SBM4104 IT Infrastructure: Network Devices and Data Communication

This report analyzes the IT infrastructure of Altium Limited, a software provider. It discusses network devices like repeaters, hubs, bridges, switches, routers, and gateways, detailing their roles in daily activities. The report also identifies essential application software such as Google Chrome, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft Outlook, explaining their functions in data communication. Furthermore, it outlines the movement of data within the organization, explaining the process from a user's website request through the OSI and TCP/IP models to the server. The report covers the network devices, software applications, and data movement within the organization.

Running head: SBM4104 IT INFRASTRUCTURE
SBM4104 IT INFRASTRUCTURE
Name of student
Name of university
Author’s note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................2
Discussion......................................................................................................................2
Network devices required for achieving daily activities............................................2
Type of application software required for data communication................................4
Movement of data......................................................................................................6
Conclusion......................................................................................................................8
References....................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
In the present developing business environment, the organisations need significantly
optimised IT infrastructure for performing efficient and provide the optimised services to the
customers. The considered organisation Altium limited in the public company working in the
sector of software providers. The organisation provides the PC-based electronics design
software for the engineers who have the responsibility of designing the printed circuit boards.
The organisation has several departments that works efficiently with the help of the unified
platform that has been implemented. The marketing and sales department uses the
information technology for gaining the idea about the present market preferences and recent
developments in the market. The IT department of the organisation uses the information
technology for efficiently managing the infrastructure of the organisation. This report intends
to analyse the IT infrastructure of the organisation.
Discussion
Network devices required for achieving daily activities
Repeater: Any repeater in the organisation mainly operates at the physical layer. The
main job of the repeater is the regeneration of the signal over similar network prior this signal
becomes significantly weak or even corrupted so as extending the length to which this signal
could be efficiently transmitted over similar network (Mitchell 2019). The repeater does not
primarily executes the amplification of the signal. When any signal becomes significantly
weak, it just copies the signal following bit by bit and then it regenerates it at original
strength. It is commonly a 2 port device (Ajamieh et al. 2016).
Hub: Any hub could be commonly described as the multiport repeater. The hub
performs the task of connecting the several wires that are coming from the various branches
like the connector in the star topology that performs the connecting of various stations

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(Hernantes, Gallardo and Serrano 2015). The hubs cannot perform the task of filtering the
data, and therefore the data packets are mainly sent to all the connected devices. The collision
domain of all the hosts that are connected through the hub stays as one. The hub does not
possess the required intelligence for finding the most suitable path for the data packets that
significantly leads to the wastage and the inefficiencies.
Bridge: The bridge mainly operates at the data link layer. The bridge is the repeater
with the added functionality of executing the filtering of content by effectively reading the
source MAC addresses of the source as well as the destination. It could also be used for the
interconnection of two LANs that are working on the similar protocol (vom Brocke et al.
2014). It comprises of sole input as well as sole output port and therefore creating it the 2 port
device. There are two kinds of bridges namely the transparent bridges as well as the source
routing bridges. The transparent bridges are considered as the bridges where there is complete
no knowledge about the existence of the bridge. This particular bridge makes the use of the
two processes namely the bridge learning as well as the bridge forwarding. In the source
routing bridges, the operation of routing could be performed by the source station and the
route of following is specifies by the frame (Gardner, Boyer and Gray 2015).
Switch: The switch could be described as the multiport bridge along with the buffer as
well as the design that could help in boosting the efficiency as well as the performance. The
switch could be considered as the device that works in the data link layer. The switch could
perform the error checking prior forwarding the data and this functionality makes it
significantly efficient as the packets that have any kind of error are not forwarded by the
switch and only the good packets are forwarded selectively to the correct port. The switch
performs the division of the collision domain of the hosts but the broadcast domain
effectively remains similar (Braojos-Gomez, Benitez-Amado and Montes 2015).

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Routers: The router could be described as the device like the switch, which executes
the routing of data packets on the basis of the IP addresses. The router is commonly a device
that works in the Network layer. Routers mainly connects the WANs and the LANs together
and possess the dynamically updating routing table on the basis of which the decisions are
made on the routing of the data packets. The routers divide the domains of broadcast of the
hosts that are connected through it (Dahiya and Mathew 2016).
Gateway: The gateway could be described as the passage for connecting two networks
among one another that might work upon the various models of networking. It basically
works are messenger agents that takes the data from any system, then performs the
interpretation and then transfer it to any other system. The gateways could be also called as
the protocol converters and it could efficiently operate at any of the network layer. The
gateways are commonly increasingly complex than any router or switch (Baron et al. 2014).
Type of application software required for data communication
Google chrome: The google chrome is the web browser that could be used for
accessing the web server and it helps the employees of the organisation to connect with the
internet. The browser, Google Chrome is the open source program that is used for accessing
the World Wide Web as well as execute the web based applications. The Google chrome is
mainly based on open source Chromium project (Rivera-Ruiz and Ferrer-Moreno 2015). This
browser effectively takes the approach based on sandboxing to the web security. Every open
website executes as respective process that helps in the prevention of executing any malicious
code on any page from significantly affecting the users. This browser effectively supports the
standards of the web like the HTML5 as well as the cascading style sheets. The Google
organisation based the view of the Chrome OS, the operating system for the web-based
applications, on chrome web browser. It includes the search box as well as address bar that is
the feature, which helps in accessing the internet easily (McGinty et al. 2014). The employees

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of the organisation could easily sign in into the google accounts and then sync the bookmarks
as well as open the web pages across several devices in the organisation. It helps in creating
the significantly optimised platform for the employees of the organisation.
Microsoft SQL server: The Microsoft SQL server could be described as the relational
database management system, which supports the vast variety of the transaction processing,
the analytics applications as well as the business intelligence in any corporate IT
environments (Fox 2014). Alike any other RDBMS software, the Microsoft SQL server has
been built on the top of SQL, which is the standardised programming language that is used by
the IT professionals as well as the database administrators for the management of database
and any query that is contained by the data. The SQL server has been tied to the T-SQL,
which is the implementation of the SQL from the company Microsoft, which adds the set of
proprietary extensions of programming to any standard language. The SQL server could be
primarily developed around the table structure that is significantly row based and it connects
the associated data elements in the various tables among one another, with avoiding the
requirement of redundantly storing the data in several locations within any database
(Ahlbrandt et al. 2014). The crucial component of the Microsoft SQL server could be
categorised as the SQL server database engine that performs the controlling of data storage,
security as well as the processing. It comprises of relational engine that effectively processes
the commands as well as the queries plus the storage engine that efficiently manages the
database. This software would be required in the various departments of the organisation for
accessing the data from database server where the data of the organisation has been stored
(Andersen et al. 2018).
Microsoft Outlook: This software would be utilised in the organisation for
communication with the help of email. It could help in creating an efficient communication
platform among the various departments of the organisation. It is the most preferred email

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client that is used for accessing the email server in the organisation. It comprises of the
functionality of contact, task management and the calendaring along with providing the
required access to the exchange server email (Telenyk, Zharikov and Rolik 2017). This
software could be efficiently integrated with the Sharepoint platform of the organisation for
sharing the documents, the project notes, efficiently collaborate with the colleagues and send
required remainders. It could be efficiently used as the standalone application, but it also
includes the section of the Microsoft Office suite. It could efficiently configure as well as
receive the RSS feeds, calendar sharing, weather updates as well as the social updates. This
software could be installed and then utilised as the standalone application (Kongar et al.
2015).
Movement of data

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When any employee of the organisation types in the name of the website of the
organisation, the OSI model is used as the TCP/IP network model. The name of the website is
entered in the web browser and it uses the HTML that is an Application layer protocol
(Andersen et al. 2018). The web browser then gains the IP address of that particular URL that
has been typed with the utilisation of the particular process called the Domain Name System
that is also the Application layer protocol. Now the web browser creates the HTTP packet
and the web server is connected with the web browser. The packet that has been gained from
the web server of the organisation is provided to the process executing in the computer
referred as the TCP that is the transport layer protocol (Calderón and Servén 2014). This is
the adjacent layer interaction on the similar device, that denotes the higher layer requests for
next lower layer protocol for performing the service, lower layer offer the service to layer
above it. This particular interaction has been repeated till data has reached last layer. The
main function of the TCP is communicating with TCP process executing on the server of the
organisation and for establishing the session. The TCP now inputs the information on top of
the HTTP packet (Kumar et al. 2014). The TCP now transfers the TCP packet to the IP
process that is the internet layer protocol. The major job of the IP is the addressing as well as

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routing, which means discovering the most appropriate method of sending the packet from
the PC to IP address of the organisation. The IP now inputs the respective information on top
of the TCP packet, and this particular information are needed for the routing in internet. The
IP now transfers this packet to the network access or the network interface layer. The network
access layer then defines the hardware and protocols required for delivering the data across
the physical network. Then the PC in the organisation combines the IP packet among the
Ethernet header as well as the Ethernet trailer, and it creates the Ethernet frame (Wang, Jie
and Chen 2018). The Ethernet comprises of MAC address that could be used sending the
frame locally. Then the PC transmits these bits of the Ethernet frame physically with the help
of the electricity flowing over Ethernet cabling. Then the packet reaches the web server of the
organisation. Then the web server physically receives electrical signal over the cable and then
re-creates the similar bits with the interpretation of the meaning of electrical signals
(Roumboutsos and Pantelias 2015). The web server then de-encapsulates this IP packet from
Ethernet frame with the removal as well as discarding the trailer and the header of the
Ethernet. Similar to this, it reads the information of the TCP and then ultimately transfers it to
the HTTP process that understands the get request of the HTTP. The web server then
transmits the web page in similar steps (Gnanasambandam, Huskins and Sprague 2014).
Conclusion
Therefore, it could be concluded from the above discussion that the Altium
organisation manages the IT infrastructure efficiently and it helps the employees of the
organisation to execute their job efficiently. The most common devices that are used in the
network of the organisation are the Repeater, Hub, Bridge, Switch, Routers, and Gateway.
The application that are used in the organisation for communicating among the server and the
client are the Google chrome, Microsoft SQL server, and Microsoft Outlook.

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