Installation of Wide Area Network - Literature review Example

? Full Paper Local Area Network Pre Requisites Before implementing a local area network a general overview is required of thelocal area network. A simple definition available on business source database defines it as “A network that links nearby computers to one another. A local area network (lan) is usually used to connect computers in the same room or on the same floor of a building, and often forms part of a much bigger corporate network” The first step is to organize the requirements. This will include the network devices and functionality for fulfilling the requirements for the school staff. The justification of the selected computing devices and the network equipment is required. The second step includes the network design. The design will clearly identify, floor connections, office connections, servers, workstations, printers, scanners and cable types. The third step is to implement a Wide Area Network (WAN) to connect other locations or Internet connectivity. 2 Network Pre requisites 2.1 First Floor The first floor includes Administration, Staff Office and the technical staff. The staff office will access the file server which is the ‘Students notes distribution server’ for uploading notes. Students are facilitated at the same time for downloading the notes. The lecturers will connect their laptops with the wireless access points installed equipped with the new 802.11n technology. Since the requirement of high bandwidth multimedia transmission is increasing, improving the (QoS) (Quality of service) is essential. A comprehensive illustration of Quality of services is available on network dictionary as “Quality of Service (QoS) refers to the ability of a network to provide higher priority services, including dedicated bandwidth, controlled jitter and latency (required by some real-time and interactive traffic), and improved loss characteristics, to selected network traffic over various WAN, LAN and MAN technologies.”.Keeping this in mind a new technology 8.2.11n is introduced by the IEEE (Kuo 2008). For keeping the network robust and efficient 802.11n protocol provides comprehensive support for voice and video services (Cai, Ling et al. 2009). These wireless access points are connected with a Cisco switch. For providing security, Virtual local area network (VLAN) is the best match for this scenario. The VLAN will split all domains for better administration, management and security. VLAN uses encryption techniques for transmitting data over the network. Access policy list is configured in the router for defining the routes. The router processes the data packets based on parameters. Internet protocol and subnet is the composition of the router to handle the routes on the destination. The policy for lecturers is to access to the file server, printers and email server. In this way, data transmission from the educational domain is secured. No one can determine the wireless network because only lecturer Internet protocol pool is allowed to communicate. If anyone tries to access the wireless network from outside, he or she is prompted to enter the Wired Equivalent Privacy key (WEP). A good illustration of WEP is available in the network dictionary which says ” Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is a security protocol, specified in the IEEE Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) standard, 802.11b, that is designed to provide a wireless local area network (WLAN) with a level of security and privacy comparable to what is usually expected of a wired LAN.” WEP provides security by an encryption algorithm. No one in the school can access the wireless network or the lecturers system. An additional Cisco switch installation has been proposed. Although one access point within a range of approximately 200 feet is enough for connecting 253 laptops. The staff can access the printer on the network. The printer is shared on the network and is visible at “My network places” in case of Microsoft operating systems. The requirement for the administrative staff is to access the email server, Microsoft office and the Internet. The team requires full access to the student records for administrative purpose. A new VLAN is created for that purpose. On that VLAN, an access policy is applied for granting access to the file server, Internet and the Email server. For future network expansion, an additional switch is installed with the premises for coping up the network connectivity requirements, if a new system has been placed. Technical staff consists of the school’s servers. A file server, Email server, and a firewall / proxy server are installed. One scanner is also installed for the lecturers. The router and the Wide Area network (WAN) connectivity is terminated in this department. A DSL modem is installed for that purpose. As it is the technical staff team, access to all network devices is granted for administrative and troubleshooting purpose. The router is installed in the technical department and providing connectivity to the second floor of the school premises. 2.2 Second Floor On the second floor, 12 staff offices rooms are available, which are connecting to the wireless access points. The first and second floor shares the same security architecture. 2.3 Third Floor Six student laboratories are located on the third floor. Apart from the two special laboratories, total four laboratories have a capacity of forty students. Each laboratory possesses a laser printer. A requirement for a network switch is placed in order to access the student network. Before connecting to the network, the student should notify the technical staff to grant them access on the network. The practical and tutorial laboratory consists of servers regarding practical and tutorial material. A separate VLAN is created for the practical and tutorial server in order to protect the network transmission. The other special laboratory containing servers for student projects will use a separate VLAN for securing and encrypting the transmission. The connectivity of the laboratory servers is separated from the network by placing another router. The requirement for an additional switch is compulsory to support the future expansion of the network resources. 3 Installation of Network Equipment 3.1 Installing Cables In a proposed network design, category 5 cables are used for data transmission. CAT-5 is in the form of twisted pairs. This cable consists of 4 copper wire pairs, connecting the network node with RJ 45 connectors.CAT-5 supports up to 100 to 1000 MHz speeds in a full duplex mode (Category 5 Cable. 2007). The length of the cable depends on the distance which needs evaluation in the school premises. 3.2 Installing Switches Cisco switches which are the best choice, equipped with Fast Ethernet and supporting VLAN functionality are implemented. As compared to the old 10 base-t, the 100 base-t provides 10 times more speed supporting the MAC and MTU. All network adapters’ supports 100 base-t technologies in general. Making it a cost saving and efficient choice for local area networks (Fast Ethernet. 2007). All the switches are of twenty four ports, keeping in mind the expansion of the network will not affect by purchasing new network equipment. Total six switches are used on the first floor. Only four out of six are operation. Two switches are installed for future expansion of the network. On the second floor, total four switches are used. Three switches are operational and one is installed for future expansion of the network. On the third floor, total nine switches are installed. Seven switches are operational and two switches are installed for future network expansion. 3.3 Installing Routers Total three routers installed for routing the traffic from each floor. The access policies are applied for separating the lecturers, students, and Internet user’s domain. 3.4 Installing Printers There is a requirement of seven laser printers to be installed in the premises. One printer is installed on the first floor of the school premises, the rest of the six printers are installed on the third floor in each student laboratory. 3.5 Installing Servers Total three installations of servers are required, including the file server, email server and the firewall / proxy server. The file server is the student’s notes distribution system. The email server will route the email, inbound and outbound of the school premises. The application layer for accessing email service is “Microsoft outlook express”. The data servers which are located in the two specific laboratories are on a student’s network indicated by blue color Ethernet cables in the network diagram. They are being used for practicals and tutorials, and projects of the students. 3.6 Installing Access points Total seven access point installation is required. Access points are the wireless devices which broadcast signals for Internet connectivity. The models of access points vary in the context of broadcasting signal strengths and ranges. In the school premises three access points are used on the first floor for providing secure wireless connectivity to the laptops of the lecturers. On the second floor, four access points are installed. For keeping in mind, the supporting network resources for network expansion two switches are installed for connecting any new access point in case of new development of the departments and staff hiring. 3.7 Installation of Wide Area Network As per network encyclopedia wide area network is defined as “a computer network covering multiple distance areas, which may spread across the entire world. WANs often connect multiple smaller networks, such as local area networks (LANs) or metro area networks (MANs)”Implementation of Digital Subscriber line is required for catering the needs of the school network. A device used to connect to the telephony company for Internet access (DSL modem. 2010).There is no higher requirement for downloading data from the Internet. The student network runs on the local area network. DSL supports up to 3 Mb/sec downstream speeds in an asynchronous mode means only the downstream. The upstream speed is from 128Kbps to 768 Kbps. 3.8 Network Support and Maintenance Local technical department of the school will handle incident management. Currently only five employees are working. After the implementation of the network, new hiring of a qualified network administrator is required in order to manage the network security related incidents. To troubleshoot issues related to system administration and support, a team is required for performing day to day issues within the school premises. As the information related to academic course work will be shared by the lecturers to the students, there should be minimum time between failures of the network. 4 References RAMIG, R., 2010. Online Tools for Research--Elementary and Middle School Style. MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, 17(5), pp. 15-17. DSL modem. 2010. Computer Desktop Encyclopedia, , pp. 1. Local area network. 2003. Essential Internet, , pp. 125-125. Quality of Service. 2007. Network Dictionary, , pp. 397-397. Campus Area Network. 2007. Network Dictionary, , pp. 85-85. Category 5 Cable. 2007. Network Dictionary, , pp. 88-88. Wide Area Network. 2007. Network Dictionary, , pp. 525-525. Fast Ethernet. 2007. Network Dictionary, , pp. 190-190. Wired Equivalent Privacy. 2007. Network Dictionary, , pp. 529-529. CAI, L.X., LING, X., SHEN, X. and MARK, J.W., 2009. Supporting voice and video applications over IEEE 802.11n WLANs. Wireless Networks (10220038), 15(4), pp. 443-454. KUO, W.-., 2008. Traffic scheduling for multimedia transmission over IEEE 802.11e wireless LAN. IET Communications, 2(1), pp. 92-97. Read More