Network Management

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MIS 589-61733 Network Concepts and Application
Prof. Sunil Samanta
Week 4 You Decide Activity
Group Leader: Vizcaino, Maximo
Members:
Ahmed, Muntazir
Choudhury, Sajid
Raham, Md
Tariq, Ufuq
Yin, Ting
November 23, 2014

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You Decide: The Leonard Cooper Charter School LAN Upgrade Proposal
Stakeholder Concerns
1) When the instructors check email and report attendance, the existing network
experiences congestion, collisions proliferate, and throughput slows down.
2) Existing network bandwidth is 10 Mb.
3) Fifty printers on the network still get all filled up.
4) Connections to the mail server are slow.
5) The HVAC technician considers that having wireless access points would provide a
more convenient solution.
6) In the new wing, all 23 classrooms need to be linked to the network.
7) The new-wing and old-wing backbone switches are 120 meter apart. They are
connected by slow twisted-pair wiring.
8) VoIP needs to be integrated into the current data network.
The Preferred Solution Package
The existing network capacity that stands at just 10 Mb is considered to be a more serious
problem that needs more attention. Category 6 UTP 1000BaseF Ethernet cabling is a
better solution. It increases the maximum data (transfer) rate from 10 Mb to 1 gigabyte
per second. Such bandwidth addresses the HVAC technician’s request for remote access
to his devices. When the seven networked classrooms access personal emails and send
attendance at the same time early in the morning, transferring at such a rate clears up the
congestion experienced.
The optimal solution should create provisions for assembling all the servers
(including the printer servers as discussed below) for effectiveness of diagnostics and

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maintenance. Twenty-three more classrooms must also be added to the network. With the
built-in Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) contention-
based media access control technique, Ethernet cabling will assist in attenuating the
issues of collision. Before attempting to re-transmit on the network, the CD technique
assigns each network interface card on the desktop PCs a random time interval in order to
minimize the number of collisions to a number that becomes virtually invisible to users.
As described in the above statement, the backbone for the improve network
should be fiber optic to accommodate future expansion. When the backbone switch in the
new wing is turned on, this will allow room for including VoIP in network services and
will override the issues of congestion. For the slow twisted-pair wiring that currently
exists, the upgrading of the network cabling will also reduce the issues of the distance to
the backbone located in the old wing (120 meters away).
The administrative workers account for most of the overloading that the 50
networked printers they themselves experience. The first step in creating the server farm
is to create a dedicated printer server for clearing out the limited queuing spaces available
on the printers. The second step is to link the printer server to the existing printers under
the Ethernet bus topology new printers can be localized in the new wing. The above
requirement may need to have the two hubs to be located somewhere between the server
farm and the administration offices, where the printer server is located and two more
servers located right beside the new-wing backbone switch.

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Physical planning must make provision for:
1. Beside the new-wing backbone switch, at least two more 24-port switches have to
be put into place in order to accommodate the 23 new classrooms.
2. At least one more switched 100BaseT needs to be placed adjacent to the location
that is targeted for the main server farm. The server room must accommodate 1) the
administrative data server; 2) the Internet access and firewall server; 3) the student data
server; and 4) a network admin server that will also perform backups to a remote
location.
3. The backbone and LAN wiring ran through the ceiling and it can be accessed for
servicing mainly through the switches housed in locked closets.
4. The current wireless standard is 802.11n and this speed is in excess of 300 Mbps.
4G mobile technology is 12 Mbps or better. The flexibility of attaching wireless to the
school facility network means that it can be ready for upgrading to 40- or 100-GBE in the
near future. Separate or dual ducting for a wireless-only backbone should already be
planned in order to create for the school a network more amendable for future changes.
Therefore, it is a good idea to install wireless access points where there is no physical
direct line connection to the network. This will prepare the school’s network for future
modification.