Network Design for the Medium-Sized Public Relations Company - Report Example

Network Design Name: Institution: Date: Introduction This report presents a Network Design for the medium Sized Public Relations Company. The report will contain a proposed framework of the network infrastructure layout/topology that will show how network or communication will be shared and transferred securely and reliably within the premises of the company. The company will occupy a three-floor building in Glebe, NSW. The network infrastructure will occupy all three floors. The network design will create room for the 50 staffs that the company will have. The staff will be composed of 20 of them who will be using laptops within the company composing of Windows and a few Mac operating system. The other 20 staff members will be using desktops operating of Windows system. The remaining 10 staff members will bring their own devices to the workplace. There will be a space left for 5 spare desktops. Each of the three floors will have one printer connected to the network. The server room will be located at the ground floor. The members of the staff will have the capacity to use their mobile phones securely in the building without the risk of exposing the company network to malicious attacks. In each floor, there will be a board room that is equipped with projectors and 75” OLED Televisions that is connected to the internet network and connected for the respective floor. In this report, the description of the network design will be provided. The assumptions that are made in establishing the network infrastructure topology will be explained. The various network equipment that the company will use and that will be recommended by the network design will also be explained. The network design diagram for the recommended layout will also be shown in this report. The justifications for the recommended layout will also be discussed in this report. Finally, the recommendation for what the need to do to ensure that the proposed network design remain secure, reliable, and efficient will also be discussed. Assumptions In the ground floor, the room will house the server systems and some computers. In order to create the room for server, the ground floor will have 15 computers from computer 1 to computer 15. The position of the computer will be provided with an internet connection port o make it possible for the desk top installation, laptop connectivity using the Ethernet cables or any other devices that the staffs could using. For the ground floor there will be a switch that will provide dedicated connection between the ports in this floor. The switch will determine whether the occupants of this floor can communicate with occupants of the other two floors or else will determine which ports are communicating directly (Du & Pardalos, 1998). It will also make it possible for the printer in this floor not to print data from other floors. The first floor will be prepared to host 20 computer places and the printer. This connectivity to these computers, the projector and the printer will assured by the switch that will be placed to separate this floor from the other floors but link it with the server situated in the ground floor. There will be spaces for 5 desktops installed in this room with their connectivity to the network. There will tables that will fitted with power systems and internet connection ports to allow room for the laptops and other connection devices that the staff could be using in this room. Each of the computer position will be connected to the printer to ensure that every user can print at will (Piliouras & Terplan, 1998). The switch will also ensure that the printers cannot print data from other floors. The second floor will house 20 computers positions labeled computer 1-20. Five computer positions will be fitted with desktops and other spaces will be left for laptops and other user devices including mobile devices. Each computer positions will be connected to the network and to the printer through the use of ports. This floor will also be connected to the server through a link and separated from other floors through the switch of a switch that will allow the network information to flow in one direction unless it is required that different floors share information (Du & Pardalos, 1998). Each computer will be connected to the printer to allow every member of the staff in this floor to use the printer and the printer will be disconnected from other floors through the switch. Every floor will be equipped with firewall. The firewall will be a device that will provide mechanism that will filter or redirect packet that do not fit security or access policy requirements for every floor. The firewalls will also be used to provide Network Address Translation for every room. In a nutshell, the firewall for every floor will act as a security system that consist of hardware and software that will hinder the exposure of the computer network to attacks from malicious individuals. This will ensure that the users with malicious intentions or outsiders do not use the company data maliciously (Iniewski, et al., 2008). The firewall will also make it impossible for the company network and internet resources to be used by parties not authorized to use by the company. Every floor will also be connected to a router. Routers will be used to connect networks within the company and will be used to dispatch the information depending on the specified way. Routers will be located at the gateways or at the links that join the network from each floor to the server. The routers will be supplementary to the switches and will only be used to supplement the switches in the case there is an information leak in the switches to ensure that the information within the network continue to floor as desired. A router within every floor gateway will be used to provide the network or internet to the designated occupants of every floor whether they are accessing the network from the floor computer positions or remotely. The routers will either allow network to be shared or connected either through the Ethernet data cables or through the use of high frequency radio signals to transmit and receive data over distances that can allow the use of the company network in remote locations. This implies that the routers will offer the capacity of wireless local area network. Therefore, other than dispatching the information through the network like the switches, the routers will also offer the capacity to dispatch the network data either through the wired connections or through the wireless form. This will allow the staff members to use the network of their designated floor irrespective of the floor they are in or within the company vicinity like in the board rooms. In every floor, the computer positions will be connected to the network system through bus topology. In bus topology the networks will use a common backbone to connect all devices. A single cable, which is otherwise known as backbone will be used to function as the shared communication medium where devices attach or tap into within an interface connector (Kesler, 2016). The bus cable will start from the link that joins each floor to the servers. Every network device that will want to communicate with others in the network will send a broadcast message onto the wire that all other devices see but it is only the specified recipient who will accept and process the message. This topology is chosen because it is assumed that it will be easy to install and it is best suited for every floor because of the few number of computers used in each floor. Nevertheless, the different floors will be connected to the server through mesh topology (Scire, 2016). The mesh topology is assumed to be fitting for this section because it makes use of the concept of routes. The message sent from the central position of the network can take any of the three paths from source destination. Another important element of the network design is the switch core. The switch core is high-capacity switch that is assumed to provide the major aggregation point for the network and to allow multiple aggregation of the three floors modules to work together. The switch core will allow easy manipulation of the three network routes without the need of controlling it at the gateway of each floor. Network Design Justification This network layout and topology is chosen to fit the client’s specifications. The first specification that is taken care of is the fact that the network will be distributed within the three floors of the company. The server is placed at the ground floor as the client requested. The client also requested that she was having a staff size of 50 who will be using 20 desktops, 290 laptops and other 10 will bring their devices at work. The arrangement of the computers was organized to accommodate this. In the ground floor, additional space is required for the servers. This implied that the number of computer positions in this were reduced to 15 compared with 20 for other floors. The desktop images is used to show the positions where the desktop will be mounted. Those that are indicated by laptops show the positions where the laptops will be hosted and the other switch other user devices are for he staffs who will be bringing their own devices. There are 5 extra positions for the desktops as it was requested by the client. This will be places with desktops with no users and will allow any new user to occupy them. Other equipment that have been catered for in the layout and topology is the printers and the 75” OLED Televisions in every floor. The television is placed in front of the computer positions to make it possible for the users to see the content of the televisions. This will allow the rooms to be used as board rooms. The printer has been situated strategically near the exit of the room to make it accessible to any user who might be willing to use it. The arrangement of the equipment is similar for the three floors to make it possible to deploy the same network topology for all floors easily except for ground floor that will be having the server. The client made a request for a requirement for the network access for staff from remote locations even though this raised concern for the security of data. In order to address this, every floor was fitted with a router, a switch, and a firewall software. The routers will allow the use of network in two options; the wired local area network and wireless local area network. The wired local area network will be supplied to every computer position through Ethernet cables and a port for connections. The wireless local area network will allow the users to access the network through their own devices at remote locations. To address the security concern, the firewalls and the switch will be used to safeguard the network for every floor. The firewall will ensure that there is no access to the company network by unauthorized hands. This will also prevent the access of data for malicious use. The switch will ensure that the data within the network flows in the desired destination. This will ensure that the data of one floor does not leak to other floors and expose it to malicious or unintended use. The use of switch in the gateway to every floor is to ensure that the information can flow from the server to every computer within the company. The switch will always allow the data to flow in one direction and will need to controlled for the data to flow in the opposite direction if need be according to the demands of the company and the users. Due to the client’s requirements, it was stated that the 2 senior staff were unable to have physical data points in their offices. However, the staff could frequently transmit large files across the network. The designing of this network layout and the switch placement will allow the senior staffs to continue sending the data easily. Recommendation Following the design of this layout and topology, the simplicity for installation and the use of the network was very critical. Also the security of the data within the network was paramount in the designing of the network layout and topology. The flow of data within the network was also required to be efficient, effective, seamless, and safe. These are the three basic determinations in the designing of this network design and at the end of the day, the design will be expected to deliver this. Nevertheless, these measures are not foolproof of access by unauthorized hands or hacking by malicious individuals. It is therefore recommended that it could be important that the company put in place, and emphasize that every user need to have their user security systems, especially when accessing the network remotely. Conclusion The objective of this report was to provide a description of the network infrastructure layout/topology for a Small to Medium sized Public Relations Company. The client had given the specifications that the company has 50 staffs, who will occupy three floors. The client also required that the network to be secure to ensure the company data is safe from attacks. This report provided the assumptions that were made before the presentation of the design. The report further provided the network layout diagram that shows how the network will be laid out. The fundamental guiding principle the preparation of this network design the simplicity, ease of use, efficiency, and security. The report further recommends improve user security measures to ensure network safety and avoid possible leakage. Bibliography Du, D.-Z. & Pardalos, P. M., 1998. Network Design: Connectivity and Facilities Location : Dimacs Workshop April 28-30, 1997. Boston: American Mathematical Soc.. Iniewski, K., McCrosky, C. & Minoli, D., 2008. Network Infrastructure and Architecture: Designing High-Availability Networks. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Kesler, M., 2016. Planning and De, Washington: Synyx. Piliouras, T. C. & Terplan, K., 1998. Network Design: Management and Technical Perspectives. New York: CRC Press. Scire, T., 2016. Network design checklist: How to design a LAN. [Online] Available at: http://searchitchannel.techtarget.com/feature/Network-design-checklist-Six-factors-to-consider-when-designing-LANs [Accessed 5 April 2017]. Read More