Designing a New Enterprise Network for Western Trucking

Western Trucking Inc., a large fleet of trucks delivery company, seeks a design solution for their new corporate network infrastructure to address the rapid growth of their business volume and integrate Fleet Maintenance and Dispatch in the secondary building into the corporate backbone. The proposed design should consider alternative standards and products available, while considering the client's future growth.

Problem Scenario
You data networking consulting firm has recently been contacted by Western Trucking Inc., for a
design project. Western Trucking operates a large fleet of trucks that deliver shipments for the
wholesaler/retailer industry, such as grocery stores, department stores, and home improvement
stores. Shown in Figure 1 is a layout of Western Trucking’s main headquarter building and
secondary building. The main building is more than 25 years old, with outside dimensions of 350
feet × 150 feet. The secondary building is about 10 years old, with outside dimensions of 100
feet on all sides.
Figure 1: Facility Map of the Western Trucking Headquarters
Western Trucking currently has a mix of shared 10BaseT (using hubs) and switched 10BaseT
LANs, connected by a series of workgroup routers. Specifically, there is a LAN in each of the
following department offices: Data Processing, Accounts Payable and Payroll, Accounts
Receivable, Sales and Marketing, Information Services, Human Resources, Agent Operations,
and Interstate Operations. The Information Services Department maintains a corporate Web
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server and a mail server, while the following departments maintain their own database servers:
Accounts Payable and Payroll, Accounts Receivable, Sales and Marketing, and Human
Resources. Each LAN has its own networked printers. Fleet Maintenance and Dispatch operate
several standalone computers in the secondary building. Figure 2 shows the organization chart of
Western Trucking.
Figure 2: Western Trucking Organization Chart
Requirements
The rapid growth of Western Trucking’s business volume has put considerable strains on its
existing network resources. Consequently, management has authorized investments in a faster
corporate networking infrastructure. Given the latest advances in networking technologies,
management would like you to propose a design solution after considering alternative standards
and products available. Moreover, management would like to see Fleet Maintenance and
Dispatch in the secondary building networked and interconnected into the corporate backbone.
Design a new enterprise network for them, including the overall architecture, and the specific
backbone and LAN technologies to be used. As with any real-life problem with ambiguities or
unresolved considerations, you must make your own assumptions. Be sure to provide adequate
justification for any recommendations you make, and be sure to take your client’s future growth
into consideration.
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Note: to limit the scope of your project, you do NOT need to consider Western Trucking’s
WAN and Internet solutions.
Project Deliverables (in hard copy)
Your deliverables consist of mainly a hard-copy project report that conforms to the following
content and formatting guidelines:
1. A cover sheet showing the project title, course, date, instructor’s name, team name, and team
members’ names (there will be division of labor, so you may create specific job titles for
each team member that reflects individual responsibilities)
2. A one-page Executive Summary
3. A table of contents showing the organization of your report
4. Key assumptions (facts not provided in the case but assumed to be true)
5. Project scope, which states the project requirements and analyzes the problem
6. Network architecture design, including network traffic demand analysis (traffic type, volume,
and pattern), performance criteria, and logical/physical topology designs. Key diagrams must
be included, showing the network layout at different levels of details. For example, if part of
your solution is to use WLAN, you must decide the number of APs needed, their placement,
and how they are to be physically wired into the backbone network (Note: You must
provide support/justification for the specific design decisions you make).
7. Networking hardware and software acquisition needed to implement the new network. You
may assume that your client’s existing server hardware and end-user computer resources are
adequate to meet all processing needs (Realistically, they are most likely obsolete as well, but
we will treat it as being outside the scope of your project).
8. A projected implementation budget. Prices are available at www.cdw.com, but you could use
any other sources for price information. You budget needs to include not only equipment
acquisition costs, but also installation and operational training costs.
9. A reference section listing all sources of information you used for the completion of this
project
10. NO late submission will be accepted
General formatting guidelines: There is no minimum or maximum page limit for the report, as
long as it includes all the required components listed above. All pages, diagrams, figures, tables,
etc., should be numbered. Use prominent section headings, and avoid writing long paragraphs.
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Use a 12-point font face, double-space the text, and include 1-inch margins all around. If you
would like to include copies of vendor literature, place them in an appendix.
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