Designing A4A's Logical and Physical Network - [Course Name]

This project report details the design of the Academics for Academics (A4A) network, addressing the organization's need for an online application and recruitment system. The project encompasses both logical and physical network designs, including considerations for scalability, availability, performance, security, manageability, usability, adaptability, and affordability. The report outlines business goals and constraints, technical goals and tradeoffs, user communities and network applications, and a test plan to ensure the network's functionality. It explores routing and switching protocols, security mechanisms, and the selection of network devices and applications. The design aims to improve communication, reduce costs, and expand the organization's reach, while addressing the specific needs of member institutions, volunteer professionals, and the A4A management team. The project includes a reflection on the unit and suggestions for improvement.

DESIGNING THE A4A LOGICAL AND PHYSICAL NETWORK 1
DESIGNING THE A4A LOGICAL AND PHYSICAL NETWORK
by (Name)
[Course name]
[Proffessor Name]
[University name]
[City name]
[Date]

DESIGNING THE A4A LOGICAL AND PHYSICAL NETWORK 2
TABLE OF Contents
Executive Summary..............................................................................................................................................................3
Table of Contents.................................................................................................................................................................3
Project Goal.........................................................................................................................................................................3
Project Scope.......................................................................................................................................................................4
A4A Network system.......................................................................................................................................................4
Project scope statements................................................................................................................................................4
Background information .................................................................................................................................................4
Project business case.......................................................................................................................................................5
Project deliverables.........................................................................................................................................................5
Design requirements.......................................................................................................................................................5
Business Goals and Constraints............................................................................................................................................5
Business goals................................................................................................................................................................. 5
Business constraints........................................................................................................................................................6
Technical Goals and Tradeoffs.............................................................................................................................................7
Technical goals................................................................................................................................................................7
Tradeoffs.........................................................................................................................................................................8
User Communities and Network Applications.................................................................................................................9
List of Assumptions.............................................................................................................................................................. 9
Logical Network Design......................................................................................................................................................10
Explanation and justification logical design..................................................................................................................10
The list of routing and switching protocols, and security mechanisms..........................................................................11
Physical Network Design....................................................................................................................................................12
The final network diagram............................................................................................................................................12
Explanation and justification of selected devices and applications................................................................................15
A test plan used to test the new network..........................................................................................................................16
Overall project scope and objectives.............................................................................................................................16
Test objectives and success criteria...............................................................................................................................17
Test resources required.................................................................................................................................................17
Test schedule................................................................................................................................................................. 18
Detailed test script for the test plan..............................................................................................................................19
Brief Reflection.................................................................................................................................................................. 20
The User, Business And Security Requirements Of The Organisation In Relation To Network Design............................20
The user, business and security requirements analysis..................................................................................................20
The possible alternative logical and physical network designs......................................................................................21
Network design using the top-down network design methodology..............................................................................22
The final documentation of the designed network........................................................................................................22
Justification that the designed network satisfies the requirements...............................................................................24
One thing I liked the most about this unit.....................................................................................................................25
One suggestion to improve the unit..............................................................................................................................25
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................................................... 26

DESIGNING THE A4A LOGICAL AND PHYSICAL NETWORK 3
Executive Summary
The Academics for Academics (A4A) is an organization that is located in Australia
and it has two branches where one is located at Sydney while the other is in Singapore ,the
main aim of this company is to ensure there is growth in institutions of learning .
This company ensure growth in those institutions by ensuring that it had contracted
professionals who are later posted in those institutions of learning to offer training services.
For the institutions to have allocated these professionals they need to be registered as
member institutions through the A4A management.
The contracted professionals however are also required to apply for consideration in
the available volunteer positions where after the recruitment process they are posted to work
in the member institutions as temporary staffs.
Currently all the member institution and the volunteer professionals are required to
apply for membership manually ,through the A4A offices, however the management had
decided to implement a network system that will be able to allow online applications and
recruit.
Project Goal
The A44 network is designed with certain aims and goals this is to ensure that all the
user’s needs are catered for and it is of benefit to the organization and the communality.
However this network project is set to achieve the following goals;
i. Enable online application of the member institutions for their consideration to be
members.
ii. Enable professionals to apply online for the volunteer positions in the organisations.
iii. Enable conduction of online interview to all professionals applied for the volunteer’s
positions.
iv. Enable storage of the information of the member which they had used in the
institutions posted.
v. Enable the members to store information in a central place using their computers or
internet enabled devices.

DESIGNING THE A4A LOGICAL AND PHYSICAL NETWORK 4
Project Scope
In this project it involves various aspects which will be involved to fully implement
below is the set project scope.
A4A Network system.
Project scope statements.
This project of the A4A company is meant to give the organization more benefits after
its implementation where it will enable easy management of the member information, make it
easy and more convenient to receive the applications from the members, enable easy
conduction of interviews for new team of volunteers, and also enable easy application for
member institution.
Background information .
The current network system is located in two different offices and thus the staffs are
not able to communicate or share information between the member of different office
branch ,however all member institutions currently require to drop the applications to the
offices physically which takes them much of their time, also the volunteer professionals
require to take their applications to the offices and attend interviews as well which leads to
wastage of time and resources.
As a result the management had decided to implement a network system that will
allow storage of information of the staff members and volunteers and thus it is easy to share
information between members, however the new system will allow the applications of the
members institutions and volunteers to be done through website application and their
interviews to be done through online video conferencing which will highly save on time and
resources spent for both applicants and the company.
Project business case.
This A4A network project is done due to the past challenges in the organization in
relation to data storage, sharing of information and resources, delay in members and
volunteers applications which costs organization time and resources.

DESIGNING THE A4A LOGICAL AND PHYSICAL NETWORK 5
As a result the proposed network system will have various benefits to the organization
which includes easy applications, convenient conduction of interviews, saving of time and
resources and secure way of storing their member’s information.
Project deliverables.
This project is aimed at delivering various things which includes:
i. Setting of Network storage facilities .
ii. Setting up of web hosting server.
iii. Development and hostage of website.
iv. Designing the network system for both branches and linking them.
v. Providing security mechanism for the A4A network system
All these above will enable to come up with a A4A network which will as a result boost
the service delivery to the users and save both time and resources.
Design requirements
The A4A network is aiming at delivery of quality services to the users which includes the
staff members, management, the volunteers and the institution applicants and the members
institutions ,below are the set business goals and constraints.
Business Goals and Constraints
Business goals
The A4A network system had the set goals and objectives to be delivered to the
organization some of the goals includes.
i. Reducing the applicants’ expenditure. This is enabled by ensuring that the applicants
both the institutions and the professionals who want to be volunteers send their
application online at their convenient places without travelling.
ii. Increasing the revenues. The A4A network will enable the organization to raise their
revenue by minimizing the rate of expenditure in the company.
iii. Reducing the cost of operation.This system will lower the cost of operation in that the
officials do not need to travel in case of sharing data or to conduct meeting since the
network has provided means to share data and video conference.

DESIGNING THE A4A LOGICAL AND PHYSICAL NETWORK 6
iv. Improving the communication.This network system will enhance the
communication ,this is through the online system that can support video
conferencing ,sending of applications and also easy data sharing process.
v. Expansion to global market. The implementation of the A4A network system will
enable inclusion of all people in the world to offer their services to the
company ,however the organization will be able to accept and recruit institution and
volunteers from all over the world.
vi. Building of partnerships with various companies. The A4A network will enable the
company to link with other institutions and companies which can refer some
institutions and professionals to this company.
vii. Offering good supporting services to applicants and members. This system since will
be online the applicants are able to learn more about the company through the website
or video calls .
Business constraints.
To implement the A4A there are various factors and constraints that will be catered
for ,these constrains will include the following.
i. The total allocated Budget. The network implementation will consume over $10000
however since the organization is after getting the best system the management is
willing to deliver any required amount.
ii. The organization Staffing need. The network design will consider there will be two
network branches ,these branches includes the Sydney and Singapore branch where
there will be minimum of ten staffs each and thus the number of computers and
equipments will be determined as well by the number of users.
iii. The time Schedule. The A4A network is meant to be completed in course of one year
and thus the team responsible should be able to deliver in the set time frame.
iv. The locations and area covered.The A4A network is supposed to serve people
globally therefore the applications developed should be accessible by all people from
anywhere using their internet enabled devices.
Technical Goals and Tradeoffs
The A4A network will require to deliver some minimum services to the users ,these
are defined by the technical goals and the respective trade off as discussed below.

DESIGNING THE A4A LOGICAL AND PHYSICAL NETWORK 7
Technical goals
i. The network will be Scalable. The A4A network will be designed such that it will be
able to accommodate two sites of the office this can be achieved through the
hierarchical design, however there will be also two servers and web hosting .
ii. The network will be Available. The A4A network after it implementation the users
will be able to get best services, this system will be available for whole day and whole
week unless there is maintenance being done therefore for 24hours the network will
be available for 23.5hours per day which is 99.1% availability.
iii. The network Performance. The A4A performance can be gauged using the network
band widths and its through put ,where it capacity of carrring data will 1000Mbps
while the amount of data transmission error free will be 950Mbps therefore the
performance in this network will be high and satisfying the users.
iv. The network Security. The A4A network has various assets ,which includes the
computers, servers, switches, routers, firewalls and also wire cabling system these are
worth more than $500 which can be lost in case of insecurity, this loss can be caused
by interception of data, compromising of passwords, physical breakages and alteration
of the network configurations ,however to maintain security the appropriate security
measures will be set in place.
v. The network Manageability. The A4A must be designed to ensure the various
management factors are catered fro which includes the faults,
configurations ,accounts , performance and the securities management are all catered
for in the network design.
vi. The network Usability. The design of the A4A network will ensure that all operations
are easy to use for the intended users, however relevant security features like
password will be set and be shared only with the relevant people and this will simplify
the work of the applicants and officers using the online system.
vii. The network Adaptability. The network however is set to be easy to operate ,however
the design will ensure the network features are compatible with the current or the
trending computing technologies and adaptation to new protocols.

DESIGNING THE A4A LOGICAL AND PHYSICAL NETWORK 8
viii. The network Affordability. The A4A network design will ensure that all the proposed
elements will be implemented and in case of future changes it will also accommodate
them as well including adjustment of the business ideas.
Tradeoffs.
The A4A technical goals will be set such that each factor has its magnitude therefore
the total implementation will be given by individual technical goal summing up to 100 % as
shown in the table below.
A4A network technical goal Percentage.
Scalability 30
Availability 25
Network performance 10
Security 5
Manageability 5
Usability 5
Adaptability 10
Affordability 10
User Communities and Network Applications
The A4A system will have various users where they will be having access to different
applications ,the applications used will be set to be efficient for quick service delivery, the
table below summarizes the network applications ,their properties and their users.
Name of applications Cost of Delay must Delay variation User

DESIGNING THE A4A LOGICAL AND PHYSICAL NETWORK 9
down time be less than must be less than communities.
A4A website $5 per
minute
30 sec 30sec Volunteers
applicants.
The institution
applicants.
A4A web based
Mobile application
$5 per
minute
30 sec 30sec Volunteers
applicants.
The institution
applicants.
The video
conferencing
application
$4 per
minute
30 sec 30sec Volunteers
interviewees.
The official
interviewer
Windows server 2013 $7 per
minute
30 sec 30sec Volunteers
members.
The official’s
members.
The member
institutions
List of Assumptions.
The A4A network design and implementation will be done based on various
assumptions which includes the following:
i. The both branches will be having at least ten employees.
ii. Each employee will be assigned a personal computer.
iii. There will be two servers in the network one for database and the other for hosting the
website and application.
iv. The application of the membership by institution will all be done through the website.
v. One institution cannot make more than one applicant.
vi. The volunteers will send their applications online through the website.
vii. Each volunteer is allowed to send application only once.
viii. The successful applicants will be interviewed online through video conferencing.

DESIGNING THE A4A LOGICAL AND PHYSICAL NETWORK 10
ix. Any unsuccessful applicant is deleted from the database to allow him to apply in the
next period.
Logical Network Design
The A4A logical network design is meant to show the physical layout of the network
and the respective IP addresses, this can be indicated in the network diagram below.
The logical network diagrams including addressing and naming
Explanation and justification logical design
The above figure shows the logical design of the network in this network there are
two main branches which are the Sydney branch and the Singapore branch, the design has
covered all the required facilities to enable the required service delivery.
Below is the justification of the logical design.
i. The network will facilitate communication between the users, this is through the
interconnection of the branches through the routers provided above.
ii. The network will enable time saving since the people will do the applications online
without delivering them in the different office through the network.
iii. The network will enable online interviews, this is since the branches re both
connected to the internet access points.

DESIGNING THE A4A LOGICAL AND PHYSICAL NETWORK 11
iv. The system will allow safe data storage and retrieval since the system will be having
the database server to store the information.
v. The network will enable easy application of the member institutions through the use
of the hosted website.
The list of routing and switching protocols, and security mechanisms
The A4A network implementation had used a number of protocols in
routing ,however there are various mechanism that had been set to ensure safety in the
network resources the protocols and the security mechanism includes the following.
Routing and switching protocols.
i. The Routing Information Protocol. This is the TCP/IP protocol that is adopted since it
is simple and easy in its configuration and is able to do regular broadcasting of the
routing table at an interval of 30 seconds.
ii. The Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol. This is the second protocol that
was used , in this protocol the deviation in the internetworks is adopted fast and also it
uses the routing table in the neighboring routers.
iii. The Open Shortest Path First. This protocol was used since it uses less bandwidth and
it has ability of supporting very large networks.
iv. The Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System. This is the origin of the link state
protocol
v. The Border Gateway Protocol. This is protocol that will enable the transmission and
exchanging of the information between the routers in the two network branches.
Security mechanisms used.
To enforce the security in this network system there are various mechanisms that were
used ,these mechanisms includes:
i. Installation of barriers for Physical security.
ii. Use of the users Authentications
iii. Used the network users Authorizations
iv. Performing the network Account to access any attempt to attack.
v. Encryption of the transmitting data.

DESIGNING THE A4A LOGICAL AND PHYSICAL NETWORK 12
vi. Applying the packet filtering techniques.
vii. Setting up of the network firewalls
viii. Putting in place the intrusions detection systems.
ix. Putting in place the intrusion prevention system.
Physical Network Design
The A4A network however has the physical design, in this design there will indication
of all physical devices used and their connection; however the various devices ip addresses
are also indicated.
Below is the resultant A4A physical network design.
The final network diagram.