Network Infrastructure Design and Implementation for a Chinese Mining Company in Australia

This report presents a comprehensive network infrastructure design and implementation plan for a Chinese mining company expanding its operations in Australia. The company requires a robust network connecting its head office in Sydney with two branch offices in Darwin and Perth. The report outlines the network design, IP addressing scheme, protocol configuration, and testing strategy. It utilizes Cisco Packet Tracer for simulation and addresses the specific requirements of the company, including VLAN segmentation for different departments and secure communication between sites. The report also includes a detailed analysis of the testing process and troubleshooting steps.

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................................3
Scope...........................................................................................................................................................5
Requirements...............................................................................................................................................5
Network Design...........................................................................................................................................7
IP Addressing..............................................................................................................................................7
Protocol Configuration................................................................................................................................8
Testing Strategy...........................................................................................................................................8
Test..............................................................................................................................................................9
Appendix...................................................................................................................................................12
List of Figures
Figure 1: Network infrastructure design......................................................................................................7
Figure 2: Ping Connectivity Test...............................................................................................................10
Figure 3: Routing Table.............................................................................................................................10
Figure 4: Tracert Test................................................................................................................................11

Introduction
The network technologies have been development since the invention of the Arpanet. But now in the last
two decades because of the boom in the internet technologies. Every infrastructure and users around the
world is connecting to this complex network which provides various services to both of them.
The companies are investing billions of dollars in order to keep the businesses running with less
operational cost. Also various new services have been evolved to support this business growth. In the
same way the one of the Chinese mining company which is expanding its businesses across the world.
Right now the expansion is taking place in the Australia.

Executive Summary
This report is prepared for the planning and implementation of the network infrastructure for the Chinese
mining company. Which is expanding its business and operation in Australia. The company is a resource
based and work on sites which are acquired by the company. The company wants to set up a head office
which needs to be situated in Sydney.
There also be two other offices one is in Darwin and another one in Perth. Both the offices will be
provided with the direct connection with the head office. In this project report, we will be preparing a
network design infrastructure so that the operation of the office can run without any interruption.
The requirements for the new network LAN for each office is given below as brief as possible.
- Head Office
o Employee – 53
 Design Staff – 8
 Engineering Staff – 40
 Finance Staff – 5
- Office A
o Employee – 23
 Design Staff – 4
 Engineering Staff – 18
 Finance Staff – 1
- Office B
o Employee – 12
 Design Staff – 7
 Engineering Staff – 4
 Finance Staff – 1
Each location will require the LAN setup. And several VLAN’s need to be created according to the
instruction so that the segmentation of LAN is done. It will prevent the communication of different staff
members on the same LAN. And this is the specific requirement from the company.
So, in general, the staffing levels of the company would not increase or decrease in current future so the
number of users will be restricted to very small amount. And all the offices will be connected using the
serial link with the services provided by the local ISP. The connection speed of the links will be very

limited so we need to restrict network traffic for a specific application. The internal IP addressing will be
consist of the Class B address space. And it is already given to configure on the below IPv4 for network
- 172.16.0.0/24
Addressing solution need to be done so that all the host machine in the proposed network infrastructure
can get the required IP’s. All the communication between all the three sites can work flawlessly. All the
local LAN traffic will be processed by the Network switch. The remote network traffic processing will be
done by the router which will be installed on the edge of each office.

Scope
In this report, we have presented the POC (Proof Of Concept). So that the all the requirement of the
company infrastructure cab be filled in the simulated environment before the actual network
implementation can be done. For the POC we will be using Cisco packet tracer which is most of the time
used for the network project simulation.
The network design needs to be made according to the specification given by the company.
Requirements
The requirements gathering of a network infrastructure planning is the crucial part in the initial phase of
project planning. In this case, the requirement for the network infrastructure is already given. So the brief
requirement for the hardware devices which will be used as the POC are as follows
- Workstation Machines
o Head Office – 53
o Office A – 23
o Office B – 12
- Network Switch
o Head Office
 2960-24TT Switch – 3
o Office A
 2960-24TT Switch – 1
o Office B
 2960-24TT Switch – 1
- Router
o Head Office
 Cisco 2811 with WIC-1T module – 1
o Office A
 Cisco 2811 with WIC-1T module – 1
o Office B
 Cisco 2811 with WIC-1T module – 1
The above-mentioned device list will able to provide the full connectivity for the internal as well as for
the external communication for all the branches. The network devices need to be configured so that only

the required traffic may enter and exit the premises of the entire network infrastructure for all the three
location.
And also appropriate cabling will be required in order to create LAN connectivity up to the mark. Once
the cabling will be done then the initial configuration could be done for various devices.
Network Design
The network design is the very important part of the network project development phase. Because most of
the implementation decision is taken based on the network design. This clearly illustrated the how the
network infrastructure will work. And how all the network traffic will flow through the router and
switches on all the sites.
Figure 1: Network infrastructure design
IP Addressing
The IP addressing solution is the critical part of the network infrastructure development. And it needs to
be done in accordance with requirement given by the company. Since the size of the company is not very
large and they already chose the Private network address space from the class B network.
Our task is remained to subnet the IP address so that all the host machine can communicate without any
issues or overlapping of the IP’s. The Private IPv4 addressing pool is given below.
- 172.16.0.0/24

So the subneting of the above IP address pool is done according to the given requirement and are as
follows
- Head Office
o Employee – 53
 DESIGN STAFF NETWORK - 172.16.0.0/28
 ENGINEERING STAFF NETWORK - 172.16.0.64/26
 FINANCE STAFF NETWORK - 172.16.0.16/29
- Office A
o Employee – 23
 DESIGN STAFF NETWORK 172.16.0.24/29
 ENGINEERING STAFF NETWORK 172.16.0.128/27
 FINANCE STAFF NETWORK 172.16.0.32/30
- Office B
o Employee – 12
 DESIGN STAFF NETWORK 172.16.0.40/29
 ENGINEERING STAFF NETWORK 172.16.0.160/28
 FINANCE STAFF 172.16.0.36/30
So the above addressing solution will able to provide the required network communication support for the
entire network infrastructure.
Protocol Configuration
The backbone of the network infrastructure is always based on the type of networking protocol are
running under its hood. So the network protocol which are required in order to provide the required
network infrastructure are as follows with recommended configuration.
- Router
o Internal Routing Protocol – RIP
o External Routing Protocol – Static
- Switch
o STP
o VLAN
The VLAN for different department are as follows

- Design Staff – VLAN 10
- Engineering Staff – VLAN 20
- Finance Staff – VLAN 30
Testing Strategy
The post configuration of the network infrastructure is very important. Because not all the time the
proposed network configuration will work. For this we need to check and troubleshoot each and every
step in the entire network.
So some of the network testing strategy are as follows.
- IP addressing configuration.
Most of the time when we configure the devices the network engineer forget or misconfigure the
IP address on several devices or miss the configuration of right network interface. For this we
need to check each and every device when the communication is not happening in the LAN.
- VLAN Configuration
When all the IP addressing configuration is right but still the network is not working. We need to
troubleshoot the switch for the right VLAN configuration of the interfaces. Because the VLAN
segregate the network. And if we have configured the host in the wrong VLAN it will not work.
- Trunk Configuration
We need to check the Trunk Configuration for the forwarding of the VLAN traffic among
different switch for the same network. Because the same VLAN traffic are forwarded using the
trunk links in different switches.
- Routing Configuration
The routing information need to check for any misconfiguration when any of the network is not
reachable. For this we need to check the routing table of all the router for the network address
entry.
And also some of the common problem we need to check every time when we are configuring network
devices in the network. And these are as follows
- Check the network cable connectivity according to the design when the communication is not
working.
- Also need to check the router statistic for the traffic it is processing at that time.
- Check status of devices whether it is showing any amber led or not.
- Check the connectivity with ISP

And some other because all the seniors are not possible.
Test
Some of the test which we have conducted while testing the network infrastructure and its configuration
- Ping connectivity Test Fail
Figure 2: Ping Connectivity Test
- Routing Table

Figure 3: Routing Table
- Tracert Test
Figure 4: Tracert Test

Appendix