Networking Essential Plan for Coal Corporation - Report Example

Networking Essential Course name: Date: Word count: 2,716 Group Members: Executive Summary The objective of this plan is provide a network infrastructure and design for Coal Corporation. The Coal Corporation needs the network recommendation for its CBD office and the remote site. This plan will be divided into networking media, network subnet, hardware details, and network topologies sections. The network media will propose the best network media that the company will use. This will take cost consideration as well as the fact that the company cannot dig the town to link the networks. Therefore, a wireless networking media will be the best. The network subnet will be used to provide the IP address for the company systems. The plan will adopt a subnet of company’s network IPv4 address using the VLSM. The IP addresses will be provided providing a 30% expansion capacity. The hardware details will provide the best specification and details of the router and switches that will be used in the network. This will be based on the cost factors, performance capabilities, and durability. The network topology will propose how networks will be laid down. It will detail the nature of connections and link between various components of the network layout. Networking Media The networking media that will be selected for the Coal Corporation will be the communication channel that will be sued to interconnect nodes on computer and data communication networks between the CBD and the remote stations of the company as required to facilitate communication. The wireless communication media will be adopted. This is adopted because of the distance of separation between the CBD offices and the remote location centre as well as the requirements that the company cannot dig down in the city to allow the installation of alternative media like fibre optic cables that could go a long way to be used as the best alternative medium of communication and data transfer within the network. The wireless communication media that is chosen is the radio frequencies (RF). To make possible for the implementation of the wireless LAN for the company, the components that will be necessary include the wireless hub or just the access point that will be used for signal distribution. In order to receive the communication and data signals, the different nodes or the servers will have to have wireless adapter cards (wireless NIC). The wireless RF media is very cheap, versatile, and expandable to address the physical barriers like geographical distances and the need to expand the capacity by 30% in the future. Unlike some of the cable media where one would have to reinstall to create room for the desired 30% expansion, in the media RF wireless networking media (WLAN) there is no need for the installation. The radio frequency network media is suitable because it has a frequency range of between 10 KHz and 1GHz that would make it effective in the case of the Coal Corporation. It is also versatile and flexible in that it can broadcast omni directionally or it can be fine tined for directional emission from a variety of transmitting points. The fine tuning for the directional communications is the most appropriate for the case of Coal Corporation to allow efficient communication and data exchange between the CBD office and the remote location. Compared with some media like the untwisted twisted pair (UTP) cables where attenuation is factor to consider for distances above 100 metres. In the case of the RF wireless media there will be course for concern because the attenuation is extremely low irrespective of the distance (Tomsho, 2015). The further advantage of the RF wireless media is that of its flexibility in that it can be mobile or stationary. Subnet Network According to the company specification, it is required that the plan include a subnet of company’s network IPv4 address using the VLSM as appropriate as possible. When allocating the addresses to the subnets, it will be ensured that the addresses allow for a 30% growth in the network. The network address allocation will also cater for a printer for every 50 computers on the executives, sales and finance subnets. It is important to note that the servers will be located in a separate subnet and are allocated a static IPv4 addresses within the network. However, the number of the servers is not expected to grow in the foreseeable future and thus the addresses for the services will remain static. Before providing the company’s network IPv4 address, it is important to the number of the computers that will be catered for in every classification of subnets. The subnets will be five that include the finance, executive, sales, access, and an extra for the servers. For the access, there will be at least 750 users, 500 for the remote site and 250 for the CBD office. The executive will have 20 clients, 15 for the CBD office and another 5 for the remote site network. The finance will have 45 clients with 30 at the CBD office and 15 at the remote site location. For the sales, only 40 will be required for the CBD office. The server subnet will have only four clients for the 4 servers as required. It is important to bear in mind that the company network IPv4 addresses that will be provided will providing unique address for each node or client in these five subnets. The wireless network media will also be important for the executive, finance, and the access media because they are the one that will be spread between the CBD office and the remote site network. For the server subnet system, it situated at a separate LAN in the CBD office. The sales subnet will also be available in the CBD offices alone. For the other three subnets, the IP dress allocated will be considered to be an extension of the Perth CBD system and therefore the overall address scheme will be an extension. A 30% expansion allowance is catered for in every subnet expect in the server LAN because this is not expected to expand after three years. The company network IPv4 addresses using the VLSM is as shown in the table below. LAN name Subnet Mask Subnet Hosts Slash Notation Access 255.255.254.230 1024 /26 Finance 255.255..255.128 126 /27 Sales 255.255.255.194 62 /28 Executive 255.255.255.224 30 /29 Servers 255.255.255.250 4 /30 In the plan for the company network infrastructure in the two sites, a 305 for the 750 access subnets was planned for and the availed hosts were 1025 as shown in the table. For the finance LAN, at least 59 host or users were required catering for the 30% expandable capability and the plan provided for possible 126 hosts under this plan providing for even more flexibility. For the sales LAN, at least 52 hosts will be required catering for 30%, in this plan, a more flexibility is provided a possible 62 hosts. For the executive LAN at least 26 hosts were required after catering for the 30% growth potential. In the plan, a maximum of 30 computers will be provided with addresses providing even more flexibility for the company growth. In the server LAN a maximum and a constant number of 4 hosts was required, this exact was provided in the plan with no allowance for growth (Rooney, 2011). In the proposed plan, the IP address requirements are sorted in the descending order with the many host requires set at the top in the table. The highest range of the IPs is planned to be allocated to the highest number of requirements. This is allocated to the access LAN and is assigned the 255.255.254.230. The next range is allocated to the finance LAN that has the second higher number of the requirements with the addresses given in the 255.255.255.128. The next LAN to be allocated is the sales with the IP addresses found in the subnet mask labelled 255.255.255.194. The next LAN is executive that required 28 hosts and was allocated 30 of them with the IP addresses in the subnet mask 255.255.255.224. In this method, every host will have a unique ID address. In order to differentiate between the LANs, slash notation was used. This was important to tell the number of bits that were used for the network address. The highest slash notation in the table provided and for this plan is /23. The IPv4 used is the 4th version of the Internet Protocol addressing. In this addressing using it will be easier to upgrade to the IPv6 that is being replacing the later by having the adopting the 0 in the outer layer. The variable-length subnet mask (VLSM) was used to allow the division of the IP address space into hierarchy of subnets of varying sizes to make it possible to crate subnets that will have different host counts without the possibility of wasting large number of addresses. This was also possible because of the different characteristics in the four required networks (Rooney, 2011). For example, the server networks was localized at the CBD office while the other three networks were delocalized to the CBD office and to the remote site of the company. Hardware Details The hardware details that will be provided include that of the switches and the routers. The switches will be important in the Coal Corporations in to help centralize the communication and data signals within different LANs or connected devices as desired by the management. The switches will be important in the direction of the communication within dedicated lines to allow autonomy and security of data within the company. The network switch hardware that this plan proposes is the Cisco Systems 24-Prt Switch (SG11224NA). This hardware is chosen for its reputation as the market leader as well as the wide experience and application that it has been used. CISCO has been credited with manufacture of high quality network hardware and software and this switch is one of them. This device is further preferred because it will work right out of the box without the need for software installation and no configurations. It was further preferred because of its bandwidth-intensive video services and the ability to avoid slow networks (Akyildiz, et al., 2013). This switch is also very effective in conserving energy by optimizing the power use while not compromising the performance. The router hardware will also be used to forward data packs between the network systems (Beasley & Nilkaew, 2016). The routers that the plan proposes will need to meet the specifications of being able to expand by 30% ability, be able to support the network systems within the subnets, and be able to support the access by users either remote or on site who could be having the access to company information like the employees. The router should also be energy effective and performance–effective. The router hardware that was proposed for this plan is the TP-Link (Talon) Ad7200. The quality of service of this hardware device is guaranteed to allow the router to prioritize the types of data traffic to allow for high level of quality of data service. This device is further dual band wireless support enabled meaning it can transmit on two different frequencies, that is 5GHz and 2.4GHz that enables separate traffic to keep the air free of signal clutter. The other specifications include a solid number of 4GB LAN ports and the Gb LAN ports are good for an extra speed boost and reliability. It also has a WAN port that can support the network to be used in different locations, networks in one building, or central WAN to be used together. the hardware will also support the VLAN that consist of network spread in a group of devices on one or more LANs that are configured to allow communication between them if they are attached to the same wire even when located on a number of different LAN segments. This is specifically important for Coal Corporation because of the four different LANs in the company CBD office and the need to facilitate communication with the remote site. This hardware device is expandable and could be able to support speeds of up to 7Gbps in the future plus the 30% expansion potential that the company envisions in the three years to come. Network Topologies In designing the network topologies of the Coal Corporation (Shinder, 2001). It is important to note that each department; access, finance, sales, and executive, will have its own server. Also, it is important to note that the users or the clients on the remote site will be treated as the extension of the CBD office. Nevertheless, the topologies for the CBD office and the remote site will be drawn separately. The remote site will have three topologies because it does not have the sales function. However, three topologies for the remote site, or four for the CBD office will not be drawn because the network layout in each of these functions will be the same and thus one topology will be drawn to represent each site. Figure 1: Network Topology for the Coal Corporation In the company, there will be four LANs that will be created each with its own server as it was it stated. For these networks, the bus topology is chosen. In the topology diagram shown above, it represents all the four LANs. The server is connected to the backbone of the network. The number of the computers is not representative of all the computers in every function. The printer is availed for every computer like it was required by the company. There is a router at the beginning of the network. The router provides the wired connection and the capacity of the WLAN to ensure that the people who are not connected to the backbone can access the network if they have the security details of that network. This is especially important for the assessors. The assessors is the network of the users who are 750. The switch is used to provide the direction of the communication and data flow. The data can flow from the server to the computers or users but the reverse direction is not possible. This ensures that the information from one company function cannot be accessed by another unless it is desired to happen. The firewall is used to secure the network (Rendell, 2013). This is important to guarantee security. For the remote site, it is assumed that it is the extension of the networks at the CBD office and therefore there is no separate topology. It will be an extension of the bus topology. This topology was preferred because it relatively easy to install. Every user that will be connected to the network will have to need just the drop cables. The bus topology also uses less media than others. To facilitate the communication between the different networks within the company, the servers will be connected. This will make it possible for the executives or other decision-makers to make necessary decisions without having to ask data or to be briefed by the representatives of other company functions or department. For example, the executives can access data from the finance and sales directly from their servers. Therefore, the servers will be connected through the ring topology (Rendell, 2013). This will be as shown in the shown below. Figure 2: Servers Ring Topology Conclusion The objective of this report was to propose the network system for the Coal Corporation. The report was divided into sections that included the networking media, network subnet, hardware details, and network topologies that will be deployed. In the network media, this plan has proposed the use of Radio Frequency wireless network media to facilitate the communication between the CBD office and the site. This was also facilitated by the fact that the company could not dig within the town. The subnet of the network and the IP address for every system was provided as was shown. The hardware details included the recommendation for switches and routers that will be used. Cisco Systems 24-Prt Switch (SG11224NA) was proposed as the switch and TP-Link (Talon) Ad7200 was proposed as the router hardware. In the topologies, the bus topologies were used for the access, finance, executive, and sales LANs. This was to ease the installation and minimize the use of materials. The ring topology was proposed for the servers LAN. Bibliography Akyildiz, I. F., Rudin, H. & Stiller, B., 2013. Computer Networks. The International Journal of Computer and Telecommunications Networking, 1(18). Beasley, J. S. & Nilkaew, P., 2016. Networking Essentials: A CompTIA Network+ N10-006 Textbook. 4 ed. New York: Cisco Press. Beasley, J. S. & Nilkaew, P., 2016. Networking Essentials: Interconnecting the LANs. London: Pearson. Rendell, C., 2013. Network Topologies: Types, Performance Impact, and Advantages/disadvantages. Illustrated ed. London: Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. Rooney, T., 2011. Introduction to IP Address Management. Illustrated ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Shinder, D. L., 2001. Computer Networking Essentials. 1 ed. New York: Cisco Press. Tomsho, G., 2015. Guide to Networking Essentials. 7 ed. Boston: Cengage Learning. Read More