Network Upgrade Proposal: Wiakato District Educational Institute

This project is a comprehensive network upgrade proposal, disaster recovery, and business continuity plan for the Wiakato District Educational Institute in New Zealand. The proposal addresses the need to upgrade the existing network infrastructure to improve speed, security, and efficiency, and to accommodate the growing number of users. The current network utilizes older switches and a star-wired topology. The proposed solution involves upgrading to fiber optic cables and implementing Cisco SAFE architecture and GPON technology. The document includes a detailed network analysis, justification for the chosen technologies, work scope, assumptions, and risk assessment. It also outlines a disaster recovery plan, including incident indicators, roles, and procedures, as well as a business continuity plan focusing on critical function analysis and emergency response. The project aims to enhance network performance, data security, and operational resilience for the educational institute.

Running head: NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE
NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE
(Student Name)
(Tutor’s Title)
(Course Title)
(Date)

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 2
Table of Contents
Tables of figures..............................................................................................................................3
Part 1: Network upgrade Proposal...................................................................................................4
Organization details.....................................................................................................................4
Educational Institute goals...........................................................................................................5
Technical educational Institute goals...........................................................................................5
Description of the existing technology........................................................................................6
Reasons for upgrade.....................................................................................................................7
Proposed New technology...........................................................................................................8
Network Analysis.....................................................................................................................8
Summary and recommendations..............................................................................................9
Proposed logical design technology.........................................................................................9
Proposed technology: GPON layout technology....................................................................10
Justification................................................................................................................................11
Why Cisco SAFE architecture...............................................................................................11
Why GPON technology..........................................................................................................13
Work scope................................................................................................................................14
Network re-design benefits........................................................................................................14
Features of the proposed network redesign............................................................................15
Assumptions...............................................................................................................................15

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 3
Risks...........................................................................................................................................15
Network design considerations..................................................................................................16
Part two: Disaster Recovery Plan..................................................................................................16
Policy statement.........................................................................................................................16
Objectives...................................................................................................................................17
Back-up strategy........................................................................................................................17
Risk management.......................................................................................................................17
Emergency Response.................................................................................................................19
Disaster recovery team...............................................................................................................19
DRP procedures for the educational Institute management.......................................................20
Financial assessment..................................................................................................................20
Part 3: Business Continuity Plan...................................................................................................22
Aim.............................................................................................................................................22
Objectives of the plan................................................................................................................22
Critical function analysis and the recovery process...................................................................23
Emergency Response.................................................................................................................23
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................24
References......................................................................................................................................25

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 4
Tables of figures
Figure 1: Physical layout of the current educational Institute technology......................................8
Figure 2: SAFE architecture life cycle..........................................................................................10
Figure 3: Cisco SAFE architecture................................................................................................11
Figure 4: GPON network design...................................................................................................12

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 5
Part 1: Network upgrade Proposal
Organization details
Wiakato District Educational Institute is located in New Zealand. It is an educational
institute with about 1000 users of the network both teaching staff, non-teaching staff, and
students. On daily basis the educational Institute supports over 500 users. The educational
Institute have five remote campuses which are located across New Zealand. Current the main
branch is located in a four floors building. Due to population growth the educational Institute is
currently upgrading to have a fifth floor which will handle the increasing number of students in
the institution. In addition, the educational Institute carries high student records. In addition, the
educational Institute has several workstations but the main one are the customer care desk, staff
room, the educational Institute lab, the finance unit which is also known as the billing office, and
administrative office. The country requires every educational Institute to be compliant with the
current IEEE guidelines and due to this the institution has employed email protection and data
encryption which they view it as a means of protecting the institution sensitive information. The
education institution also handles online classes to their students
Educational Institute goals
 Increase educational Institute staff productivity: This will automatically be measured by
the how long an employee takes to deliver a certain target and how many minutes or the
duration it takes serve an online student. The current time that it takes to serve a client is
4 minutes which is a result of the poor network design

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 6
 Reduce the educational Institute operational efficiencies: The current educational
Institute network availability is 7.4 hours per month. The project network availability is 3
hours per month
 Reduce the educational Institute operational costs: This is currently being measured of
TCO which is currently three million per year and the projected cost will be 1.5 million
dollars (AM Fremont, 2013).
Technical educational Institute goals
 Improve educational Institute network security: Replacing all the hubs with Optical
network splitters. To the sub-stations all the hubs will be replaced by the managed
switches and complying with the HIPPA requirements to protect student data. In addition,
is creating VLAN for the data centers so as to prevent access of the critical student data.
 Improving the educational Institute network speed: The current PSTN lines will be
replaced with fiber optical cables. Optical fiber carries both audio, video, data, and voice
at the same time.
Description of the existing technology
The current educational Institute network uses old model switches from various
manufactures. From analysis they comply with the current IEEE standards although it depends
on when they were purchased. Specifically the educational Institute has five workstations i.e.
class rooms, staff room, the finance unit, administrative unit, and the educational Institute
computer lab. Each of these workstations have sub-stations and the administrative office. The
educational Institute has installed a firewall which they use as a means of preventing
unauthorized access from what one would refer to as PSTN connection into the educational
Institute network. Third, the educational Institute has implemented a cat 5 cable with an internet

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 7
gateway which supports online searches. Forth the educational Institute has implemented a
hierarchical logical design with three layers that is the access layer, distribution layer and the
core layer. The wide Area network of the educational Institute uses 56 Kilobits per second links.
Also the educational Institute has implemented a star-wired type of topology which uses what is
known as Ethernet 100Base-T type of technology. From the main router each of the five
workstations is connected via a hub. Figure 1 shows a physical layout of the current technology
(Blanc & Cotton, 2017)
Figure 1: Physical layout of the current educational Institute technology

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 8
Reasons for upgrade
The current educational Institute network supports email, very few educational Institute
specialized finance software, and basic internet access. The network users, teaching staff, non-
teaching staff such the accounts, human resource department, and students have complained
about the slow response and occasional downtime and slow response time when accessing the
educational Institute network. In addition, the educational Institute management is looking to
increase security and productivity of the confidential data that is sent over their network.
Second the current educational Institute hardware was purchased in mid 1990s. In
addition, it uses various technologies. Also the current physical network architecture requires
various hardware which has to address the current older and incompatibilities. This will result to
high speed network, easier maintenance, and more reliable. In addition, the upgrade will led to
use up-to-date hardware technology which will resolve the current issues such as slow network
response and slow access time. In addition, this proposal outlines how the educational Institute
will go about updating the current devices. Third some of the devices such as routers have been
mis-configured which has resulted to network related attacks. This means that this proposal will
led to a security of all users of the educational Institute. In addition, with the new hardware it
will open lots of doors for the educational Institute this able to explore new technologies. In
addition, it will increase employee productivity and in overall better server the educational
Institute clients. The total estimated cost for this project is below 900,000 US dollars (Jacobson,
2014)
Proposed New technology
The various design areas which will be addressed;
 Upgrade of CAT 5 to fiber optical cables

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 9
 Isolated VLAN for the data center: The current five workstations are connected to the
organization data servers.
 Identifying the important network applications, the services which are required, the
important network applications, and the logical connectivity requirements
 Redesign the educational Institute Local Area Network: The current educational Institute
network will redesigned to suit just the current GPON network design.
Network Analysis
Critical points of Failure
 All the VPN connections for the remote educational Institutes or clinics
 Hubs and switches which link to the five workstations
 The organization gateway
 The educational Institute PSTN link to the local Internet Service Produces
 The connection of the servers to client computers
Summary and recommendations
The major goal of this paper is upgrade of the current educational Institute network. The
attainment of this project is redesigning of the overall educational Institute LAN and upgrading
all the cables to optical cables. In addition, the proposed design will create a VLAN for the
educational Institute data center. The logical layout will shifted to Cisco SAFTE architecture.
Proposed logical design technology
So as to meet the educational Institute goals and the above listed technical objectives, this
paper will go for CISCO SAFE architecture. This is a type of architecture that uses Cisco
Security Control Framework (SCF) which maximizes on control and visibility. Cisco SAFE life
cycle is as shown below

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 10
Figure 2: SAFE architecture life cycle
As shown by figure two the Cisco SAFE architecture which this paper goes for as shown from
the figure; it has several modules which are the management module, WAN edge module,
extranet module, core module, data center, internet, e-commerce, teleworker, partner, and
branch.
Figure 3: Cisco SAFE architecture

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 11
Proposed technology: GPON layout technology
GPON technology is features by passive splitters; the distribution of the internet is by
fiber optical cables. Specifically this design usually involves the use of passive optical splitters
which are used to serve multiple end points. The main objective in this design is to use what
network engineers refer to as splitters so to increase the four available connections instead of the
switches.
Since the current educational Institute design is located into a four floor building, the educational
Institute technical team can pass only one fiber from an Optical Line Terminal port to each of the
four floor and then they can split off to the various departments using what is known as 1:32
splitters into various connections where each of the connections has end-point (Jacobson, 2014).
This is as shown by the figure below
Figure 4: GPON network design

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 12
Justification
Why Cisco SAFE architecture
The major reason as to why this paper goes for this technology is the aspect of security.
Specifically this design uses the SCF to create network design which ensures service and
network availability. It also ensures business continuity. In addition this type of design ensures
security of the devices and also guides in the deployment of the organization physical design.
The framework also ensures the existence of the educational Institute policies which are
supposed to be developed as a result of risk and threat assessments which have to be aligned with
the business goals. One of the main reason as to why this report paper goes for this type of
logical design is that it enhances and for security purposes. The framework defines six security
actions which assists in enforcing security policies and improving on control and visibility.
Control in the educational Institute network will be boosted by actions such as enforce, harden,
and isolation. On the other hand visibility will be improved by correlate, identification, and
monitoring (Vasudevan, 2015). This is as shown by the table below

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 13
Table 1: CISCO SAFE security
Second is due to the CISCO SAFE architecture design principles. One of the design
principle is defense-in-depth which ensures endpoints, availability of the student’s data, integrity,
and confidentiality. Modularity and flexibility principle where all the design components will
ensure all devices are functional. In additional modularity ensures network flexibility when it
comes to adding of the network components. Service, resiliency, and availability principle
ensures single points of failure which in tune ensures availability of the overall educational
Institute network. Regulatory and compliance aspect ensures that the educational Institute
network is HIPPA compliant.
Other reasons as to why this paper goes for CISCO SAFE architecture is that;
 It determines the severity of any incident which might happen to the organization
network

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 14
 Reduces false positives: This helps in identifying if the organization network is
vulnerable to an attack
 Confirm comprises
 Identify any possible threats: This assists in identifying the presence of a security threat
to an organization network
 Enhanced visibility: This provides an accurate vision of a network topology
 Reduces the network response time: This feature ensures that it will be possible for one to
indemnify the very best places that an organization which enforces mitigation of a certain
attack.
Why GPON technology
As shown by figure three the technology involves the use of a shared technology of a 2.5
Gb downstream per OLT port. In addition, the educational Institute management can increase
with 10G-GPON. Second the technology experiences very minimal response time as it uses what
network engineers refer to as multiplexing upstream. Other reasons are:
GPON offers very less physical equipment. It is obvious that the GPON reduces the cost
and reliance of the current physical equipment used by the educational Institute. Further as
shown by figure there is no physical switches which are required. Second a GPON technology
has a very low maintenance cost, from the fact that the technology has very less equipment
means that the network is less prone to physical network failure. Third, the technology offers
more bandwidth meaning that it offers higher bandwidth delivery as compared to other
technologies; it is estimated that it has a bandwidth of up to 2.4 Gbps. In addition, the passive
optical splitters provides high efficiency. Lastly, the technology offers an easier network
management meaning that it is very easy for one to troubleshoot the organization network.

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 15
Work scope
The scope of this network design is upgrading the educational Institute network. This will
include only the main educational Institute not the remote clinics. For redesign to done, the work
will identify the points of failure and the devices which are currently on the organization
network. Also this proposal have four major objectives which are providing future expansion,
increasing network capacity, consolidating and improving the network performance at Wiakato
District Health educational Institute, and improving the educational Institute network’s fault
tolerance, high speed network connection, increasing of efficiency, and security. Lastly, the
proposed network re-design is done specifically to serve the educational Institute of Wiakato. It
is important to note that this network design does not serve specific needs of any employee or the
student; It is specifically designed to carry out the functions of the educational Institute and to
serve the internet. The interned users of the network are the employees Wiakato District
Educational Institute and the non-teaching staff, the various workstations and those students who
are interns within the educational Institute.
Network re-design benefits
 An improved network capacity and speed
 An improved network scalability
 An improved network security, fault tolerance, and security
 All the critical points of failure will be identified and the network redundancy
implemented so as to provide fault tolerance.
Features of the proposed network redesign
 Building on GPON technology using Optical splitters.
 A separate router which will be located on the 2nd floor

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 16
Some of the major components which will be used for internet connectivity are:
 DMZ zone: This usually prevents unauthorized access to the organization network
 Edge routers: This is device is specifically used for multilayered connectivity to the wide
area network
 DNS server: This device specifically is used to serve as an authoritative external DNS
server
 SMTP mail server: This will be used to act as a relay between the intranet and internet
mail servers
Assumptions
This network redesign assumes that the educational Institute network have IPS/IDS
which are used to detect any form of attack. Second, the internet service provider is provided by
the government of New Zealand.
Risks
There are five network related risks associated with the proposed design are USB and
other external media. It is hard to imagine an organization without USB where employee use to
share files as the easiest way. Second, is insufficient policies where the educational Institute staff
can open emails and links without proper consideration of the threats, associated with it. Lastly is
BOYD risk, where network users can bring their own gadgets and devices which can pose very
serious risks to the educational Institute and its information. Lastly are disgruntled employees
which is very difficult to mitigate and identify to a educational Institute such as this with very
large number of employees. Lastly, this design does not leverage the convenience of the wireless
technology. This design does not take into consideration any risks that comes with wireless
network.

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 17
Network design considerations
 Warning the educational Institute network users in advance
 Warning the educational Institute network administrators
 Monitoring the test results
 Running lots of tests to minimize user impacts and lessen the effects on the baselines
measurements
Part two: Disaster Recovery Plan
The major aim of a disaster Recovery plan is a document which delineates the
organization procedures and policies. It also lists the organization process-level plans for
recovering the important technology platforms and the network infrastructure. This part
specifically summarizes the recommended procedures for the educational Institute network to
ensure both safety of the educational Institute employees and the organization network
Policy statement
 The educational Institute will have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan
 The DRP is to kept up to date so as one can take into account the changing circumstances
 A risk assessment ought to be taken undertaken so as to determine the requirements for a
DRP
 A DRP needs to undertake to determine the critical and essential network infrastructure
Objectives
The major aim of this DRP is to develop, document, and test a well-structured and easily
understood plan which will the educational Institute recover effectively and quickly. Also
employees needs to know what they are supposed when they are on the organization network and
what they are not supposed to do.

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 18
Key personnel to contact
Title
Chief Information Officer
Network Administrator
System administrator
Back-up strategy
The important business processes are listed below. The back-up strategy is as listed by
table two below
Key Business Process Back-up strategy
Financial data Fully mirrored recovery site
Student’s data Fully mirrored recovery site
Student’s marks Fully mirrored recovery site
Inventory and Warehouse Fully mirrored recovery site
Human resources Fully Mirrored Recovery site
Risk management
There is a lot of potential disruptive threats that can occur at any time and can affect the
normal educational Institute process. This document have considered a wide range of potential
threats which results for deliberations of the processes. The potential organizational threats are as
listed below
Table 3: Potential threats
Potential Threat Impact rating Brief description
The loss of network 4 This can as a result of the

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 19
communication broken Fiber optical cables
Terrorism 5
Electrical power failure 5 This caused by redundant
UPS and the educational
Institute standby generator.
This can be sorted out by
monitoring the educational
Institute UPS remotely.
Fire 3 The FM200 suppression
system installed in the main
computer. The remedial for
this disaster is the installation
of the smoke and fire
detectors on all the floors
(From the first floor to the
forth floor)
IT systems failure 3 Have a manual systems in
place for a duration of the
system failure before the full
system is restored
Rating key
1= Very high or total
destruction

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 20
4=Low
5= Very Low or minor
annoyance
Emergency Response
The key triggering events
The important triggering issues are would lead to the activation of this document are;
 loss of the four building house
 Total power loss from the electrical power lines and power generators
 Total loss of network communication
 Natural disaster such flooding
Disaster recovery team
The team responsibilities will include:
 Reporting to the emergency response team coordinating with the first responders and IT
department team
 Establishing facilities for emergency level service
 In case of a disaster the team is supposed to recover the educational Institute activities
within a span of 7 to 20 hours
 Updating this DRP document annually and when the need arises.
DRP procedures for the educational Institute management
Members of the educational Institute management needs to keep a hard copy of this
document i.e. the names and contact of each of the employee in their workstations.so as to

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 21
discuss the crisis and disaster facing the educational Institute. The educational Institute staff who
cannot reach staff on their call are listed and are advised to call their staff members.
Alternate recovery facilities
The hot site at the educational Institute can be achieved and notification given through
recorded messages or through communications with the organization managers. The hot site will
consist of the disaster recovery team for the first 245 hours (AustralianNationalAuditOffice,
2014)
Financial assessment
The DRP team will prepare an initial assessment of the impact of the incident on financial affairs
of the educational Institute. Financial assessment ought to include:
 Loss of cash
 Theft of network devices
 Loss of financial documents
 Theft of cash books
Financial requirements
The immediate needs of the educational Institute ought to be addressed. These will include:
 The cash flow capability of the educational Institute
 Availability of the educational Institute
Disaster recovery plan Data center
Objectives Failure scenarios
Components of DR Server high availability: Clustering
Site selection: Front End GSLB
Back-up strategy Daily basis

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 22
Data recovery procedure
Total Loss of Data The process to a maximum of 12 hours
The steps are;
 Alienate the affected server from the
other servers by disconnecting it from
the organization network
 Mirror the current organization servers
hard disk (For further analysis)
 Create copy of the mirrored hard disk
 Connect the back-up site to the
organization network
 Mirror the back-up site and to copy all
the contents in case of anything
Loss of the network communication Contact those affected and get the time when
network communication was lost.
Troubleshoot the network communication
issues and list down the issues found and the
causes. Indicate future remedy plan

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 23
Part 3: Business Continuity Plan
Aim
This business plan is used to prepare the Educational Institute to cope up with the effects
of a disaster. Specifically this document is used to provide the foundation for relatively quick
return to the normal operation of the institution
Objectives of the plan
The aim of this BCP is to provide Wiakato District Educational Institute with a flexible response
where the educational Institute can:
 Maintain their delivery of their critical services after an incident
 Return to the normal operations as usual (AustralianNationalAuditOffice, 2014)
Wiakato District Educational Institute Priorities
The table below shows the critical function of the educational Institute
Priority Critical function Timeframe
Student’s data Receiving student’s data at
the customer care desk
3 hours
Payment of fees Paying for tuition fees 1 hour
Online response to the
student and teaching
Teaching students in the
classrooms and responding to
the students on the online
portal about a topic
2 hours
Online submission of
assignment
Students submitting
assignment online and tutors
responding to the assignment
5 hours

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 24
and awarding marks
Sitting for exams Students taking exams and
tutors submitting the marks
online
4 hours
Critical function analysis and the recovery process
Critical function Network communication Loss
Responsibility IT administrator
Potential impact Lack of meeting the educational Institute
objectives
Emergency Response
The table below outlines the emergency checklist
Task (Actions within 24 hours) Completed by
Liaising with the DRP team and the BCP
team
1 hour
Quantify and identify the damage 2 hours
Assessing the important priorities 2 hours
Identify the organization critical functions 1 hour
Recovering the vital assets and the essential
equipment
2 hours
Drafting a plan to recover from emergency 1 hour

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 25
Restoring the critical educational Institute
services
2 hours
Restoring the overall educational Institute
processes
Up to 20 hours
Conclusion
The total cost of ownership for this project proposal for the educational Institute is
projected to be 1922 US dollars. The first projected design is 150,000 US dollars. The total
projected savings in the Total Cost Ownership is 1094728 per annum. After all the details in this
project are finalized and the design strategy is completed the network upgrade will transpire with
very minimal downtime within the educational Institute. As part of this implementation plan, the
first test plan will be done immediately after installation of the redesign. Some of the items
which will under evaluation after the assessment of this project proposal are; the business
continuity plan, disaster recovery plan, identification of bottlenecks, verifying the service
providers, validating the proposed logical and GPON network design, and verifying the design
upgrade plans in terms of educational Institute and technical objectives
References

NETWORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 26
AM Fremont, M. B. (2013). The health insurance portability and accountability act privacy rule:
a practical guide for researchers. HIPAA, 78-115.
AustralianNationalAuditOffice. (2014). Business Continuity Management. Retrieved Novermber
6th, 2019, from https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/business-continuity-
management
Blanc, R. P., & Cotton, I. W. (2017). Computer networking. New York: IEEE press.
Huang, S. C.-H. (2018). Network security. New York: Springer.
Jacobson, D. S. (2014). Emerging networking. Networking, pp. 1-12.
Kurose, J. F., & Ross, K. W. (2018). Computer networking : a top-down approach . Chicago:
John & Wiley Press.
Ljungberg, F. (2014). Networking (1st ed.). new york: Göteborg University press.
Tittel, E. (2016). Computer Networking. London: McGraw-Hill Press.
Vasudevan, h. K. (2015). Computer networking. Chicago: Oxford Press.