2. 3rd Infantry Division US Army
3 Separate Networks Architectures
20,035 Soldiers, 4,087 Civilian
workforce
Columbus, GA, Hinesville, GA, and
Savannah, GA
TA-954TT, Phones Switchboards,
Operators, Relays
Radio Frequency Radio’s
Sun Intel server blades, Windows
2003 server OS
Windows XP clients
3. Eliminate TA-954TT Phones.
Replace switchboards and operators
Replace Sun servers to Dell Darth
Frog servers and call managers with
Window 2008 R2 server OS
Replace current storage devices with
NETAPP FAS 2240 storage area
network devices
Replace all client platforms with Dell
M6600 laptops with Windows 7 OS
Replace TA-954TT phone with Cisco
7942G and 7965G IP phones
4.
5. Deployability
Less
Breakdown/Failures
Increased storage
capacity
Faster data access
Efficiency
Security control
Central managed
resources
Cost
Network Integrity
Single point of failure
Attacks
Troubleshooting
Maintenance
6. Connectivity
Cisco IP Phone vs TA-954TT landline
1 gigabyte bandwidths
Satellite data/voice transmissions
Reliability
Less network downtime
Less maintenance requirements
Reduced labor requirements
Capacity
Increased storage
Increased Data /Voice packet transfers
Increased performance of devices
7. Operating system and firmware versions
Router and switch configurations
Hardware equipment failures
Group policies
DNS resolutions
Closed or inactive ports
Update security policies and procedures
System Training
Outside attacks, viruses, Trojans, worms, malware, and
spyware
8. Better client to server connectivity
Faster data processing
Larger storage capacity
VoIP across network
Preventive
Service
Troubleshooting
Disaster recovery
9. Sexton, Jay. (2014). Re: Phase 1IP Systems for telecommunications. Retrieved from Colorado
Technical University Online, Virtual Campus, IT302-1401A-01 Computer Networks and
Communications https://campus.ctuonline.edu
Sexton, Jay. (2014). Re: Phase 2IP Networks in the Business World. Retrieved from Colorado
Technical University Online, Virtual Campus, IT302-1401A-01 Computer Networks and
Communications https://campus.ctuonline.edu
Sexton, Jay. (2014). Re: Phase 3IP Networking with OSI and TCP/IP Models. Retrieved from
Colorado Technical University Online, Virtual Campus, IT302-1401A-01 Computer
Networks and Communications https://campus.ctuonline.edu
Sexton, Jay. (2014). Re: Phase 4IP Standardization of Networks and telecommunications.
Retrieved from Colorado Technical University Online, Virtual Campus, IT302-1401A-01
Computer Networks and Communications https://campus.ctuonline.edu
Sexton, Jay. (2014). Re: Phase 5IP Evolutions of Networks and Data Communications.
Retrieved from Colorado Technical University Online, Virtual Campus, IT302-1401A-
01 Computer Networks and Communications https://campus.ctuonline.edu
Editor's Notes
Hello everyone,
I am Jay T Sexton. I am the Project manager for 3rd Infantry Divisions network and telephony voice communications upgrade. This slide presentation is a brief overview of the seven major topics that will be reviewed during this briefing.
I will cover your units background overview and current infrastructure setup, Project goals and recommendations.
Show you the upgrade network diagram I have design displaying the recommended network architecture.
We will review the advantages and disadvantages to completing this upgrade
Review the productivity impact
Look hard at New network and security issues
Finally discuss the new technologies support and maintenance
Organization Background and current setup
3rd Infantry Division is a United States Army organization which has three separate network infrastructures, One unclassified and two classified.
3ID has 20, 035 Soldiers and 4,087 civilians that will all require network and telephony voice communications access.
3Id has subordinate units at Fort Benning, in Columbus, Georgia, Fort Stewart, in Hinesville, Georgia and Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia.
3ID currently uses TA -954TT phones that connect to switch boards by steel wire cabling and an operator must manually move connection plugs from one port to the next for voice communications.
3id also uses FM vehicle mounted radio’s with external handsets and voice boxes cabled from the vehicles into the tactical operation center.
The servers the organization uses currently are Sun Intel server with windows 2003 server operating systems and the clients are Techtronic tough book laptops with Windows XP operating system
3rd Infantry Division’s goal is to eliminate the old TA-954TT analog phones and steel cabling. Get rid of the archaic army switchboard panels and eliminate the requirement of a manual operator. The organizations wants to get newer automated Telephony hardware to work across a network infrastructure. To accomplish this I have several recommendations that will have to be accomplished during this upgrade to make this change.
3ID must replace all servers, data storage devices, phones and client workstations.
I recommend that 3ID upgrade their architecture to Dell Darth Frog Servers with automated call managers using Windows 2008 R2 Server operating systems.
Use NetAPPS FAS 2240 storage area network devices which will increase storage capacity to 7.2 terabytes of data storage space.
Put into operations Cisco 7942G and 7965G IP phones to replace the TA-954TT phones
Use the newest and most powerful Dell M6600 laptop with Windows 7 operating system to conduct daily operations on.
This diagram displays in the far upper right corner the Dell Darth Frog Servers and NetApps FAS2240 San’s as they are installed into their own deployable tough box carrying cases. The server blades and switch are in one case, the NetAPPS in another case and the third case has a tactical universal power supply for 40 minutes of operational time to allow for proper shutdown procedures during any power failures. Along the Bus topology at each switch every section will have a star topology cabled off the bus and you see each Dell M6600 client workstation laptop cabled into each Cisco phone . Each Cisco phone is then cabled to a port on the switch that supports that topology.
The bus topology switches connect to the primary Cisco Router. The router is then connected to the network intrusion prevention system and intrusion detection system and firewall to provide the highest quality of service in a secure network.
On this slide I will present the advantages and disadvantages of accomplishing this upgrade. I have used the words Pro’s and Con’s to title each list. The Pro’s are the advantages and the Con’s are the disadvantages.
I will cover the advantages first. Accomplishing this upgrade will lessen the footprint of the hardware because we will virtualize all server systems which will use less hardware. Since this hardware is in Tough box cases it makes these server stacks easily deployable. New hardware with the best performance specifications means less breakdown or hardware failures. The new NetAPPS FAS 2240 Storage area network devices will provide greater storage capacity up to 2.5terabytes more data storage all the newer hardware will provide faster access to data and increase efficiency of daily operations. The newer IPS, IDS and Firewall devices will help system administrators in security control. Last advantage is the newer servers will provide a central management point of all resources with all the virtual servers being managed by the virtual center.
Next the disadvantages are Cost the newer hardware and software will cost more to bring the network and telephony voice communication systems into an automated state of operation. Network Integrity will be subject to bandwidth over use and latencies due to twice as many IP devices connected on the network. As with every network power is the single point of failure and these new server stacks will require 25 amp connections to receive power. If the organizations outlets are 10 or 20 amp plugs then the server facility will have to be upgraded as well. Attacks become a disadvantage because until all aspects of security is put into place, during the upgrade process the network is vulnerable to possible attacks. Troubleshooting and maintenance are disadvantages because there will be a great deal of troubleshooting and daily maintenance completed to get the newer network infrastructure operational and issue free.
In this slide I am showing the three major productivity impacts of the upgrade to the new network infrastructure. Each category
has a factor that proves each impact.
Connectivity is proven by putting newer Cisco IP phones into operations these phones connect to a new automated call manager that improves faster call connection and stable signals across a 1 gigabyte network pipe across a self contained and operated Satellite Node.
Reliability the infrastructure will have less downtime that could be caused by hardware or software failures because all equipment and software are new. Maintenance and labor requirements will also be less because new equipment requires less repairs or troubleshooting.
Capacity Storage will be increased from 4.7 to 7.2 terabyte over data storage. Data and voice packet transfers will be faster with less waiting because of larger tunnels sizes. Performance of devices will be faster because the CPU and memory processors will be larger per hardware device.
Here I will talk about some network upgrade major issues that 3ID felt could affect the upgrade. The operating system and firmware versions has to be the newest versions because department of the army required all field units to upgrade to Windows 2008 R2 by March 1 2014. Router and switch configurations come from the data product project directive management department of the Army and the unit was concerned that the configurations would not be in accordance with their policies. Hardware equipment failures was another concern because every time an upgrade takes place either the older hardware or newer hardware are subject to hardware failures. I believe the organization was concerned about having to resend all group policies to every workstation and IP phone on the infrastructure. They will but it can be staged so not to affect network operations DNS resolutions. I suggest that we turn on the newer equipment and manually copy the DNS root hints from one active directory to the next so that when the new servers are put into operation the will accomplish DNS resolutions automatically. Finally 3ID had concerns about having to open and close protocol ports so data will flow across the infrastructure in both directions anytime an upgrade is accomplish the are hours if not days used to find and open the right protocol ports.
Security Issues that I identified as a concern was Security policies and procedures will have to be modified to cover the virtualized infrastructure which is different from the physical machine. Training also will have to take place to train all new operating systems Last Outside attacks like denial of service, man in the middle, overflow buffer attacks, viruses, worms, Trojans and malware can occur until all security measure are in place and fully functionable
On this slide I will present the four new technologies that will support the network and then I will briefly discuss the four phase maintenance plan for this upgrade plan.
The network will now have Cisco routers and switches that have 1 Gigabyte transfer rates which will allow faster data and voice packet transfers across the infrastructure while maintaining reliable critical connections and greater throughput of data and voice communications
Larger Storage capacity for processing and saving data and voice packets until they are sent will occur in the logical unit number storage area of the NetAPPS storage area network devices
New IP Phones will have better operational capabilities due to new routers and switches which will assign ports to all IP phones and computer workstations.
Next I will cover the 3rd Infantry Division Maintenance plan.
The Tactical Mission Command Server maintenance team will provide all maintenance requirements for preventive, service, Troubleshooting and disaster recovery maintenance requirements. This team will act as a liaison between the vendor and the organization since they will be performing all levels of technical maintenance support. Preventive maintenance is cleaning the hardware as well as deleting files, browser histories, website cookies and defragment each operating system prior to accomplishing a full system backup.
Service maintenance covers weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly semi-annual and annual maintenance requirements as well as checking and conducting software updates and fixes.
Troubleshooting maintenance is whenever a network issue is detected by ta user, or the Server Center Operations Management application the team will conduct troubleshooting until the issues is fixed.
Lastly the team will conduct disaster recovery if power, hardware or software failures occur to bring the network back to operational standards.
All data within this PowerPoint slide brief is directly extracted fro each weeks Phase IP.
