B227 Data Communications

Project: LAN Design (Internal Students only)

DUE DATE: 5pm Friday 2^nd June 2000 (please note the change of submission date from the original date of 26^th May 2000).

This assignment is worth 25% of your final mark in this unit. As stated in the unit outline, YOU MUST SUBMIT this assignment to pass the unit.

Contents of this document:

Project Description:

The purpose of this project is to design a new local area network (LAN). You are the network administrators of a company (give your own name for the company). Your company’s primary business is providing Internet solutions to clients. Your company is expanding its Multimedia Design department, which is responsible for multimedia design and implementation for Internet use. To accommodate this expansion, a floor in the company’s main office with an existing network is to be upgraded to fit the current and expected future growth of the department. You job is to recommend the design and expenditures for the new network to cater for the department’s requirements for the next three years.

Department Details and Requirements:

Current staff: 10 multimedia designers and programmers, 5 research and development staff, 2 system and network administrators, 1 accountant, 1 secretary, and 1 manager.

Expected staff growth: The number of designers and programmers are expected to grow by 5 every year for the next three years. Research staff is expected to grow by 1 every year for the next 3 years. The remaining staff levels are expected to remain the same.

General staff requirements: All staff needs to have a workstation of their own.

Specific staff requirements:

Department Floor Plan:

Each staff member needs be allocated an individual working area of at least 2.5x2.5 meter², in addition to any group working areas you may wish to include.

Cables can be run under the floor.

Existing Network:

Logical layout of the current network:

Currently rooms 2.3 and 2.4 each have a 10BaseT network with 3 machines in each. The current server is a very low-end machine which only does file serving and run basic Internet services. It resides in the room 2.3a.

The workstations and server can be sold at an expected price of $750 each if you choose to.

The building has a 100BaseFX Ethernet main backbone, which can be connected to from room 2.3a. The connection point for the backbone is next to where the current server is.

Equipment Prices:

Servers:

Workstations:

Hubs:

Network Interface Cards (NICs) or adapters:

Cables:

Bridges and routers: $3,000 each (assume all bridges and routers are the same price)

Token Ring Wire Center, usually called Multistation Access Units (MAUs) or Controlled Access Units (CAUs): $3,000 each

Professional installation of power sockets and cabling: $1000 per room + $50 for each network point (not including cost of equipment). If a room already has network support, and the cabling do not need to be replaced, the cost is only the $50 for each new networking point.

Maintenance and networking costs per server: $1000 per year.

Miscellaneous networking costs per workstation: $100 per year.

Note: Some of these prices are overall estimates, and the components are not the only choices available. Real world decisions are a lot more complicated that what the list above suggests. For some of the components, the choices and actual market prices could vary quite significantly depending on the type and the vendor you choose. For the sake of this project, you are NOT required to get actual current market prices unless you decide to include components not in the above list (you can refer to http://www.data.com/Directory/index.html for very extensive price listings in US$). Also, I have included many items you may conceivably need – it doesn’t mean you have to include most of them in your design. As a matter of fact, some of the choices are neither necessary nor desirable. Always remember the design motto KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid).

Overall Budget:

$250,000 over 3 years. You should try and keep under budget as much as possible – you do not have to use every cent in your expenditure.

Project Deliverables:

Group component (65%):

Your project group is required to submit the following, to be assessed as a group mark.

1. Schematic diagram showing the layout of the new network – worth 20% of the project mark.

   The diagrams must show

   • The logical layout of the network (see example above for the existing network), and
   • The physical cabling to be installed following the floor plan.

   Use separate diagrams if necessary. If you choose to hand-draw the diagrams, make sure they are neat.

2. A budget detailing items and amounts to be purchased, and the time-line for the expenditures for the next 3 years- worth 20% of the total mark.
3. A justification of all decisions made – worth 20% of the total mark.

If there are various alternatives with no significant difference between them, then you only need state the alternatives, and say that no significant differences exists in the choices.

4. A project management summary – worth 5% of the total mark.

   The project management summary should include:

   • The distribution of tasks between group members.
   • How group communication and discussions were handled – you are only required to state how you did it, NOT to report on every meeting or email exchange.
   • The actual time-line for completing the various tasks.

Individual component (35%):

Each group member is also required to submit a report on one of the following areas (of your own choosing), to be assessed as an individual mark.

• Servers
• Network operating systems
• Network Management software
• Network Productivity Tools
• WAN technologies to connect to other external networks

This individual report of no more than 4 pages must include:

1. A summary of available options – 15% of the project total mark.
2. Recommendations for the network you are designing – worth 15% of the project total mark.
3. Personal evaluation of the project as a whole – worth 5% of the project total mark.

Members of the same group may choose the same area, but you may find having knowledge on different areas would enhance your decisions made in the group component. Parts of this individual report can appear as a summary items in the group deliverables, if you believe it will enhance the group submission.

Recommendations on what to do:

The following is a list of items you should consider in your design and budgeting.

• LAN type (100BaseT Ethernet, Token Ring, etc), which includes:
• Topology
• Cabling
• Workstations
• Servers
• Locations for the components (which actually determines the location of the staff).

Keep in mind the following issues

• Requirements for the users
• Security (does certain machines need to be put behind a firewall?)
• Possible future expansion

Some important items you do NOT have to consider for this project:

• The requirements of staff in other departments in the company. In practical real world situations, you usually have to consider what everyone else is doing when considering your own requirements, BUT for the sake of this project, you do not have to do so.
• Non-networking equipment such as furniture, photocopiers, phones, etc. You also do not need to consider other peripheral equipment such as printers scanners, UPS, etc.
• Applications or networking software – unless you choose to in the individual component of the deliverables.
• Staff training and support warranty.
• GST!

How to approach the design:

I recommend you start by deciding on the best network and subnetwork types for the different staff requirements. Review sections 4.3.1, 4.3.3, 4.3.4, 4.4 and 4.5 of the textbook and the corresponding lecture notes. The popular choices these days are Thinnet for connecting a few machines, and Fast Ethernet for larger networks. Thinknet and Token Rings are also possible candidates. Token Bus is only used in conveyor belt like factory settings, and FDDI are usually for connecting larger WAN over a few hundred kms. Once you decide on the network type(s), you basically have decided on the topology and cable types as well.

The next thing to do is to decide on what workstations and server(s) to get, how many, and where will be located. Having those, you would essentially have most of the network. Then you can work out any remaining little details. There are a lot of decisions you will have to make which may require information not stated here (eg. do the manager want to have the secretary and clerks close by). In situations which are not explicitly stated, you may assume anything reasonable.

Do not try and construct a complicated network for the sake of making your submission interesting. The best networks are the ones which are simple. Do not waste time on insignificant decisions, like whether a machines should face the door or away from the door. These decisions are insignificant with respect to network design.

For the individual component, you can refer to the textbook Practical Networking by Frank Derfler Jr (QUE, 2000), available in the Murdoch Library closed reserved. It contains chapters on each of the components listed above. It also contains other material you may find helpful in the group component.

H.L Hiew
Unit Coordinator

Document author: H.L. Hiew, Unit Coordinator
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