Network Design of Two Companies - Coursework Example

? Network Design Paper of Network Design Paper Scenario: The given scenario is to merge the two companies. One of these companies is connected with three networks running RIP protocol for communication while the merging company has one OSPF based network. Merging of networks with different routing protocols should be in a way that working of end users should not be disrupted and communication between the network remains transparent. Introduction to RIP: Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is routing protocol that is widely used for handling router information within a LAN or interconnected sequence of such corporate LANs. RIP is nominated by IETF as one of various other Interior Gateway Protocols (IGPs). RIP works on distance learning vector algorithms while most of other protocols use sophisticated algorithms demanding time as well. (Dean, 2010, p. 274-275) RIP’s routing procedure is that its gateway router transmits complete information of routing table (that includes all the connected hops that are known to the gateway) to its nearest host after every 30 seconds. The neighboring router than pass the same information to its nearest neighbor other than from which it had received this information and process continues until every routers in the network has similar information of the routing paths. This condition is what we called network convergence. For determining distance of the network RIP uses process called hop count. Every hop in the network determines its neighboring hop(s) from routing table information for sending a packet to for a particular destination. Advantages of using RIP in the network are: For small homogeneous networks RIP is considered as an effective solution. RIP is very easy to understand and configuring. It can be configured on all the routers present. Generally RIP is a loop free routing protocol but has limited scalability of around 15 hop maximum. Introduction to OSPF: Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is a routing protocol implemented within large autonomous networks. OSPF is nominated by IETF as one of various other Interior Gateway Protocols (IGPs). In a network where OSPF is used, if a router that receives a change in the routing table or identifies a modification in the network without delay multicasts this change information to every other host connected in the network with the intention that every host may have the similar information in the routing table. It only transmits the change that has occurred, not the entire routing table like RIP. It is a robust link-state routing protocol and is the most widely used Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP). It bases information on link-states that take additional network description into consideration. OSPF have functionality of prioritizing the path by assigning metric value to that path. For further dividing the subnets OSPF supports a variable network subnet mask. Advantages of using OSPF in the network are: Quickly responds to the network changes. Sends trigger updates when change occurs in the network. Use cost as metric for giving preference to the paths. It has protocol identifier of 89 in the IP address for OSPF packet identification. Summarizing the solution: As being the administrator of the company and as per the details given to me I know that my network running is RIP on it and has three networks while the merging company has one OSPF running network that means RIP networks outnumber the OSPF network so I do not prefer to change anything on my own network. For example if someone is the administrator of Windows server based sites and a new company is merging having Linux operating system. Although everyone knows that Linux has more advantages than windows but still would not feel easy to change my operating system. If to choose change than should also keep in mind that new Service-Level-Agreements, new suppliers, new business processes, new interfaces, etc and staff training as well. Why to this everything is running smoothly already. Our solution could have been a different if and number of network of the merging company may have outnumbered our network by at least 3:1. But still we would go on the side what we know best and our end users know better. The solution would have also been different if the OSPF Site had a large number of networks and even additional sites behind it, i.e. a complex network, then rather we may apply OSPF at my three RIP sites. Solution: As we know that on the basis technology and efficiency OSPF is the best choice, but since as our three networks are already configured in RIP-based networking we would as a first step set up compatibility and then secondly replace OSPF with RIP completely in order to have a consistent environment. Details implementation of our solution: Let’s assume that A,B,C be the name of network that have RIP running on them, while name D to the site that has OSPF configured on it. First of all we shall check the nearest or the best site in terms of metric value or bandwidth/latency out of all the three previous sites. This best site will then be designated to connect with the new site D using RIP. A new connection between the two sites should be ordered before stating the implementation process. As we know that RIP can be implemented on all the routers present today but scenario demands no disruption to the end-users. So a new router with RIP configured on it should be tested by injecting traffic into it. During an off day or a weekend this newly purchased RIP configured router should be installed a site D. The users of site D can are not disturbed with this change as everything is checked and tested before implementation. Now site D is also a RIP enabled network. To connect site D with the nearest site (A, B or C) new static routes are configured at both ends and to all the connected networks. Then we shall check the connection with a simple ping test initially from both the connected routers then move ahead from each segment. The reason for all these testing on an off-day or weekend is to not disrupt the users in business hours. After successful testing of the networks check the latency in late hours of the business day with couple of users on each site. Successful testing will confirm that everything is going fine and we have completed the task with completely RIP based network including the network of merging company. Diagram to illustrate our solution In the above diagram IP Addresses describes the connection of different networks. References Dean, T. (2010). Network+ guide to networks. Boston, Mass: Cengage Course Technology. Read More