Network Analysis and Design , IT Assignment

Part A: HQ LAN Upgrade (35%) 

Background: 

ABC is a big company in the US. ABC has employed you as the IT officer of the company.  Your job is to analyse the performance of the HQ LAN, suggest changes to improve the  network performance and provide a report to your boss.  

Settings: 

• Run all simulations for 30 minutes to simulate a working day. 
• The graphs should be time averaged 
• Duplicate scenario for each possible setup 

Tasks: 

1. Analyse the current performance of the HQ LAN for each level and comment on it.  You are required to show all relevant graphs. The graphs for each level can be  overlaid. (10%) 
2. Some staffs are unhappy about the speed of the network. Anything that takes more  than 1 second is not desirable. You have decided to try the following to improve the  network performance. Show the relevant graphs and comment on the results: (5%)
   • Increase the link speeds of  
     • HQ_Router1 to HQ_Router3 from 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps and 
     • HQ_Router2 to HQ_Router3 from 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps 
   • Increase the LANs for level 1, 2 and 3 from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps 
   • Try out 1 other way that meets the requirement. 
3. After meeting the requirement, the company has decided to purchase an Ethernet  Server and placed it in the HQ LAN. (10%) 
   • Rename it to HQ Server 
   • Use a 1Gbps link 
   • Set Application: Supported Services to All 
   • Set statistics to view the following: 
     • Server DB Task Processing Time (Heavy) 
     • Server Email Task Processing Time (Heavy) 
     • Server HTTP Task Processing Time (Heavy) 
     • Server Performance Task Processing Time  
     • Show the performance of the HQ Server with the required graphs and  comment on the results 
   • Justify the location of the server 
   • State at least 3 security measures you will take to protect the HQ LAN from  malicious attacks 
4. What would you do so that all the 4 statistics of the HQ server are less than 0.025 s? Show all relevant graphs. (3%)
5. Prepare a report and state the additional amount of money that is needed for the  changes you have made to meet the additional requirements. Refer to the given price  list in the Appendix. (7%) 
   • Your report should include a content page, a summary of the addressed issues,  objectives, budgeting, proposed solutions and conclusion.  

Part B: Network Design (65%) 

Background: 

Due to your excellent work in the analysis of the HQ LAN, you are now assigned the new  task of designing the LAN for one of ABC’s client, XYZ. The company XYZ is made up of 4 sections and the number of people in each section is as shown below.  

1. Research – 20 
2. Technical – 10  
3. Guests – 4 
4. Executives – 2 

Set up the following staff profile: 

1. Research: file transfer (light), web browsing (heavy) and file print (light) 2. Technical: Database Access (heavy), telnet (heavy) and email (light) 3. Guests: Email (light) and web browsing (light) 
2. Executives: Database Access (heavy), Email (heavy), File transfer (heavy) and web  browsing (heavy) 

Set Operation mode from Serial to Simultaneous for all the above profiles XYZ has a list of requirements that you need to fulfill: 

Hardware Requirements: 

1. Wired connections only 
2. Minimum of 4 routers to be used with OSPF set as the routing protocol 3. Each staff requires a workstation 
3. A printer is required for each section 
4. One server is required at the executive LAN that supports all services 

Performance: 

1. Simulate a realistic setup using Riverbed Modeler 
2. Run the simulation for 30 minutes to simulate a working day 
3. Server network performance average 0.03 s or below for all services 4. Staff should not have to wait for more than 1 s for any services 

IP Requirements: 

1. You are given the IP address 138.80.192.0 / 18 
2. Each section should be in different subnets for security purpose. 
3. Servers and network devices (e.g. printers) are assigned static IP addresses to allow  them to be easily identified on the network and to also provide a mechanism for  controlling access to these devices. Most other devices can be assigned IP addresses using DHCP. 
4. The server should be given the last usable host address in the subnet b. The printers should be given the first usable host address in the subnet

Budget Requirements: 

1. While there is no limit to your budget, you are expected to spend the least amount of  money to achieve satisfactory network performance. 
2. You can only purchase equipment from the company’s favourite supplier, following  the price list given in the appendix. 

Other Requirements: 

1. Connection to the Internet must be available and taken into consideration 

Tasks: 

1. Build on the given Riverbed file; Design the Branch LAN according to the  specifications given. (25%) 
2. You decided to check the following connections to ensure your setup is done  properly. Provide ping reports for the following: (3%) 
   • From a workstation in Executive LAN to HQ Server 
   • From a workstation in Guest LAN to WWW Server 
   • From a workstation in Technical LAN to the Branch Server 
3. Create a table and allocate the IP address efficiently for all the subnets that you have  created. (7%) 
   • Follow the headings given below: 
   • State the IP address and subnet mask of the branch server and the printers. *You do not need to configure the IP address of the devices in Riverbed Modeler. 
4. Justify your proposed design based on the results you have obtained so far. The  graphs should be time averaged. You may wish to show alternative scenarios to  demonstrate your design. (15%) 
   • Performance for each LANs 
   • Performance of the branch server 
5. Prepare a detailed budget to implement your proposed design. (we are ignoring other  cost that is not found in the given price list) (10%)  
6. Prepare the proposal (5%) 
   • It should include a content page, a summary of the addressed issues,  objectives, proposed solutions and conclusion.

The format of the submission: 

1. Title page and table of contents 
2. Main body consisting of the following: 

Part A 

1. A summary of the addressed issues, objectives and solutions of the report  (Task 5) 
2. Analysis of network performance in HQ LAN (Task 1) 
3. Comparison of methods to improve network performance (Task 2) d. Server performance and security measures (Task 3) 
4. Server upgrade analysis (task 4) 
5. Conclusion (Task 5) 

Part B 

1. A summary of the addressed issues, objectives and solutions of the proposal  (Task 6) 
2. Network topology design (Task 1) 
3. Ping reports (Task 2) 
4. IP address allocation (Task 3) 
5. Justification of the proposed design (Task 4) 
6. A detailed budget to implement your proposed design (Task 5) 
7. Conclusion (Task 6)