Information and Communication Technology ICT - Essay Example

?Local Area Network Information and communication technology ICT has facilitated us with endless communication interfaces and opportunities. Likewise, a skeleton for transfer and exchanging blood within different parts of the body is considered veins. Similarly, for exchanging and communicating data within different computers and applications, computer network is an essential component. There are various types of computer networks such as Local Area Network, Wide Area Network and Metropolitan Area Network. These networks operates on different topologies, however, star topology is generally adopted by organizations because it supports centralized administration and management. Likewise, enterprise wide applications such as, enterprise resource planning software, databases and internet enabled applications utilizes local area network for business automation and robust communication. The local area network will address networking devices, protocols, security appliances, services and connection media. However, three factors will be considered for evaluation and future recommendations i.e. reliability and availability, integration of services / scalability and network security. Case Study As per the scenario, a local area network of an organization maintaining customer data and have state of the art network security is selected. The Organization’s local area network is facilitated by wired and wireless network connections via wireless access points. Likewise, over 500 nodes are available that are separated by four departments i.e. Marketing, Accounts, Administrative staff and IT product management staff. The Organization has acquired Cisco network and devices to ensure reliability and availability of network services. Moreover, Cisco devices deliver integration features that will support compatibility and scalability issues with upcoming applications and services. For addressing, network security, again Cisco firewalls are implemented to protect the network from viruses, worms and probes. In summary, Cisco 3845 integrated service router is implemented for exchanging communication from the local area network interface to the WAN interface. The router provides productivity, integration and enhanced features along with Cisco 3845 (ISR) Site-to-Site VPN Support, Cisco 3845 (ISR) Remote Access VPN Support, Cisco 3845 (ISR) Network Admission Control support, Cisco 3845 (ISR) Digital Voice Call support , Cisco Unified Communication Support and Unified Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST) support. Moreover, data switches are also acquired from Cisco named as Cisco Catalyst 3750 that provides enhanced features. Moreover, for wireless networks, Cisco Unified Wireless network featuring Cisco Wireless Control System along with Cisco 4400 Series Wireless LAN Controllers are deployed. Furthermore, the wireless network also supports Cisco Clear air Technology. For remote connectivity and scalability, Cisco service mobility engines are installed. For application support, SOAP and XML Support and Context aware Services are available. In addition, for addressing network security, Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances (For Wired Network), AIP-SSM Intrusion Prevention Module and Wireless Intrusion Prevention System (W IPS) (For Wireless Networks) is operational. Fig 1.1 demonstrates the local area network of an organization below: Figure 1.1 (LOCAL AREA NETWORK) Structure and Cabling The current network is constructed on Star topology that is the most widely adopted topology, as it has many benefits when compared to other topologies. By implementing star topology, network engineers can administer and troubleshoot the network more efficiently and effectively. Star topology provides a one stop monitoring screen that demonstrates activities on the local area network. Likewise, the cost of implementing and managing the local area network is comparatively low, as less resources and low network downtime occurs. Moreover, network security is addressed efficiently, as monitoring of each system or service is carried out effectively. The current local network is operational on a CAT 5 data cable that can handle data and voice transmission simultaneously. The cable is comprises of 4 copper twisted pairs with different colors and utilize RJ 45 connectors for establishing physical connectivity with the Ethernet card. Moreover, the CAT 5 cable supports full duplex mode on a maximum on 100 meters. However, a repeater is required after every 100 meter cable. Router A router is an intelligent device that routes data packets on different networks configured on different subnets. Likewise, configuration of different subnets on the router provides scalability and expandability on an enterprise level. Moreover, the router also maintains a routing table in a routing database. The database includes source of the data and destination of data. However, in some cases, static routes can be defined by the network engineer manually to meet certain specific requirements. Furthermore, the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) is also defined to ensure optimal utilization of the network services. Reliability, Integration and Security As the current local area network is operational on Cisco 3845 Integrated Services Router that supports parallel performance on the LAN services such as voice, data and security services, enhanced speculation is reachable. Likewise, the router supports upcoming technology integration by supporting more than 90 modules on both interfaces i.e. copper and fiber. The cost effectiveness is achieved by configuring Power over Ethernet (PoE). PoE is considered to be a next generation technology in terms non-disruptive power source. A separate power link is provided to parallel network devices on the local area network. Moreover, to ensure network security, the router is fully configurable to use data encryption, virtual private network tunnels etc. However, Cisco based VPN are considered more secure and efficient, as it is a cost effective solution that utilized public switched telephone networks (PSTN) (, Cisco 3845 Integrated Services Router - Cisco Systems). As per the current scenario, the connectivity is established to remote offices as well, this concludes that VPN is operational, as shown in Fig 1.1. The Cisco based VPN provides enhanced security by configuring authentication and encryption methods for protecting the data from threats while transportation. Likewise, the VPN server connects via a highly secure mechanism that provides limited access. Moreover, if any new site is established, network engineer can only add a new remote site and its users, making the infrastructure scalable with minimum configuration issues. Moreover, the Site to site ‘VPN’ provides a ‘WAN’ infrastructure is also configured to expand network resources from the main site to remote sites. The transmission of data between the sites is encrypted by using the ‘Internet Protocol security’ (IPsec). The site to site ‘VPN’ integrates network features consisting of quality of service (QoS), routing, and multicast support. The advantages for using Cisco based ‘VPN’ gives extra leverage as the system requires video and voice communication support from remote sites with high quality and reliability. The internet application transmits complex traffic with simplified provisioning with reduced operational tasks for network designs. The remote sites require access to various network resources as the core network infrastructure is located at a remote site. Site to site ‘VPN’ will synchronize the network resources within sites, at the same time providing security in terms of data encryption. Remote access ‘VPN’ provide emulation of a workstation to a remote user. It can extend every application related to data, video or voice communication. Remote access ‘VPN’ can provide highly customizable and secure remote access to students anywhere anytime with any compatible device. They can access the network resources and data access with any compatible device. The remote access ‘VPN’ portrays a realistic user experience as the user access his own system. The access is more flexible and easy because it can be operated by any compatible computing device. Remote access ‘VPN’ supports a wide variety of connectivity options and platforms, fulfilling the user requirements efficiently. The unified communication support for the network certainly eliminates the service interruption while performing voice communication. This feature can be configured for VoIP based applications requiring high bandwidth. It is part of the congregated voice and data solution empowered by the Cisco 3845 integrated Services Router. The efficient call processing solution is incorporated in the Cisco 3845 Integrated service router with the following features: PBX capabilities: The router incorporates the private branch exchange capabilities within the rich IOS of the Cisco 3845 Integrated Services Router saving the additional cost The router also provides the combination of any existing applications related to customer relationship management with “Cisco unified call collector” applications. The unified communication manager provides user specified call handling. The IP phone users can take conduct calls by a specific number by extending incoming business calls to mobile phones or home phones based on the rules which are configured in the router with Cisco Unified Call Connector Mobility. Installation and configuration can be performed easily by an instinctive management interface provided by Cisco configuration Professional. It simplifies the additions and modifications in a simplified way. The Cisco Unified Communication Manager protects the investment by designing a solution which may support up to 450 users with Cisco Unified communication Manager. It also enables planned migration to support the future network expansion and scalability requirements Cisco unified manager supports up to 720 IP phones for local call processing, to provide optional support for survivable remote site telephony (, Cisco Unified Communications Man - Cisco Systems). The Cisco router 3845 (Integrated services router) supports unified survivable remote site telephony (SRST) support to serve the network resources to users without interruption. The Cisco SRST eliminates the requirement of communication tools for the remote sites and teleworkers. Cisco Unified Survivable Remote Site Telephony is a unique feature which is integrated in the Input output system (IOS) on Cisco routers. It makes use of the remote office's legacy network to provide multi-threaded call-processing. “The centralized Cisco Unified Communications Manager, and Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition wires up to 1500 users per site” (, Voice and Unified Communications - Products & Solutions - Cisco Systems). The features of Cisco Unified Survivable Remote Site Telephony are available at www.cisco.com as the “Business resiliency through redundant, localized call processing, Intelligent and automatic failover configuration without manual IT or telecom intervention, Cost-effective operations through a converged voice and data network, Centralized IP telephony configuration and management, Investment protection and ease of migration” Switches Switches perform packet distribution tasks within the local area network. Robust Ethernet switches are currently deployed to support the internet, intranet, extranet applications and voice and video broadcasting support. Reliability, Integration and Security The Cisco Catalyst 3750 v2 series switch is fulfilling the requirements for the current scenario as well as for the future. Cisco Catalyst 3750 is the OSI layer 3 stackable switch, supporting the energy efficiency factor. Stackable means that more switches can be added to the current switch configuration for providing more network nodes. This switch supports the Cisco Energy Wise technology, which assist in the provision of power management of the network. At the same time, the Cisco energy wise technology reduces the cost and carbon foot prints. The latest invention to the energy wise technology is the ‘Cisco EnergyWise’ Orchestrator which is a dedicated turnkey power management solution for the network and information systems. The Cisco Energy Wise Orchestrator enables to administer the energy requirements of Power over Ethernet (POE) enabled devices. It also extends the enterprise power management to workstations and laptops (, ‘Cisco EnergyWise’ Technology - Cisco Systems). Moreover, the Cisco catalyst 3750 v2 series switch is ideal for remote sites environments. The switch consumes less power and enhances productivity for the local area network. It protects the network investment by supporting the unified network for data, voice and video streaming. The switch supports two software versions, which are also called the input / output system (IOS). One is the Internet Protocol IOS which includes enhanced quality of service (QoS), frame rate limiting, access control list (ACL), Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) to support the routing features and IP v6 support which will definitely support the future IP v6 compatible network devices in the future. The second IOS support the enterprise network level functionality. It includes hardware based Internet Protocol Unicast, Internet Protocol Multicast routing, and policy based routing (PBR) (, Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series Switches - Products & Services - Cisco Systems ). Wireless Network As fig 1.1 demonstrates ‘access points’ they are used to connect devices equipped with wireless technology. ‘Access points’ transmits and receive radio signals adjacent to a network hub over a limited distance. However, distant varies from different model types and wireless technology adopted. The current local area network is providing access of network resources to the staff throughout the sites. Cisco delivers a borderless mobility experience which gives users access to the information and resources with the quality and performance. Reliability, Integration and Security The wireless infrastructure of Cisco which is called a ‘Cisco Wireless Control System’ consists of following components: Cisco 4400 wireless LAN controller Cisco Aironet 1500 Series Access points Cisco 3300 Series Mobility Services Engine Integrated support for (wIPS) Built in support for ‘Cisco context-aware services’. The ‘Cisco Wireless Control System’ accomplishes planning, monitoring, deployment and reporting on indoor and outdoor wireless networks. The life comprehensive life cycle management platform of ‘Cisco Wireless Control System’ enables the reduction of operational cost with integrated tools, templates and guidelines. It enhances information technology efficiency via a spontaneous flexible graphical user interface (GUI). The centralized administration significantly eliminates the staffing requirements. For future perspective, the wireless architecture can also support the scalability of Local area network and Wireless Local Area Network to an enterprise level. The advantage for using Cisco technology gives the wireless network a stride forward by ‘Cisco Clean Air Technology’. This technology protects the performance of ‘802.11n’ by extenuating Radio Frequency (RF) interference. The ‘Cisco 4400 wireless LAN controller’ supports a variety of wireless LAN functionality consisting of security policies, intrusion detection system (IDS), quality of service (QoS) and mobility. The framework of ‘Cisco 4400 Wireless LAN Controllers’ consists of ‘Cisco access points’ and ‘Cisco wireless control system’ to support efficient wireless connectivity. ‘Cisco 4400 series Wireless LAN Controller’ provides scalability, security and reliability for the wireless network. The ‘Cisco Aironet 1500 series access points’ transmit and receive data via wireless technology ‘802.11n’ which support up to 70 Mbps. However a minimum requirement for the wireless network may be ‘802.11a’ which supports up to 54Mbps. By implementing the wireless devices empowered by Cisco, ‘clean air technology’ delivers this speed benchmark with high reliability and scalability to support the essential application, video and voice throughput. On the other hand this technology eliminates the interference which is caused by the characteristics of radio frequency transmission and ensures network availability. The network administrator can analyze the wireless network due to visibility in to the wireless spectrum provided by ‘Cisco Clean Air Technology’. The uniqueness of this technology also includes the intelligent automatic adjustments of Radio Frequency (RF) interferences within the network to optimize wireless coverage. The user interface provides access to real time statistics of devices and systems located anywhere within the network so that the network administrators can apply policies on instant basis without disrupting services. The ‘Cisco 3300 Series Mobility Services Engine’ is integrated in the local area network for interacting with mobility networks. Organization may want ‘IP telephony ’and‘ wireless accesses within the sites, ‘Cisco 3300 Series Mobility Services Engine’ plays a vital role. The engines include the provision of mobility services from the local area network. It offers reliability and management in application deliverance to the mobility services. The ‘Cisco 3300 Series Mobility Services Engine’ supports a variety of services. Applications Currently, there are many applications requiring access over local and remote offices of the current organization. SOAP and XML support ensures applications service delivery by also addressing Reliability, Integration and Security. Reliability, Integration and Security Unified application delivery integration with the Wi-Fi, local area network, Wi-max and cellular networks, reduces the operational tasks and complexities associated with the requirements of the network. The ‘Cisco 3300 Series Mobility Services Engine’ supports ‘API’ on Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and extensive Markup Language (XML) for third party application development. It supports the simultaneous delivery of compound mobility services with centralized distribution and configuration for all network topologies (, Cisco 3300 Series Mobility Services Engine - Products & Services - Cisco Systems). The ‘Cisco Context aware Services’ are the built in components of the ‘Cisco Service Mobility Engine 3300 series’. This value added service helps the business applications by capturing, and combining intelligence from various points in the network. The captured intelligence from the network is then interpreted in to the business requirements to optimize the deliverance of mobility applications. ‘Cisco Context-Aware software’ is a major element of the ‘Mobility solution’, which enlarge the base of the ‘Cisco Unified Wireless Network architecture’. A ‘Cisco mobility service’ is an application instance operating on the ‘Cisco 3300 Series Mobility Services Engine’. It has the following capabilities (, Cisco Context-Aware Services [Context-Aware Mobility Solution] - Cisco Systems): • “The service acts across multiple edge technologies such as 802.11 wireless and 802.3 wired networks. • The service provides a value-add function across multiple network elements. • The service provides an interface to that value-add function to external applications and servers using a mobility services engine API. • The service adds intelligence to the network through its function to enhance the usability of the network. • The service provides visibility into the network that otherwise applications and servers would not easily obtain. • The service can be combined with other mobility services to achieve higher order functions. • The service can be managed using the mobility service API. • The service can be deployed across multiple MSEs to scale the function it provides” Network Security The Fig 1.1 demonstrates ‘Cisco ASA 5500’ firewall with built in intrusion detection system. This security appliance serves as an all-rounder to protect the network at an optimal level, at the same time saving the cost for purchase of a separate security appliance. As a fundamental part of the Cisco products family, Cisco Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) is a preference for small medium and corporate networks. They provide protection against more than 30,000 known threats, with timely signature updates and Cisco Global Correlation to dynamically evaluate, identify and eliminate emerging Internet threats. The most widely knows threats from which the ‘Cisco IPS’ protects are directed attacks, Worms, Malware, and Application abuse (, Cisco Intrusion Prevention System - Products & Services - Cisco Systems). Moreover, the ‘Cisco ASA 5500 Series Security Appliances’ personalize the security for specific network requirements and policies. It is flexible for sporting future network expansions to add capabilities or device upgrades. The firewall has integrated support of content security, encryption algorithm, identity authentication, identity authorization, and intrusion prevention. As per Network Dictionary, intrusion detection system is illustrated as “Network-based intrusion detection system (NIDS) refers to an intrusion detection system (IDS) that monitors activity on a network, instead of a particular host”. The current local area network demonstrates an intrusion detection system for preventing the network from unauthorized access, hackers, intruders, malicious codes, Trojans. The ‘Cisco Module (AIP-SSM)’ for ‘Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliance’, provides intelligent infrastructure and intelligent intrusion prevention services to stop malicious software before they can affect the network (, Cisco ASA 5500 Series The AIP-SSM Intrusion Prevention Module combines with the ‘Cisco ASA 5500’ series appliance to function. The combination gives total confidence in the protection offered by the ‘IPS’ architecture without dropping the quality of service. The combination also offers a wide barrier of protection by integrating with other network resources in a proactive approach. The ‘Cisco AIP-SSM Intrusion Prevention Module’ provides accurate inline prevention technology to provide unparalleled ability to protect the network against the enormous types of threats without compromising network performance. The multi vector threat identification feature ensures protection from policy violations, vulnerability exploitations and malicious activity by deep analysis of data transmission from OSI layer 2 to layer 7. The unique network collaboration enhances scalability and flexibility via network collaboration consisting of intelligent traffic penetration techniques, load balancing, and transparency in encrypted traffic. The dominant management, event association and support services make a complete solution consisting of configuration, management, data correlation and advanced features. The two features of AIP -SSM Intrusion Prevention Module named as Cisco Security Monitoring, Analysis, and Response System (Cisco Security MARS) and Cisco Incident Control System (ICS) plays separate roles. ‘Cisco Security MARS’ identifies, segregate and recommends precision exclusion of felonious elements and the ‘Cisco ICS’ prevents the network from worm and virus eruption, by adapting a distributed response within the network rapidly. These two features make the ‘Cisco AIP-SSM Intrusion Prevention Module’ as a world class solution for small business (, Cisco ASA Advanced Inspection and Prevention Security Services Module - Products & Services - Cisco Systems). References Category 5 Cable. 2007. Network Dictionary, , pp. 88-88. , Cisco 3845 Integrated Services Router - Cisco Systems . 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Available: http://www.cisco.com/cisco/web/solutions/small_business/products/security/ASA_5500_series/index.html [1/1/2011, 2011]. , Cisco ASA 5500 Series Advanced Inspection and Prevention Security Services Module and Card [Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances] - Cisco Systems . Available: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/vpndevc/ps6032/ps6094/ps6120/ps6825/product_data_sheet0900aecd80404916_ps6120_Products_Data_Sheet.html [1/4/2011, 2011]. , Cisco ASA Advanced Inspection and Prevention Security Services Module - Products & Services - Cisco Systems . Available: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6825/index.html [1/1/2011, 2011]. Network-Based Intrusion Detection System. 2007. Network Dictionary, , pp. 340-340. , Voice and Unified Communications - Products & Solutions - Cisco Systems . Available: http://www.cisco.com/web/ANZ/products/voice.html [1/4/2011, 2011]. Read More