University Network Design Report: Excelfior Ltd. Case Study Analysis

This report provides a detailed analysis and design for the network of Excelfior Ltd., a digital communication company based in Australia. The report begins by gathering requirements from users, devices, applications, and the network itself, using techniques such as brainstorming, focus groups, interviews, observation, and requirements workshops. The core of the report focuses on designing a new network for Excelfior Ltd., justifying the design choices based on scalability, security, and the ability to support various departments within the organization. The report also defines key network performance metrics, including bandwidth requirements for various applications and methods for monitoring network performance using tools like Ping tests and show run functionality. The conclusion highlights the proposed network's ability to improve processes, handle user expansion, and ensure secure and reliable data transmission, making it a suitable solution for Excelfior Ltd.'s needs.

Running head: ADVANCED NETWORK DESIGN
Advanced Network Design
Human Factor in Network Designing and Analysis
Student Name:
University Name:

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ADVANCED NETWORK DESIGN
Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Task 1 – Requirements Gathering..........................................................................................................2
1.1 Requirements Gathering for Users, Devices, Application and Network.......................................2
1.2 Techniques used for collecting requirements..............................................................................2
Task 2 – Network Design for Excelfior Ltd.............................................................................................4
2.1 Design of the Network.................................................................................................................4
2.2 Justification of the design............................................................................................................4
2.3 Network Performance Metrics....................................................................................................4
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................6
Bibliography...........................................................................................................................................7

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ADVANCED NETWORK DESIGN
Introduction
This report is focused on network design for an organization Excelfior Ltd. which is a Digital Communication
Company based in Australia. The organization specializes in various services such as designing, hosting
along with management of corporate websites. It has been identified that there are various issues within
the existing network as it is old and it is not capable of fulfilling requirements of the organization. Hence, in
this report, the requirements has been gathered in context to the various components of the network. The
discussions has been presented on the techniques that were used for collecting the requirements and a
new design for network has been proposed for the organization. The performance metrics for the network
has also been defined in this report to demonstrate performance of the proposed network.
Task 1 – Requirements Gathering
1.1 Requirements Gathering for Users, Devices, Application and
Network
The requirements in context to the Users, Devices, Application and Network has been gathered by
designing a questionnaire as presented below:
1. Do you think that the existing network is able to fulfil your requirements?
 Yes
 No
2. Do you think the uptime and bandwidth of the network is stable in the organization?
 Yes
 No
3. Do you think the network is able to meet your desired goals while operating in this network?
 Yes
 No
4. What type of applications are being used for your daily work?
5. Is the network performance stable and as per your requirements?
 Yes
 No
6. Does the network support scalability in case of increase in number of users?
 Yes
 No
1.2 Techniques used for collecting requirements
For collecting requirements, the various techniques that are used in context to the case of Excelfior Ltd. are
discussed as below:

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ADVANCED NETWORK DESIGN
Brainstorming: This technique is used for elicitation of the requirements so that unique and various ideas
could be gathered from determined group of users or people. In this technique, all the possible issues and
solutions for resolving them has been determined for detailing the opportunities. Through this technique,
wide range of possibilities has been analysed in context to the gathered requirements. This technique helps
to prioritize the possibilities as it helps to locate smaller things from a wide range of identified possibilities
to reflect ideas.
Use of Focus Group: In this technique, a group of people was identified that included users as well as
management staff of the organization. The focus group was used to gain feedback about the existing
network so that the needs, opportunities along with the problems can be collected for suitable designing of
the network The requirements has been collected through this technique and after that refining and
validation was done for the determined requirements. This technique is different as compared to
brainstorming as this technique is used for managing processes in context to specific participants.
Interviews: This technique involved interviewing the users along with other stakeholders to determine their
requirements particularly. The interview was carried out to determine their expectation and goals such that
the network can be designed to fulfil their requirements. The inputs from the interviewees are analysed
and weighted so that better analysis of their requirements can be done for designing the network.
Observation: This technique comprised of observing the users or a specific group people in terms of their
usage of the network or applications. The process flow being followed by the users has been observed to
determine the requirements. There are basically two type of observations that is passive and active
observation. Passive observation has been used in this case ass it helps to acquire better feedback for
refining the requirements however, active observation is suitable for understanding the existing business
process.
Requirements Workshop: This technique is also referred to as JAD (Joint Application Design) which
comprises of workshops that are efficient to gather requirements. This technique is more organized as well
as structured rather than brainstorming sessions where the participants gather together for documentation
of requirements.

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ADVANCED NETWORK DESIGN
Task 2 – Network Design for Excelfior Ltd.
2.1 Design of the Network
2.2 Justification of the design
The network has been designed to facilitate the requirements gathered for various components of the
organization. The network has been designed such that it will be able to support the various departments
in the organization. The devices or equipment being used in the network has been implemented according
to needs of the various users in the organization. The designing of the network has been done in such a
manner that it is flexible and scalable if there is increase in number of users in the organization. The
network has been divided into different subnets for each department so that the access permissions or
levels can be easily implemented. The design of the network has been developed such that security
measures could be easily implemented within the organization. The designed network will also ensure that
there is no packet loss or decrease in uptime such that the business performance is not hampered. The
network design is suitable for the organization as it would support the increasing number of users within
the organization without additional costs which means that the network can be easily expanded.
2.3 Network Performance Metrics
The performance is considered as the major criteria to determine success of the designed network and it
can be measured with the help of different network monitoring and analysis tool. There is a requirement
that a minimum of 100 Mbps bandwidth have to be maintained such that there is no congestion or heavy
traffic within the network. The identification of errors has been analysed with the help of Ping test and
show run functionality to show bandwidth of the network.

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ADVANCED NETWORK DESIGN
Ping test for the analysis of the delay in then network
Use of show run for the analysis of the bandwidth

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ADVANCED NETWORK DESIGN
Performance metric table for analysing the minimum requirement for each of the application
Application Required Bandwidth
Email 10 – 100 Kbps
Audio Streaming 96 -160 Kbps
Messaging < 10 Kbps
Web Browsing 64 – 100+ Kbps
File Sharing 0 – infinity Mbps
VOIP 24 – 100+ Kbps
Video Streaming 96 – 200+ Kbps
Conclusion
From the overall analysis and discussion presented in this report illustrates that the proposed network
design will provide the organization with a secure and domain based network to suit their needs and
requirements. The proposed network design is suitable for the organization as it will help to improve the
processes existing within the organization. The proposed network design is scalable and robust in nature
and it will be able to handle expansion in the number of users so that there is no modification required with
the increase in users. The proposed network will help to control the access levels of the users and prevent
unauthorized access with the help of suitable encryption mechanisms. The designed network will ensure
reliability and as per the performance metrics it is also does not have packet loss. It means that the
network will facilitate data transmission smoothly at a faster rate without any loss of data while traversing
through the network.

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