Network Infrastructure: VPN Solution Design and Implementation Report

This report presents a comprehensive VPN network solution, focusing on secure remote access and data transmission. It outlines the scope, requirements, and implementation details, including hardware and software components like Cisco routers and firewalls. The report emphasizes the importance of encryption, tunneling, and firewalls for network security. An IP addressing scheme is provided, along with a network design using Cisco Packet Tracer to establish an IPsec VPN tunnel. The benefits of VPNs, such as reduced security breaches, increased productivity, and affordable solutions, are thoroughly discussed. The report concludes by highlighting the improvements in confidentiality, security, and scalability that a VPN network can provide, along with a discussion of different VPN protocols, emphasizing the selection of IPSec for encrypting data packets and establishing secure connections.

Running head: NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE-COMPONNET 2
ICA 2018-2019
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Scope............................................................................................................................................2
Requirement.................................................................................................................................2
Implementation................................................................................................................................3
IP addressing Scheme..................................................................................................................4
VPN or Secure Remote Access Solution.....................................................................................4
Importance of VPN......................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The report is created for development of a VPN network solution and connect the remote
location for sending and receiving data packets securely. The hardware and software that are
needed for the development of the network is estimated along with the networking protocols that
are essential for transmission of confidential data. A VPN tunnel is needed to be created with the
IPSec protocol such that it is used for transmitting the data packet between the remote sites
(Chen et al. 2017). The network topology used by the remote site is needed to be designed and is
attached with the report based on the requirement and number user of users needed to be
connected in the network. The importance of VPN is evaluated and described in the report and
an IP address plan is created that lists the range of IP address and the subnet used for the
configuration of the network (Sajassi et al. 2018). The IP address plan helps to configure the
network easily and troubleshoot any errors in the network configuration easily.
Scope
The VPN network solution is developed depending on the following scope:
 Improve the scalability and network performance and establish a secure connection
between the remote sites
 Elimination of inconvenience and disruption within the group of users since it is not
dependent on the internet performance
 Configuring the network following the organizational needs with the application of
appropriate encryption technology to configure the devices
Requirement
The VPN network solution is developed such that the following requirement is fulfilled:

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Encryption- The data packets are encoded for securing its access from unauthroised users
or third party agents. Public key encryption technique is applied for encapsulating the data
packets and it is transmitted using the public network (Derksen and Schwabe 2017). The risk of
man in the middle attack or data hijacking is eliminated with the application of encryption and
thus increases the security of the proposed network framework.
Tunneling- It is used for establishing a logical connection between the host and the
remote site by encapsulating the data packets and sending it over the public network or using
internet. The data packet are divided into small segments and encrypted and for sending them
across the tunnel and at the receiver end the data packets are decrypted for getting the original
data (Francisco 2018).
Firewall- The router installed at the entry and exit point of the network is needed to be
configured with ACL for the restriction of unauthenticated access and the malicious traffic by
filtering and analyzing the data packets with the rules (Shif, Wang and Lung 2018). The firewall
is needed to be connected with the VPN server such that the data packets entering or leaving the
internal network of the remote host can be monitored and controlled and the security of the VPN
network can be increased.
Implementation
The following are the hardware essential for the development of the network supporting VPN.
Type Device Name
Router Cisco 1941 Series Router
Firewall Cisco ASA 5505 firewall
Server AAA Server

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The following are the software that are needed for the development of the network:
 Client VPN – for creating secure remote connection
 VPN tool – for encryption of the communication channel.
IP addressing Scheme
The following IP addressing plan is created for the deployment of the network:
Subnet IP address
Main office 2001:db80:0000:/36
Branch A 2001:db81:8000:/36
Branch B 2001:db82:0000:/36
R1-R2 2001:db83:0000:/48
R2-R3 2001:db84:0000:/48
VPN or Secure Remote Access Solution
The network design is created in cisco packet tracer and it is configured to create an
IPSEC VPn tunnel between the two sites. The development of the VPN network helps in
identification of the required and current interoperability issues that are faced for the network
development. The remote access VPN is used by the remote branch to connect with the main
branch such that utilizing the same network the employees of the remote site can access the
companies network (Mirkhanzadeh, Taheri and Khorsandi 2016). There are different remote
access technologies but the remote access VPN have gained popularity since it allows the user to
establish secure online connection using a remote computer.

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The remote access VPN works by creating a secure remote access connection to the
server configured with VPN service. During the connection process an IP address is assigned by
the VPN server to the remote client. The present route is client seeking for secure remote access
is changed and the connection is securely established in the VPN network (Partridge, Nelson and
Kong 2017). The development of the VPN solution provides benefit to the organization who
have employees working in different location around the globe. The user can connect with the
company’s network by using a VPN client software and providing the authentication credentials
to sign in to the established VPN network.
There are risk of authentication associated and the access control issues are needed to be
handled for the deployment of the network (Iqbal and Riadi 2019). The desktop sharing is
needed to be disabled since it can be used by the hacker to carry malicious activity over the
network.
Importance of VPN
The VPN security is essential for the development of the network in the following ways:

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Reduction of security breach and cyber-attacks – in order to gain access of sensitive
information the network or the organization can be targeted by the hackers. The implementation
of VPN helps in keeping off the public network and thus reduces the likelihood of the network
being targeted (Longworth 2018).
Productivity encouragement – The employees should have knowledge about the internet
vulnerabilities and the challenges are needed to be shared with them. The company needs to
monitor the running cost and control the operation cost by recruiting correct people, scaling and
developing the IT infrastructure. The main factor affecting the deployment of IT infrastructure is
the productivity and the employees should be provided the option to operate from different
location and connect with the organizational resources (Kurniadi, Utami and Wibowo 2018). The
efficiency of the digital workforce can be increased with the deployment of VPN network.
Securing Client – The data collected from the clients such as personal information,
payment information is needed to be secured and or the collection of data the VPN network can
be used such that it can reduce the risk of data hijacking (Bhat, Al Shuaibi and Singh 2016).
Strong technique available for encryption is needed to be applied and for connecting the VPN
server layer 2 tunneling protocols are used for securing transmission of sensitive information.
The client should also use strong password or else it can affect the security.
User identity hiding – It can be used for user identity hiding and addition of an extra
security layer for protecting the sensitive organizational information. The data packets are
encrypted with the VPN protocols and the header information such as IP address is also hidden
and thus if any one capturing the data packet wants to see location it cannot be done since the IP
address of the VPN network is only visible (Jing et al. 2016). Thus the identity of the user
sending the data packet using the tunnel is secured from the external agents.

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Affordable – A VPN network is affordable and it starts form $10 /month and thus it can
make it affordable for each of the business. The VPN can be deployed easily and rapidly for
establishing connection with the employees with the use of different protocols. The public
internet is needed to be selected depending on the business needs and the best offers and then the
VPN connection is initiated with the VOPN server of the company with the use of VPN client
software. The software is used for securing the connection and providing safe access to the
internal network of the remote site.
Conclusion
The report can be summarized to convey that the VPN network development would help
in improving the confidentiality and security of its operation. The scalability and flexibility of
the network can also be improved with the deployment of VPN technology since it is able to
reduce the communication cost by using the public network to send and receive data packets
securely. A network topology design is created for demonstrating the cable layout and the
network devices that are used for the deployment of secure VPN network framework. A research
is made on the different VPN protocols for its application in configuration of the network and
IPSec protocol is selected for encrypting the data packet and establish connection between end
devices. The employees can thus connect with the organizational network using VPN tunnel and
access information securely thus improving the productivity. It can also be used with a group of
user for sharing files for an extended period. It can provide better performance since the
bandwidth and efficiency of the network can be increased after the deployment of VPN solution.
It can also reduce the maintenance cost and since the public network is used the cost of network
setup and monitoring is not needed.

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References
Chen, S., Qian, Y., Zang, X. and Peng, R., 2017, May. A proxy based connection mechanism for
hybrid cloud virtual network. In 2017 ieee 3rd international conference on big data security on
cloud (bigdatasecurity), ieee international conference on high performance and smart
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80-85). IEEE.
Sajassi, A., Drake, J., Bitar, N., Shekhar, R., Uttaro, J. and Henderickx, W., 2018. A network
virtualization overlay solution using ethernet vpn (evpn). Internet Requests for Comments.
Derksen, S. and Schwabe, P., 2017. Creating a secure virtual private network using minimal
code.
Francisco, J.P.N.M., 2018. VPN Solution Benchmarking for Endpoints Under Fast Network
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Shif, L., Wang, F. and Lung, C.H., 2018, April. Improvement of security and scalability for IoT
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Symposium (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
Mirkhanzadeh, B., Taheri, N. and Khorsandi, S., 2016, April. SDxVPN: A software-defined
solution for VPN service providers. In NOMS 2016-2016 IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and
Management Symposium (pp. 180-188). IEEE.
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Centric Networking (pp. 156-162).

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Iqbal, M. and Riadi, I., 2019. Analysis of Security Virtual Private Network (VPN) Using
OpenVPN. International Journal of Cyber-Security and Digital Forensics, 8(1), pp.58-66.
Longworth, J., 2018. VPN: from an obscure network to a widespread solution. Computer Fraud
& Security, 2018(4), pp.14-15.
Kurniadi, S.H., Utami, E. and Wibowo, F.W., 2018, December. Building Dynamic Mesh VPN Network
using MikroTik Router. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 1140, No. 1, p. 012039). IOP
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Bhat, A.Z., Al Shuaibi, D.K. and Singh, A.V., 2016, September. Virtual private network as a
service—A need for discrete cloud architecture. In 2016 5th International Conference on
Reliability, Infocom Technologies and Optimization (Trends and Future Directions)
(ICRITO) (pp. 526-532). IEEE.
Jing, S., Qi, Q., Sun, R. and Li, Q., 2016, December. Study on VPN solution based on multi-
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