies within departments and the server room, respectively. The project recommends CAT5 cables for cost-effectiveness and reliability, along with a wireless router for employee access. The network supports email and intranet services through FTP, SMTP, HTTP, TCP/IP, and POP3 protocols, and includes FTP and database servers. The design considers a limited budget and the need for secure server room access. The network is designed to support multiple workstations across three departments, with appropriate switch allocation. The report also provides a detailed justification for all the design choices. This design ensures efficient data transfer, telephony, and video transmission within the company's network. The bibliography includes relevant sources on network and supply chain design.

Running head: NETWORK DESIGNING
Network Designing
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note

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NETWORK DESIGNING
Design of the local area network for the company
Assumptions for the network
For designing of the network the following assumption has been provided. Firstly, the
number of ports available in the switches and the hubs are 24. There are a number of software
applications that are to be supported by the network and also the large amount of data sets is
residing on the departmental servers. In addition to this, there is a requirement to support the
email services by the servers. In addition to this, for the intranet within the office is very
important for the organization. The company also has a very limited budget and the hence the
use of devices has to be of optimal costs. In addition to the requirements provided by the
company it is also assumed that the sever room for the building would be located on the first
floor. The sever should be guarded by proper measures of authentication within the building so
that the all the staffs of the company would not be having equal accessibility to the server room.
The server room and the server systems are to be accessed only by the administrator. In addition
to this it was also assumed that the network has a requirement of remote access to it. Hence the
network system is designed taking these assumptions into account.

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Justification for the network
The network has been designed according to the requirements that were stated by the
company. The first criteria of the company were to connect a number of workstations to the
network of the company. The workstations were to be divided into three groups as there were
three departments of the company. The switches that were to be used in the network consisted of
24 ports. Hence the departments of the general support and sales that consisted of 28 and 30
workstations each. These departs required 3 switches each. The marketing department of
company consisted of only 10 workstations and hence, the department had the requirement of
only one switch only. In addition to this the company needed the functions of email and intranet
within the network and hence a FTP and mail server were to be installed into the network. In
addition to this, a database server is to be installed into the network. Hence, the network that is
designed would be able to perform all the required activities as stated by the company.
Recommended local area network wiring
For the wiring in the network the use of CAT5 cables are to be used. The CAT5 wires
are very cheap and also very reliable. These are the twisted pair cables that can provided a
performance up to 100 Mhz. The CAT 5 or else known as the category 5 cable were released in
the year 2001. They are generally connected by the Punch down blocks within the network. Most
of these cables are unshielded and are generally dependent on the differential signaling for the
noise rejection. In addition to this some wireless devices can also be used in the network. A
WIFI router is also being installed into the network.
Justification
The CAT 5 would be very useful for the network as this would reduce the cost of
implementation of the network to a great extent. This is also very useful as the cables can

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transfer a huge variety of data throughout the network. They can be used for carrying the
telephony and the video transmissions thorough out the network. The cable is also defined
ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A with the clarifications form the TSB-95. The network also consists of a
wireless router that would help the company to provide access to the network for the employees
of the company. Although this might increase the cost of the company to some extent, but this
would be very minimal in comparison to the advantages that are provided to company by the
network.
Local Area Network topology
For the network the Local area network topology that is being used is the hybrid topology
which has a major part that is covered in mesh topology. The mesh connection is being
maintained within both the floors in the building for the intranet within the network that can be
accessed in each department. In addition, to this a bus topology is being maintained within each
department of the building. This means the work stations deployed in the network would act as
the client machine and the switches at each floor would act as the servers as they serve as the
instances of the servers that are acting within the network. In addition to this, the server room
consists of the star topology. The switches form the ring topology among themselves and hence,
the hybrid topology is most justified definition of the topology that is being designed here.
Recommended protocols for the network
The recommended protocols that are to be installed into the network are SMTP, HTTP,
FTP, TCP/IP and POP3. The SMTP protocol is the Simple mail transfer protocol. This protocol
would be very important within the network as this would help in the communication within the
network. This help in the maintenance of the intranet services within the network. The POP3
protocol is also to be installed within the network; the POP is the Post office protocol. This

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protocol would help the network and the users in the network for storing the mails that are sent
or received. The HTTP is the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. This protocol helps in the internet
connect in the network along with the TCP/IP protocol. The TCP/IP protocol is the Internet
protocol that helps in the establishment of connection within the network with the global WAN.
The HTTP protocol would help the network to reach out to the web or the WWW services. In
addition to this the FTP protocol is also to installed in the network. The FTP is the File Transfer
Protocol; this protocol helps in the transfer of files in between the network and the network
components. This would also help in the efficient communication within the network.

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Bibliography
[1] Atoei, F., Teimory, E. and Amiri, A., 2013. Designing reliable supply chain network with
disruption risk. International Journal of Industrial Engineering Computations, 4(1), pp.111-126.
[2] Devika, K., Jafarian, A. and Nourbakhsh, V., 2014. Designing a sustainable closed-loop
supply chain network based on triple bottom line approach: A comparison of metaheuristics
hybridization techniques. European Journal of Operational Research, 235(3), pp.594-615.
[3] Esfe, M.H., Saedodin, S., Sina, N., Afrand, M. and Rostami, S., 2015. Designing an artificial
neural network to predict thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity of ferromagnetic
nanofluid. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, 68, pp.50-57.
[4] Espatolero, S., Romeo, L.M. and Cortés, C., 2014. Efficiency improvement strategies for the
feedwater heaters network designing in supercritical coal-fired power plants. Applied Thermal
Engineering, 73(1), pp.449-460.
[5] Hasani, A.A., 2017. Two-stage Stochastic Programing Based on the Accelerated Benders
Decomposition for Designing a Power Network Design under Uncertainty.
[6] Rezaei-Malek, M., Tavakkoli-Moghaddam, R., Zahiri, B. and Bozorgi-Amiri, A., 2016. An
interactive approach for designing a robust disaster relief logistics network with perishable
commodities. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 94, pp.201-215.
[7] Subulan, K., Taşan, A.S. and Baykasoğlu, A., 2015. Designing an environmentally conscious
tire closed-loop supply chain network with multiple recovery options using interactive fuzzy goal
programming. Applied Mathematical Modelling, 39(9), pp.2661-2702.

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[8] Yolmeh, A. and Salehi, N., 2015. An outer approximation method for an integration of
supply chain network designing and assembly line balancing under uncertainty. Computers &
Industrial Engineering, 83, pp.297-306.
[9] Zhang, X.M. and Han, Q.L., 2015. On designing network‐based H∞ controllers for stochastic
systems. International journal of robust and nonlinear control, 25(1), pp.52-71.