Network Design Report and Presentation for Top Network Company

This report proposes a network design for Top Network Company, a midsized organization located in Sydney. The design includes a hierarchical LAN with Star Topology at lower level and Mesh topology at higher level, and hardware specifications for switches, routers, and servers.

Data Communications and Networks
Assessment 3
Network Design Report and Presentation

Contents
The Scenario..........................................................................................................................................3
LAN Design:...........................................................................................................................................4
Hardware Specification:........................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................6
Bibliography...........................................................................................................................................7

The Scenario
The Top Network Company is located in Sydney occupying a three floor building. The office
is divided into three teams working together. Each team namely Administration, Marketing
and Sales have their own requirements in terms of number of workstations. Administration
department employs 13 people, Marketing has 26 and Sales department has 39 people in it.
All employees need access to the internet, use the Email service, make data transfer with in
company network and connect to company servers. The company can be designed a mid-
sized organization.
Apart from workstations, the company will also need to connect its servers, printers and
other storage devices to the network for smooth operations.
The network design must also consider the addition of employees in each of its division as
company progresses. So sufficient provisions need to be made to make sure expansion is
smooth and doesn’t needs any major hardware upgrade.

LAN Design:
With total of 80 current employees and allowing space for future expansion up to double
the capacity, the network can be designed by divided it into two levels. The Front end and
the backbone. Front end connects the individual devices to the network. The Backbone shall
connect each of the divisions within office and form a LAN. The proposed solution is
hierarchical LAN with Star Topology at lower level and Mesh topology at higher level. Star
topology will provide economical way to connect workstations to the network. Mesh
topology shall provide high speed, reliable data transfer with redundant links to the servers
and among divisions. The network design is shown here:
AdministrationSW, SalesSW, MarkettingSW and ServerSW form the lower layer of the
network. Each division’s workstations connect to their respective switches in Star topology.
This allows for easier configuration of access to workstation on group basis.
Each switch is then connected to every other switch and to the router. This forms the upper
layer of the hierarchy in Mesh topology. Such links reduce the routing time for the packets
and allow direct access across divisions and to servers.
Further each switch terminates at the router. Router provides the access to the internet for
the entire office.

Hardware Specification:
Network is spread across the building. This will need lots of interconnecting devices. The
proposed design is based on wired connection of workstations to the network. This reduces
the required equipment’s to support only wired connection with out wireless connectivity
and hence reduced surface area for exposure.
Two most important networking equipment’s required are switches and router. Each needs
to be selected carefully. The devices must have sufficient options for configuration to make
access control policies. The device must support Gigabit Ethernet connections to allow
connectivity with workstations and among each other. Some other devices that are required
are hubs and power systems.
Only a single heavy capacity Router is needed with inbuilt firewall features to reduce device
count and complexity of the network. Router must support at least 8 Gigabit Ethernet ports
on the internal side to connect the switches and provide Internet facility to each division
along with room for future expansion. The router with at –least two DSL/Cable connections
on the WAN side is suitable to provide internet connectivity by utilizing two different ISP
services to keep office always connected in case of ISP failure. Firewall feature in the
operational software is added advantage to keep things secure. VPN connectivity is not
mentioned and hence all incoming traffic to the Office LAN can be barred at the router itself.
Only access to the webserver may be allowed with suitable security checks.
Several switches are required to connect each workstation to the network. The office will
need several switches based on its physical layout. Since wireless connectivity has not been
discussed, the switches will be selected so that wired connections are supported at fast
Ethernet speed for the workstations. The Gigabit speed ports are also required when
making inter-switch connections. Switches also connect to the router which must again be
at Gigabit Ethernet port. The number of Fast-Ethernet ports on each switch will vary and
depend upon the location of the workstations with in office. Administration department can
be accommodated in a single 24 port switch. Marketing and Sales can be allotted a 48 port
switch each. Server room will need only an 8 port switch for itself.
For star connectivity of devices, CAT 6 cables will be needed in large quantity to connect
network devices with each other. CAT6 is chosen over CAT5 to allow for upgrade to Gigabit
Ethernet in future if needed. However it is proposed a fiber-optic cable is used to provide
Mesh connectivity among switches and to the router.
Workstations will be designed based on application usage of each division and further the
requirements of each individual with in division.
Servers deployed at the facility need to support multiple services. At least two servers must
be used to provide Web and Email service for the company. And another one for data
backup and Application hosting of software being used within the company.

Conclusion
The network design proposed for the company is expected to be efficient and economical
one for years to come. The network has total of 80 network end devices for now and can
increase with time. The infrastructure provides high reliability and very high speed
connectivity to all its resources. Any investment that company needs to make in
infrastructure will be beneficial with increased employee productivity and decreased time
for communication among staff members. High speed data transfer with in workstations
shall ensure up-to date information to each member.
It is proposed an advanced data backup is also considered for future system upgrades to
provide automated networked storage for backup and recovery in case of any system
failure.

Bibliography
Academy, C. N. (n.d.). Cisco Networking Academy's Introduction to Basic Switching Concepts and
Configuration. Retrieved from http://www.ciscopress.com:
http://www.ciscopress.com/articles/article.asp?p=2181836&seqNum=4
Forouzan, B. A. (n.d.). Data Communications and Networking. In B. A. Forouzan, Data
Communications and Networking. McGraw-Hill.
introduction-packet-tracer. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.netacad.com:
https://www.netacad.com/courses/packet-tracer/introduction-packet-tracer