HND NETWORKING ASSIGNMENT

BENEFITS AND CONSTRAINTS OF NETWORK TYPES

There are a few common network types widely used around the world. Some of their and benefits and
constraints are discussed below

LOCAL AREA NETWORK

LAN is usually deployed in a building such as home or small offices. These are small networks built for
consumers that are easy to deploy and manage. LAN usually consists of few tens of devices that are
connected together via a switch and also connected to the internet via WAN. Although useful for
isolated or small environments LAN is constrained to a limited geographical area with minimal security
within the LAN.

METROPOLITAN AREA NETWORK

MAN are bigger network types that span multiple geographical locations such as intra city and multiple
campus communications. They are built similar to LAN’s but have much larger geographical footprint,
can process more data at fast speeds. MAN’s are useful for communication between locations but are
restricted to only within the entity owned networks. For MAN to communicate with systems other than
their own network requires WAN connectivity.

WIDE AREA NETWORK

WAN covers large geographical areas that may span national or international borders. WAN’s are
networks that connect smaller networks to the world. These are high speed mainly optical fiber-based
networks that transfer TB’s of data. WAN’s can be expensive to deploy and complicated to manage,
these are large scale networks that are built upon collaboration of multiple service providers.

NETWORK TOPOLOGY
There are a number of network topologies that are used for various use cases. Careful selection of
network topology is essential for efficient network utilization, bandwidth consumption and hassle-free
communication between devices. For example, two-way communication is required on a LAN, a good
example of network topology for this scenario is star topology because it allows full duplex
communication with minimal administrative and operational overhead.

NETWORK PRINCIPLES AND PROTOCOLS

Networking principles are developed to build reference models and abstract level of communication
between protocols. OSI reference model and TCP/IP suite are good examples of application of
networking principles at abstract level. Communication protocols are a set of rules that govern the
communication between devices via any physical medium. Common networking protocols are IPv4,
IPv6, FTP etc.

NETWORKING DEVICES AND SERVERS

Components Picture Features
 Switches work on the principle
of forwarding traffic on the LAN
between devices that intend to
communicate with each other,
Switches
this operation is carried out
using protocols and standards
defined in Data link layer of
TCP/IP suite.

Routers on the other hand work

to facilitate communication
between multiple LAN’s and
WAN. Routers make their
Routers decision based on routing
protocols these protocols are
smart and have an
understanding of networks that
they are connected.

Multilayer switch can work both

as a switch and router
simultaneously. Multilayer
Multilayer Switch switches can perform routing
decisions like a router but do
not include all features of a
router.

Firewall is a device that are

used to filter packets based on
their states/ports. Firewalls are
Firewall
deployed at network edge to
block ports/packets before they
enter our network.
 Wireless access points are used
for connecting mobile devices
Wireless access point and creating WLAN’s. They are
suitable for places where LAN
cabling is infeasible.

Server Role Picture Feature

Web
File
Database
Virtualization
DESIGN EFFICIENT NETWORKED SYSTEMS
TOPOLOGY

IMPLEMENT AND DIAGNOSE NETWORKED SYSTEMS

In our network design we have applied a simple star network topology with symmetric use of
networking devices on LAN. Following are steps to diagnose and troubleshoot issues within our network

1. Assigned minimum possible subnets to each department with static IP address for users.
2. Each department has 24 port switches that connect to a central switch via FastEthernet links.
3. All servers attach to the central switch
4. Internet router is attached with the central switch as well over GigabitEthernet link.
5. If any user faces an issue, we first have a look at department switches.
6. If any department switch becomes faulty, we can monitor that from the central switch and only
users on the failed switch will be affected.
 7. We do have a single point of failure I.e. the central switch which is an inherent disadvantage of
star topology.
8. Each user and server are connected with a FastEthernet port on switch. This should provide
sufficient bandwidth for local and internet traffic generated by terminal devices.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Our network design can be enhanced with the following features

1. Implement DHCP server to facilitate a larger number of users in future and assign IP addresses
automatically.
2. Provide redundancy of central switch to avoid single point of failure.
3. Implementation of security devices/applications to make servers/uses secure from cyber
threats.