Network Design N28b Project Description

by MUHAMMAD ISKANDAR ZULQARNAIN BIN MOHD ISHAK

Introduction
This project is a group project with individual review. Its objective is to bring forth what you have learned in class into how it is in the real world. You will be tasked of building a small network with all its appropriate components, namely:

• Understanding user/customer needs and planning them around the budget given
• Planning and designing a network infrastructure for current and future needs
• Research and application of network devices availability, usability, cost and services
• Calculating and applying network IP addressing
• Reporting your work to customer


You will be given tasks that needed to be completed within the given time. After submission and review by your lecturer, you may have the opportunity to enhance your deliverables following the comments and suggestions of your lecturer to gain better marks. This is not compulsory, meaning that if you feel that what you received is more than enough for you – you don’t have to resubmit for more marks. It is very important that you read this document carefully and follow the due dates and deliverables to get good marks. Ask if you don’t understand something, and don’t wait until the last minute to do so.

Case Study

School of Computing Upgrade
Background information


The School of Computing (SC) currently has 1200 students (both undergraduate and postgraduate), 97 academic and 35 supporting staffs. They anticipate a 10% growth in both students and academic staffs in the next 3 years. To facilitate this growth, SC plans to build a new 2 –storey building. This new building will house 4 new labs, 2 video conferencing rooms, for virtual project meetings. A total 30 workstations and one multi-terabyte storage sever is planned for each lab. The labs are divided into: 1 general purpose lab, 1 Computer Security lab, 1 Network lab and 1 IOT lab. Each lab is equivalent to the current Digital Logic Lab in size and are must be equipped with high-speed internet connection in preparation for education in line with 4IR (4th Industrial Revolution).SC Chair wants the building to be ‘ready for anything’ and have reliable, efficient and secure network that can be easily managed. He also noted that it should be cost effective.

Goals for the new system

As SC grows and moves forward into the future, so does the need for better equipment that will allow for this growth. All stakeholders want to prepare for future needs to the extent possible at the best value possible. It is important that during this transition from their old equipment to their new equipment, they do not stop providing access to their users. SC also wants to take steps into the future with cutting-edge technology, but don’t want to be paying for it for the next 20 years. SC needs to have an upgrade to their system that will allow them to utilize the elements they feel would help their business. Those elements are:
1. A system that is easy to manage and scale
2. Improve overall performance
3. Provide protection from network breaches such as Internet Worms, denial-of-service attacks and e-business application attacks
4. Capability to support high-performance to the core backbone
5. Ability to support features such as Quality of Service and security in hardware via access control lists (ACLs)
6. Enable secure VPN connections from remote locations


Also consider such future issues as:
1. A scalable network for future growth
2. Wireless connectivity in the future.

Updated on 12 March 2021, 3:21 PM; 1054 page visits from 12 March 2021 to 19 October 2025