Network Management Concepts and Configuration

This assignment delves into fundamental concepts of network management, covering topics such as router configuration, serial port identification (DCE/DTE), understanding BPDU data packets (Forward Delay), and analyzing the factors influencing link media selection (fiber optic vs. microwave). It includes practical examples and explanations to illustrate key network management principles.

Running head: NETWORK MANAGEMENT
Network Management
[Name of the Student]
[Name of the University]
[Author note]

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1. Describe the steps to configure and enable a FastEthernet0/1 router interface with the IP
address 10.10.20.250 and a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0.
Ans: The steps are discussed below:
The enabling of the routers CMD terminal is included in the 1st step and the command required
for this is:
Router>enable
For entering the configuration mode, the following command is used.
Router#config terminal
Then the FastEthernet0/1 interface is chosen by the use of the following command.
Router(config)#interface FastEthernet0/1
Once the selection is completed then the network ID is assigned by the use of following
command.
Router(config-if)#ip address 10.10.20.250 255.255.0.0
After completing the above steps, the following command is used to exit the configuration mode.
Router(config-if)#exit
Then exit the configure mode.
Router(config)#exit

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2. What are the three ways to see if your router’s serial port is a DCE or DTE end?
Ans: There are various ways of identifying weather a serial port is a DCE or DTE end or not
some of the ways by which we can identify if a port is DCE or DTE are listed below:
 The ports are having are having different nature that is one is having a female end
whereas the other is having a male end. The DCE port is having a female port whereas
the DTE is having a male port.
 Another way of identifying weather a port is DCE or DTE is by the use of a voltmeter. If
the voltmeter shows that there is a voltage on receive then the port can be identified as a
DCE port whereas if the voltmeter shows that there is voltage on transmit then the port is
a DTE port (Cevallos et al., 2017).
 By the use of rule of thumb also the port can be identified.in case when a device is
plugged into the serial port of the computer and it works normally then the serial port is
DCE and if any device is connected to the computer by the use of a “null modem” then
the port is said to be a DTE port.
3. A BPDU data packet lists the “Forward Delay” as 15 seconds. What information does
this provide?
Ans: The time that is used to listen and to learn the current situation of the BPDU is referred to
as the Forward Delay and the normal time estimated for this purpose is 15 secs whereas this can
be adjusted between 4sec to 30 secs. Forward Delay also defines the movement to the forward
stage from the stage of blocking in an active STP topology (Pinto, Pinto & Ricardo, 2014).

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4. Your supervisor asks you if a layer 2 switch could be used in the core of the campus
network. Prepare a response to your supervisor. Be sure to justify your recommendation.
Ans: The VLANs are terminated at the distribution layer thereby defining layer 2 switch as the
bridging mechanism as it acts a pure bridge thereby blocking half of the uplinks and this happens
due to the fact that there are limitations in the spanning tree. Proceeding with the layer 2 switch
is easy due to fact of blocking of the VLANs on the Cat6500 (Nakagawa et al., 2014). This will
greatly help in the favouring of the use of the centralised packet filters and along with this the
use of the VRFs and the MPLS/VPN is also favoured during the requirement of separate paths
over a core network. Layer 2 switch can also be used in the campus because it has a multiple
number of security zones.
5. A 1Gbps data link is to be set up between building A and building B in a campus
network. Does it matter if the link is fibre or microwave or some other media? Explain
your answer.
Ans: Various factors will affect the use of fibre or microwave during the setting up of a data link
between the two buildings and these are listed below:
 Speed: The speed of data transmission is an important factor. The use of the optic fibre
will have a much faster transmission than any other mediums or the microwaves.
 Distance: The distance acts as an important factor in data transmission as the speed of
data transmission changes with respect to the distance between the buildings in case of
optic fibre where as in the microwave medium the distance dose not has any role
(Mitschke, 2016).
 Reuse: The reuse of the optic fibre is almost impossible after it is installed once and
along with this it is almost impossible to relocate the optic fibres. The use of microwave

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is favoured as relocation of the equipment’s used in the microwave is possible according
to the requirements.
 Climatic conditions: The climatic changes do not affect the transmission through optic
fibres whereas the transmission in microwave gets affected by the climatic changes.

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References:
Cevallos, Y., Molina, L., Santillán, A., De Rango, F., Rushdi, A., & Alonso, J. B. (2017). A
Digital Communication Analysis of Gene Expression of Proteins in Biological Systems: A
Layered Network Model View. Cognitive Computation, 9(1), 43-67.
Mitschke, F. (2016). Fiber optics: physics and technology. Springer.
Nakagawa, M., Hattori, K., Katayama, M., & Ogawa, H. (2014, July). Fast Bandwidth-Variable
Path Restoration Method for Optical Layer-2 Switch Network. In Photonics in Switching (pp.
PM4C-4). Optical Society of America.
Pinto, P., Pinto, A., & Ricardo, M. (2014, November). Delay accounting optimization procedure
to enhance end-to-end delay estimation in WSNs. In International Wireless Internet
Conference (pp. 14-19). Springer, Cham.

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Bibliography:
Graubner, P., Sommer, M., Hollick, M., & Freisleben, B. (2017, July). Dynamic role assignment
in Software-Defined Wireless Networks. In Computers and Communications (ISCC), 2017 IEEE
Symposium on (pp. 760-766). IEEE.