Network Design - of Beyond 4G Pty Ltd - Case Study Example

1. INTRODUCTION Beyond 4G Pty. Ltd (B4G) is a company specializing in next generation wireless communications devices and applications development. That is why a number of networking and software technologies has enabled it to grow very fast. The company headquarters is located in Silicon Valley and with it is the R&D centre it is expanding to New Delhi, Sydney office and Beijing office. The network design has the objective to produce a modern network technology that will facilitate information sharing between software development staff, presentation, prototype and testing staff in various locations. In order to design an optimum network and application technology that will meet the manufacturer’s specifications, there will be need to compare each component with the required specifications, reliability, cost and availability. The completed design will be documented and eventually modeled then analyze and discuss the network and application vulnerabilities and limitations. For a good network and application system to be well designed and ensure that it supports user needs, logical process must be clearly followed. This according to McCabe J. (1997) is referred to as systems approach to network design. Here the significant steps in generating an effective network and application are necessities analysis and flow analysis. The results of the analysis are then used to design the logical and physical network. The Model put forward by McCabe’s for network analysis and design is going to be used in this design where applicable. 1.1. Background The existing network and applications is currently serving only one location that is located in Silicon Valley Head quarters. There is need therefore to expand the network setup to include the other offices in the other countries. The modern developments in wireless technology will provide the best communication capabilities which shall accommodate the diverse office setup. 1.2 Scope This design will provide the physical, operation and security requirements for the B4G company network and application system. It shall also pinpoint the best hardware, software, peripherals and architectural configuration that will fully satisfy the user requirements beyond expectations. 1.4. Assumption The assumption is that every staff will have a personal computer hence ration of staff to computers is 1:1. This is because staff production is believed to increase if each on has a personal machine for efficiency. It is also assumed that the basic internet resources such as satellite and regional routers are already in place for use. Hence they will not be factored in the budgeting. 2. REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS 2.1 User Requirements The company has an option of acquiring a ready made network and application system that suits it operations; however there are specific user requirements that need to be addressed in order to achieve optimum productivity. Weather resistant The network hardware to be designed to fit in diverse weather conditions for different countries. The system should be able to work effectively in extreme situations such as dust, rain, sand and snow. Secure. The network and application system must be providing sufficient confidentiality, authenticity and integrity of information being transmitted especially if the information is highly confidential. Some staff may require remote access to data in the central server in the head quarters while other may only need to access data within their premises. Since software development is an interactive process, web access applications shall enable images and programs to be e-mailed, the programmers will also need to use live-chat sessions and even remote Internet access is required. 2.2 Application Requirements Application requirements are basically based on capacity, reliability and efficiency. The applications will be organized by types, groups, requirements, locations and performance. The applications with same performance characteristics are grouped together. The performance of applications can either be high or law. There are also applications that are recognized as mission critical, real time, non-real time and control rate. These types are identified and designed accordingly. a) Timeliness The users in the company should be able to access and transfer data within a reasonable time frame. b) Interactivity The system should be able to respond in a timely manner once information is queried. c) Reliability The network and application systems should be reliable. This means the system should be consistent and constantly available for the users. 4) Adaptability The network and application should be adaptable to the user’s needs that are constantly changing. The same shall apply when expansion is done. 5) Security Every network should have enough security from hackers and crackers. It is required that security must be guarantee. This ensures integrity of the information and hardware resources and restricted access to users and network resources. The application to be used will include 2.3 Host Requirements The host in the network design will include generic computer devices, specialized equipment and servers. The host must have appropriate storage space, processors that accommodate fast processing, sufficient memory performance, appropriate operating system, good BUS performance and good device driver performance. Similarly, the host location is very important in the design process of a network system. Since the Beyond 4G Pty. Ltd is expending to various countries, the host server will be in the headquarters and accessible to every user in the entire company however far they may be located. There are also independent host for specific functions such as Software development, all host equipment will require sufficient storage space to store data. Connection of hosts from various countries There is also a laptop computer to facilitate presentation in various rooms. The laptop computers must have high processing speed of at least 500-MHz. Similarly the Computer memory should be at leas 128 Megabytes. The hard disk drive should have a storage space of at least 200 Gigabytes. All the computers must have USB ports, Network interface cards and wifi to facilitate information sharing. The peripherals required include USB Hubs, GPS Receivers, speakers and microphones, Projectors, video cameras, PDAs and printers. Other requirements include:- Operating systems, Word processing, Software development applications 2.4 Network Requirements Network requirements in the Beyond 4G Pty. Ltd company will be a combination of distributed system and standalone depending on the application. This is because the system is large with various applications. The network must therefore have sufficient bandwidth of at least 4 Megabytes per second to avoid resource conflict and unnecessary delays. The network should also support the standard internet protocol to facilitate resource sharing and make use of existing internet resources. There must also be a provision for wireless range of at least 6 miles. Other requirements include:- Network operating systems Distributed systems Web applications. Web Access 3. FLOW ANALYSIS The purpose of flow analysis is to produce the flow specifications that shall be used in planning for the best service. Here services and perfornamance characteristics are changed to specifications that will be applied to technology choice. Flow Analysis The first step is to identify data sources and sinks, select flow models and finally map flows. The flow spec algorithm is then used to determine the required reliability, capacity, and delays that satisfy network requirements. 3.1 Identify Data Sources and Sinks Data in the Beyond 4G Pty. Ltd networks will be requested from the Host server depending on the application the user is working on. Therefore each node will be a sink while the server is a source. 3.2 Flow models The Beyond 4G Pty. Ltd Company will combine the client server model and the peer-to-peer model to form a hybrid model that will use both the two models for high productivity. Hybrid wireless Ethernet design. 3.3 Flow specifcation Error: Reference source not found The flow specifications will provide the correct total bandwidth capacity needed to support the entire network application systems for the Beyond 4G Pty. Ltd company. It is required that at least 1.8 Mbps in order to support both the videoconference flow and the data control flow which in normal cases occurs concurrently. To achieve this, the network design must consider the capacity and reliability at the first stages of design. Reference Kelly, Shawn, W., et al, Conceptual Study Sea Base Aerostat Information Link, Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center, 1998 McCabe, James, D., Practical Computer Network Analysis and Design, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., 1997 Read More