Networking and Telecommunications
Networking and Telecommunications
Networking and Telecommunications
Directions: Please complete the following cases. Remember to support your work with APA references and in-text citations where necessary. You should provide strong examples and detail in your responses.
Case Project 1
You have been hired to upgrade a network of 50 computers currently connected to 10 Mbps hubs. This long-overdue upgrade is necessary because of poor network response time caused by a lot of collisions occurring during long file transfers between clients and servers. How do you recommend upgrading this network? What interconnecting devices will you use, and what benefit will you get from using these devices? Write a memo describing the upgrade and, if possible, include a drawing of the new network.
Case Project 2
Two hundred workstations and four servers on a single LAN are connected by a number of switches. You’re seeing an excessive number of broadcast packets throughout the LAN and want to decrease the effect this broadcast traffic has on your network. What steps must you take to achieve this goal? Explain.
Case Project 3
During the design of most real-world networks, you will discover that using more than one type of networking medium is common. The usual reasons for needing more than one type of medium include the following:
· Two or more areas must be interconnected, and the distance separating them is greater than the maximum segment length for the type of medium used in (or best suited for) each area.
· A connection must pass through a high-interference environment (across some large transformers, near heavy-duty electrical motors, and so on). Failure to use a different type of medium increases the risk of impeding data flow. This reason is especially common for choosing fiber-optic cable or wireless in many networks, particularly when connecting floors in an office building and the only available pathway is the elevator shaft.
· Certain parts of an internetwork might have to carry more traffic than other parts. Typically, the segment where traffic aggregates is the backbone, a common cable segment that interconnects subsidiary networks (think of a tree trunk as the backbone and its major branches as cable segments). Often, a higher-capacity cable is used for a backbone (for example, fiber-optic cable or Cat 6 cable rated for Gigabit Ethernet), along with a higher-speed networking technology for attachments to the backbone. This arrangement means outlying segments might use conventional 10 or 100 Mbps Ethernet, and the backbone uses 1 Gbps or 10 Gbps Ethernet.
Using this information, suggest solutions that involve at least two types, if possible, of networking media to address the following problems:
1. XYZ Corp. is planning a new network. Engineers in the design shop must have connections to accountants and salespeople in the front office, but all routes between the two areas must traverse the shop floor, where arc welders and metal-stamping equipment create potent amounts of EMI and RFI. Given that both the design shop and front office use 10BaseT (twisted-pair Ethernet), how might you interconnect these two areas? What medium guarantees immunity from interference?
2. After the front-office network at XYZ Corp. is set up, an accountant realizes that if the loading dock connected to the network, dock workers could log incoming and outgoing shipments and keep the inventory more current. Even though the loading dock is nowhere near the shop floor, the dock is 1100 feet from the front office. What kinds of cable will work to make this connection? What kind would you choose and why?
3. ABC Company occupies three floors in a 10-story building, where the elevator shaft provides the only path to all three floors. In addition, users on the ninth and tenth floors must access a collection of servers on the eighth floor. Explain what kind of connections would work in the elevator shaft. If more than once choice is possible, pick the best option and explain the reasons for your choice. Assuming that interfloor connections might someday need to run at much higher speeds, reevaluate your choice. What’s the best type of medium for open-ended bandwidth needs? Explain your answer.
4. Very Big ISP (VBISP) Corporation wants to increase the bandwidth it can access at its downtown location in New York City. The distance between locations is about 20 miles, and the bandwidth needed between locations is at least 50 Mbps. What media types could work to provide this connection?
5. Following a year of major sales increases in the Pacific Rim, MarTexCo decides to open a second plant in Malaysia. The company wants the new plant to be able to access the headquarters database in Des Moines, Iowa, in real time, but long-haul telephone connections are not possible, owing to the lack of communications infrastructure at the Malaysia location. What kind of wireless networking alternative makes the most sense when considering network links that span an appreciable portion of the globe? Explain why laying cable might not be feasible.
Case Project 4
You have been called in to consult on a new network design for CNT Books. The requirements of this design are summarized as follows:
· The building has three floors.
· There are 300 user workstations and 10 servers.
· Users must be grouped according to the projects they’re working on, but the users for each project are located on all three floors.
· There must be fault tolerance for communicating between the floors.
What features would you look for on the switches you purchase for this design? Explain why you would want each feature. Do you need to include any other devices in this design? Why or why not?
Case Project 5
The CNT Books network is expanding. There are 200 more user stations in the building, and a total of five floors are in use by the network. You have kept up with the design so far with a network of five subnets, each with its own router. The company leased a building across the street. You expect at least four subnets to be added to the design. The owner is concerned about how to connect to the building across the street as he thinks the cost of contracting with a communications provider is too expensive for such a short distance. What solution can you suggest for connecting the building across the street with the existing building?
Case Project 6
Three years later, you are still consulting for CNT Books. The network has more than 15 subnets and 10 routers in several buildings and locations. You have been keeping up with the network by configuring the routers statically. However, users have had problems with downtime in the past year because of network links going offline, as there’s only one route to reach every subnet. The owner wants fault tolerance built into the network to include backup links in case a primary link goes offline. You’re concerned that the current router configuration method will still cause some downtime, even if the backup links operate correctly. Why might there be downtime if a primary link goes offline, but the backup link is okay? What can you do to reduce the possibility of downtime?
