NETWORK DESIGN

Task 1 - Network Design



Task 1 - Network Design

Introduction

Corporate networks are constantly changing. As networks respond to variable business demands, sudden growth can occur in some network areas, and constriction can occur in others. The proliferation of new data access technologies, such as smartphones and PDAs, demands both mobility and more stringent security. Corporate reorganization might require relocation of users and workstations, while new applications might require higher-performance network connectivity for some departments and lower-performance for others. Accommodating these constantly changing requirements is no simple task, particularly when resources and budgets are tight (Ferguson, 1999:74). At the same time, dynamic change should not undermine corporate network policies for availability, performance, and security. Is your campus LAN design adequate for the extraordinary challenges ahead? By building a business-optimized network infrastructure today, you ensure that both current and future requirements are met and strategic corporate goals are satisfied.

LAN Network

As the corporate data center network undergoes transformation with technologies such as server virtualization and network consolidation, the focal point of change is currently centered in the user-facing campus side of the network (Laing, 2000:109). The physical scope of the campus network is typically one or more buildings that house key corporate departments and staff. Depending on the size of the company, a campus network can be quite extensive, servicing scores of buildings and thousands of users.

As illustrated in Figure 1, the data center provides the “heavy lifting” of data processing by housing file and application servers, the data storage network infrastructure, and secure access to the external Internet and corporate intranet. The network design criteria for the data center are therefore significantly different from the design requirements of the campus LAN. By necessity, the data center network is highly centralized and tends toward uniformity of assets(Stephens, 2001: 174). The campus network, by contrast, is dispersed and must accommodate a wide variety of devices, including workstations, laptops, PDAs, smartphones, wireless access points, voice over IP (VoIP), IP-based remote sensors, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) readers, and security devices. Although the data center and campus network are part of a single corporate network, the unique requirements of each domain must be understood, to ensure the harmonious integration of the entire network. The sudden introduction of a new technology (for example, wireless access) on the campus can have unintended consequences in the data center, just as data center restructuring can adversely affect campus access. Optimizing the campus infrastructure must therefore incorporate any downstream effects that require additional changes to the data center design or services. (Taylor, 2000: 165)

Performance and Availability

In addition to the diversity of devices and greater mobility required for campus LAN access, a campus LAN must also accommodate a wide spectrum of performance and availability requirements for client application access. Many business applications are adequately supported by conventional Fast (100 Megabits per second [Mbps]) or Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) connectivity, although some very high-performance client applications might require 10 GbE links. With current improvements to wireless LAN technology, the 100+ Mbps enabled by ...