Local Area Networking Technologies

Local Area Networking 1
LOCAL AREA NETWORKING TECHNOLOGIES
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Local Area Networking 2
Table of Contents
Task 1: Understand the impact of LAN technologies.....................................................................4
1.1. Network topologies available in the market.....................................................................4
Mesh topology..........................................................................................................................4
Bus Topology............................................................................................................................5
RING Topology.........................................................................................................................6
STAR Topology.........................................................................................................................7
TREE Topology........................................................................................................................8
HYBRID Topology....................................................................................................................9
Most appropriate and suitable technology/topology: Star topology......................................10
1.2 Traffic intensive services of network performance and Quality of Services.......................10
Traffic intensive services of network performance.................................................................10
Quality of Services (QoS).......................................................................................................11
1.3 Local Area Network concerns and recommendations.........................................................12
Hierarchical network model...................................................................................................12
Task 2: Designing LAN infrastructures.........................................................................................14
2.1 Design network infrastructure..............................................................................................14
Topology.................................................................................................................................14
Devices...................................................................................................................................14
Technology.............................................................................................................................15
2.2: Network components and design.......................................................................................17
Evaluating Network components and design.........................................................................17
Security& Applications...........................................................................................................17
Users & Scalability.................................................................................................................18
Task 3: Implementing LAN infrastructures..................................................................................20
3.1: Building and configuring the entire network......................................................................20
Configuration..........................................................................................................................20
Technology and security........................................................................................................26
Documentation.......................................................................................................................26
Security...................................................................................................................................29
3.2: Reviewing and testing the entire network...........................................................................29

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Task 4: Managing LAN infrastructure..........................................................................................34
4.1 Network monitoring: WIRE SHARK..................................................................................34
Wire shark monitoring tool....................................................................................................34
4.2: Improving security, reliability, and performance in a local area network..........................35
4.3: Evaluating the network performance..................................................................................36

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Task 1: Understand the impact of LAN technologies
1.1. Network topologies available in the market
The network topology is the design of the network infrastructure which illustrates the general
layout of the network devices and it allows effective communications, therefore the proposed
local area network topology will essentially define the geographical arrangement of the proposed
network devices. Below are the various types of network topologies in the market (Benjamin,
2003, p. 34).
Mesh topology.
The mesh topology is a point to point designs of topology that make use of the dedicated
links between the network devices , however it is not the best design since it wastes allot of
transmission media and also it is quite challenging to do installation and configuration. The
increase of the network devices in this type of network leads to decrease in the communications
speed. One of the feature of mesh topology is robustness (Blair & Durai, 2016, p. 57)
Figure 1: Mesh topology

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Bus Topology
This is physical topology which is simple in nature and it is made of continuous cable
called trunk and some terminating resistors called terminators at the ends. The data packet travels
along the bus in both forward and reverse directions until it gets the target workstations or
servers network interface cards. In this type of topology, each and every network device and
computers are connected to a single type of cable that has two endpoints as shown in the figure
below.
Figure 2: Bus Topology

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Features of Bus Topology
1. It is only able to transmit data in one direction.
2. All devices are connected to single cable.
RING Topology
This is type of topology which has circular loops made of point to point links where
every device is connected directly or indirectly to the ring via the interface devices or drop
cables, however in this topology the messages are able to travel round the ring from one node to
the other in an orderly manner and in this case the node devices check sent messages and match
them with the destination addresses (Blanc & Cotton, 2014, p. 79).
Therefore it is referred to ring topology since a ring is formed while the computers are
connected to each other where the last computer gets connected to the last computer as shown in
the figure below.
Figure 5: Ring Topology

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Features of Ring Topology
1. There is use of many repeaters with multiple nodes and the repeaters prevent data loss in
the network.
2. It supports unidirectional transmission or bidirectional if it has two connections between
nodes.
3. The dual ring topology has two rings networks that allow data to be flowing in opposite
directions and each act as a backup in case one of them fails and the network remains up.
4. It supports the sequential transmission of data in bits by bits where the transmitted data
pass through each network’s node till it arrives at the destination node.
STAR Topology
This is type of topology that makes use of centralized controlling hub which points in all
directions like the star points , however the network devices have dedicated point to point links

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to the central hub , therefore this type of topology is used to control the collisions by keeping the
communication lines open and free from the network traffics (Burridge, 2015).
Therefore this topology enables the connection of devices to one hub through the network
cables where the hub acts as a central node to which all nodes devices are connected to as shown
in the figure below.
Figure 6: Start Topology
Features of Star Topology
1. Each node device has a single dedicated type of connection to the hub.
2. The hub is used as the repeater to allow data flow.
3. It is compatible with various media like twisted pair cable, fiber optic cables and co-axial
cables.
TREE Topology
This is the type of topology that is made of root node into which other nodes are connected to
in order to form a hierarchy and it has like three or more hierarchical levels as shown below.