Peter Brown Network Design & Implementation - Case Study Example

1. Introduction Peter Brown Ltd. is a SME situated in the heart of London. This is an emerging brand of leather clothing in the United Kingdom. The sole purpose of this company is the manufacturing and distribution of leather garments to the retail shops and super stores. The company purchases the raw material and delivers it to the third party for stitching by specifying the requirements. After the arrival of the finished goods from the stitching vendor, the products are thoroughly checked under the strict quality control. As the brand is getting popular day by day, the demand for product has been increased significantly. Therefore, in order to meet high demand of the product in efficient and timely manner, the company has decided to set up a network between all its offices for fast communication of information such as, new orders, status of orders in progress, shipment details and so on. The company is currently operating with two offices, both located at two different locations in different buildings; one is the Head office located in Central London and the other is the remote office located in South London. The company has total of forty employees in four departments. These four departments are i) Marketing department, ii) Quality Assurance department, iv) Accounts department, and vi) the Distribution department. The first two departments are located in the Head office, while the latter two departments are located in the remote office. The Managing Director of the company has decided to implement a network which will connect the head office with the remote office. The network design will reflect the options for the expansion of the network in order to accommodate additional staff whenever hired by the company in future. The network will also meet the objective of adapting new technology and trends in order to be competitive with the market. The employees of the company will need to exchange the information by the mean of emails. The Intranet will also be an essential requirement. The intranet based software application can be purchased by the vendor as per the business requirements. The network should be robust, reliable and secure. There is a limited budget allotted for this operation and the implementation. The network should also possess the wireless connectivity. 2. OSI (Open System Interconnection) functionality within the Network As far as OSI (Open System Interconnection) is concerned, Network is built up on the seven layers of this OSI model defined by ISO (International Standard Organizations). Each layer is responsible for performing a specific task and handing over the responsibility to the next layer. 2.1 Physical Layer The Physical layer is responsible for the “functional, procedural, mechanical, electrical” characteristics of the network. But before we implement physical layer, we require a network topology. In this scenario we will select the most popular star topology. The topology emphasizes on the technology which has been finalized to be implemented. (Rae Beaver, 2010) As per the requirements we have selected star topology which reflects centralized administration of the network by the network server. We will use CAT 5 cables with 10/100 Mbps 2.2 Data Link Layer The Data link layer will be responsible for the data connectivity as the data will be received from the physical layer to the data link layer. The data link layer will be responsible for the “activation, deactivation and reliability of the data connectivity” and therefore, TCP will utilize and emphasize on this layer to ensure the reliable delivery of the data. In case if some data packets are lost, the TCP will ask the data link layer for the replacement packet (Rae Beaver, 2010). As per the requirements of the network, the protocols to be used are the TCP/ IP, FTP, UDP, SMTP, POP, HTTP. 2.3 Network Layer Network layer is responsible for the transmission of information to the next layer. “The layers which will come after the network layer, does not need to know the underlying technology” (Rae Beaver, 2010). The network layer will be responsible for transmission of data within the network. 2.4 Transport Layer Transport layer is responsible for transferring the data from one node to anoother. The transport layer ensures that the data will be delivered error free and their will be no data loss. The Transport layer also ensures that the data should not be replicated. This layer ensure the QOS (Quality of service). The transport layer will be responsible for efficient, error free, non redundant and QOS delivery of data from one node to another within the network. 2.5 Session Layer The session layer maintains a session between two nodes whenever required. It also monitors the dialogue between the applications or the software. Session layer also maintains dialogue discipline, recovering a broken session with the required node or application and maintaining sessions of groups more then one. The session layer is also dependent on the application layer for example in the said network, if someone wants to send an email to the remote office from the head office, the session layer will only create a limited session for delivering the message packet to the recipient but on the user action. 2.6 Presentation Layer Presentation layer can be categorized as what to present and in which form? For example, in which encryption algorithm, the data will be transferred, which data formats and coding will be used. This will depend on the application layer. The application will decide how is it designed to work with? Which encryption technique is compatible with it and what other technique we can use? What are the coding standards of the application? In our scenario we will use Mailer Daemon for email purpose and Inventory soft for intranet application. 2.7 Application Layer The application layer is the user interface via which a user can interact with the computer and the network. The OSI layer becomes active as soon as the user triggers any action meant for the delivery of data or request for the data. In our scenario the user will interact Via emails, Accessing FTP, Remote desktop connection, Wireless connectivity, Accessing the Intranet 3. TCP / IP Network Model TCP, also known as transmission protocol, has its own network model. It works on five layers Physical Layer Network access Layer Internet Layer Transport Layer(host to host) Application Layer We will use 10/100 full duplex mode for our network as TCP/ IP is the most reliable protocol for the data transmission within the network. The TCP/ IP monitor every data packet and if the data packet has been lost or not received, it requests the host to provide the missing packet to complete the transmission. 4. Network Layout of head office and Remote Office 5. Cost Analysis for the Network Devices and System Provisions The total budget allocated for this task is approximately 13,000 Euros. 5.1 Accounts Department (HO) Number of Employees: 4 Systems required: 4 Network Devices: 1 network switch The workstations will be connected by a layer 2 switch. The network interface will run on 10/100 Mbps. The Accounts department will be able to access Internet, intranet, Remote desktop connectivity to any computer, FTP, Send and receive emails within the network. System specification and cost including Windows Vista Processor Intel Dual Core E5400 2.7GHZ (2MB cache – 800MHZ FSB) Motherboard Intel DG41RQ (LGA775-SND+AGP+GIGA LAN-800MHZ FSB) Memory 1GB DDRII (800 Bus) Hard drive 320GB 3.5" SATA-II 7200RPM Optical drive HP DVDRW 24X SATA Chassis Thermal HT Support Total cost of workstations 300 x 4 = 1,200 Euros Network device Specification and cost Network switch Cisco Layer 2 10/100 Ethernet 12 port switch 1 x 100 = 100 Euros Total cost of network 100 Euros Grand total cost 1,300 Euros 5.2 Marketing Department (HO) Number of Employees: 10 Employees Systems Required: 10 Network Devices: 1 network switch The workstations will be connected by a layer 2 switch. The network interface will run on 10/100 Mbps. The marketing department will be able to access the Internet, intranet, Remote desktop connectivity to any computer, FTP, Send and receive emails within the network and will also have wireless connectivity within the Wi- Fi spectrum. System specification and cost including Windows Vista Processor Intel Dual Core E5400 2.7GHZ (2MB cache – 800MHZ FSB) Motherboard Intel DG41RQ (LGA775-SND+AGP+GIGA LAN-800MHZ FSB) Memory 1GB DDRII (800 Bus) Hard drive 320GB 3.5" SATA-II 7200RPM Optical drive HP DVDRW 24X SATA Chassis Thermal HT Support Total cost of workstations 300 x 10 = 3,000 Euros Network device Specification and cost Network switch Cisco Layer 2 10/100 Ethernet 24 port switch 1 x 200 = 200 Euros Total cost of network 200 Euros Grand total cost 3,200 Euros 5.3 Quality Control Department (RO) Number of employees: 6 Systems required: 6 Network Devices: 1 network switch The workstations will be connected by a layer 2 switch. The network interface will run on 10/100 Mbps. The marketing department will be able to access Internet, intranet, Remote desktop connectivity to any computer, FTP, Send and receive emails within the network and will also have wireless connectivity within the Wi- Fi spectrum. System specification and cost including Windows Vista Processor Intel Dual Core E5400 2.7GHZ (2MB cache – 800MHZ FSB) Motherboard Intel DG41RQ (LGA775-SND+AGP+GIGA LAN-800MHZ FSB) Memory 1GB DDRII (800 Bus) Hard drive 320GB 3.5" SATA-II 7200RPM Optical drive HP DVDRW 24X SATA Chassis Thermal HT Support Total cost of 6 workstations 300 x 6 = 1,800 Euros Network device Specification and cost Network switch Cisco Layer 2 10/100 Ethernet 12 port switch 1 x 100 = 100 Euros Total cost of 1 network switch 100 Euros Grand total cost 1,900 Euros 5.4 Distribution Department (RO): Number of employees: 10 Systems required: 10 Network Devices: 1 network switch, 1 wireless Broadband Router The workstations will be connected by a layer 2 switch. The network interface will run on 10/100 Mbps. The Distribution department will be able to access the Internet, intranet, Remote desktop connectivity to any computer, FTP, Send and receive emails within the network and will also have wireless connectivity within the Wi- Fi spectrum. System specification and cost including Windows Vista Processor Intel Dual Core E5400 2.7GHZ (2MB cache – 800MHZ FSB) Motherboard Intel DG41RQ (LGA775-SND+AGP+GIGA LAN-800MHZ FSB) Memory 1GB DDRII (800 Bus) Hard drive 320GB 3.5" SATA-II 7200RPM Optical drive HP DVDRW 24X SATA Chassis Thermal HT Support Total cost of workstations 300 x 10 = 3,000 Euros Network device Specification and cost Network switch Cisco Layer 2 10/100 Ethernet 24 port switch 1 x 200 = 200 Euros Total cost of network 200 Euros Grand total cost 3,200 Euros 5.5 Server Room (HO): Number of employees: 1 Servers required: Email server, Application server, Backup server Network Devices: 2 network switches, 1 firewall device, 1 wireless broadband router, Access Points 5.5.1 Email Server Operations The Email server will be maintaining the emails and accounts for all the company users. The employees will work on outlook express a built-in email facility in windows. This will allow us to save money and not to buy a corporate email suite. The Mailer daemon also known as M Daemon email server has a built-in anti spamming Engine, email filtration, Junk email protection, email Anti-Virus and phishing filter. If the email needs to be send to the remote office from Head office, the M Daemon will use the VPN for delivering the message to the recipient. The Email server will also give a 100 MB space to all the users for storing and receiving emails later. This is also called a POP account. The ISP’s charge monthly subscription fee for this type of email account, Peter brown employees will enjoy these benefits as the company don’t have to pay for it on monthly basis. Network device Specification and cost Network switch Cisco Layer 2 Gigabit Ethernet 12 port switch 2 x 200 = 400 Euros Firewall Device Panda Firewall Security 600 Euros Broadband Wireless Router x 2 Netgear DSL Router 2 x 150 = 300 Euros Wireless access points x 2 Netgear Access Points 2 x 150 = 300 Euros Internet bandwidth 512 Kbps CIR (Committed Information Rate) 100 Euros (per month) Email Server M Daemon 200 Euros Total cost of network 1,900 Euros Grand total cost 1,900 Euros 5.5.2 Application Server Operations The application server will be physically present in the HO server room. The users of RO will be able to access the intranet application via VPN. This is a secure point to point connection between the HO and the RO. (Refer to the Network Diagram). The encryptions techniques are also used for secure and reliable delivery of data transmission. System specification and cost including Windows Vista Processor Intel Dual Core E5400 2.7GHZ (2MB cache – 800MHZ FSB) Motherboard Intel DG41RQ (LGA775-SND+AGP+GIGA LAN-800MHZ FSB) Memory 4GB DDRII (800 Bus) Hard drive 500GB 3.5" SATA-II 7200RPM Optical drive HP DVDRW 24X SATA Chassis Thermal HT Support Total cost of workstations 1 x 500 = 500 Euros Grand total cost 500 Euros 5.5.3 Backup Application Server The organization cannot bear the downtime of the intranet based application as the data entry, history of purchases, report creation, history of distribution vice versa will be stopped. Keeping this in mind and assuming the criticality of the application server, a backup application server has been arranged. This server will be synchronized with the primary server and a database replica will also be made operational. System specification and cost including Windows Vista Processor Intel Dual Core E5400 2.7GHZ (2MB cache – 800MHZ FSB) Motherboard Intel DG41RQ (LGA775-SND+AGP+GIGA LAN-800MHZ FSB) Memory 4GB DDRII (800 Bus) Hard drive 200GB 3.5" SATA-II 7200RPM Optical drive HP DVDRW 24X SATA Chassis Thermal HT Support Total cost of workstations 1 x 450 = 450 Euros Grand total cost 450 Euros 5.6 Firewall As we know information is the lifeblood of any organization. The information is significant itself but the most essential is to protect it. The firewall will do exactly just that. Panda security firewall is installed to ensure that the network is saved from intruders, hackers, viruses etc. One more important aspect I would like to mention is the installation of a device based firewall rather than a software based firewall. This is because software based firewall is dependent on the operating system on which it is installed, and in case if the operating system gets corrupted due to any reason, then the firewall is also required to be re installed. By implementing the device based firewall, this cause and downtime of the firewall can be eliminated. 5.7 Remote Desktop We have enabled the remote access connection access on every workstation and granted freedom to all the users in accessing any workstation except the servers remotely within the network. 5.8 Wi-Fi The Wi- Fi technology has been enabled in both the remote offices of Peter brown. Access points have been installed to cover the area of usage for the employees as per the requirement. The DHCP server has been activated and a pool is allocated for the automated assignment of the IP address. 5.9 DSL Modem The head office and the remote office require an affordable connection to synchronize both the networks. The DSL connectivity is cheaper and faster as compared to other connectivity types. The VPN has been created between these two DSL modems. For the remote desktop connectivity the ports are been activated and port forwarding option has been set. 5.10 Internet Bandwidth The 512 Kbps CIR bandwidth has been allocated for accessing internet and intranet application. The requirements for accessing the Intranet are the 512 Kbps. 5.11 Intranet Application Cost The cost of the application along with unlimited user licenses is 1000 Euros. The cost will include installation charges along with one year maintenance of the software. 5.12 Network Devices Provision & Precautionary Measures The network devices used within our network uses the fast switching adapter because this is a very common behavior of a switch to be hanged and resulting in jamming the network. We have used the gigabit Ethernet for the connectivity of email and application server which will minimize the traffic and network congestion factor. We have implemented access points connected to the DSL modem saving the cost of extra network devices. We have not used hubs as they are not intelligent and can result in a broadcast, hence jamming the network traffic. We have used fast Ethernet layer 2 switches. They have also their own drawbacks which result due to large number of nodes. As we have a small network, this will not be an issue. The switches store a MAC table with in their small database in order to transmit the data much faster than the hubs. 6. Conclusion All the steps has been taking or implementing a network and a computerized environment from the scratch. It is very essential for a network designer to make the network compatible for upcoming technologies as Information Technology equipments are getting more advances day by day. Vast amount of money is spent for the researchers to make communication cheaper and better. Peter Brown is compatible with the upcoming technologies. Although, the network is running on IP version 4 but one point has to be kept in mind and that is to use IP version 6 in the future. However, there is no need to use IP version 6 at this time because currently, we are dealing only with below 50 network nodes. The entire network devices, purchased in this operation and implementation, are compatible with the IP version 6. Therefore, IP version 6 can be used in future if needed. At present, we have tried to accommodate the company as per its budget with the best available options. Backup server has been installed Device based Firewall has been installed Company’s own Email server has been installed Users can access Wi- fi within the office Users can access Remote desktop Therefore this is the best solution for a SME with a limited budget, keeping security measures and best network devices for smooth functioning of the company in computerized form. References Beaver, Rae 2010, Introduction to Networking Principles, revision 4, page 23-24 Read More