ITECH2301-Network Architecture and Design

Assessment Objective

• The report helps you grasp the fundamental concept of network design and acquire theknowledge on the techniques required for developing both logical and physical network designs.
• The presentation enables presentation, oral communication and team skills to be exercised aswell as providing an opportunity to research a specific topic.
• Learning Outcomes Assessed:

1. K4. Describe the technologies and architecture of LANs, Wireless LANs and WANs.
2. K5. Identify the principles of LAN design.
3. A1. Analyse and design LAN architecture for organisational requirements.
4. S1- Analyse data communication and networking technologies in today's Internet.

Network Design Case

Drop and Forge is a manufacturing firm having 200 employees with a 120-computer networkon its Toledo, Ohio, campus. The company has one very large manufacturing plant with anadjacent five-story office building comprising 100 rooms. The office building houses 100computers, with additional 20 computers in the plant. The current network is old and needs tobe replaced.

The new network will house a data center, the e-commerce edge and 12 printers. 10 printerswill be installed in the different rooms of the office building, while the other two are to beinstalled in the plant. Employees will be allowed to bring their mobile devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets) to work and use them to access required information such as their work email,required documents and Internet.

Note, there are no other campuses, so you can omit WAN access.

Requirements

There are two parts of the requirements for this assignment a) Report and b) Presentation.

a) Report

The report should be no more than 10 pages and needs to consider the following designtasks:

Design Tasks:

• T1. Using the building-block network design process, develop a logical design of the newnetwork for this enterprise campus that considers the seven network architecturecomponents. Remember to consider the expected growth of the company. For thelogical design, you need to consider the following items:
  1. Network architecture component
  2. Application systems
  3. Network users
  4. Categorizing network needs
  5. Deliverables
• T2. Design the physical design of the network based on the logical design completed inTask T1. Note, that you do not need to develop an alternative design. For the physicaldesign, you need to consider the following items:
  1. Designing client and servers
  2. Designing circuits
  3. Network design tools
  4. Deliverables
• T3. You will make some assumptions; therefore, document your assumptions and explain how you have designed the network in this way.
• T4. It is very important for you to explain to senior management that there will be significant business benefits derived from continuing to grow the network. Explain in detail what some of these will be.

b) Presentation

You need to produce a presentation consisting of eight PowerPoint slides based on your report and the relevant assessment criteria. The presentation time is 10 minutes. The presentation will be given in Week 12's timetabled tutorial.