Chapter 5

Conclusion and Recommendations

5.1 Conclusion
After conducting a series of what-if simulations(scenarios) in which different variations were applied on the network, we are now able to come out with a conclusion regarding TAGOs network, stated bellow: The network performance (delay, CPU utilization,etc) will remain up to standard, (even when applying some changes on the network that may affect the network in a negative manner, like adding the wireless LAN), if the basic infrastructure of the network is reliable and consistent. We can monitor and check the healthiness of the network by comparing the inbound and outbound channel utilization on both servers and workstations. In the servers case, the outbound utilization must be higher than the inbound utilization, otherwise, their could be a virus that causes traffic in the network, and vice versa for the workstation. Since the whole network depends on the backbone switch in the switching and routing purposes, adding new connections to the backbone switch will enlarge the load and responsibilities it has to deal with, leading to a growth in the network delay as a whole, so it would be better to reduce the load on the backbone switch by reducing the number of subnets that are directly connected to the backbone switch. Increasing the number of broadcast domains and decreasing the number of collision domains, which can be done by creating multiple VLANs on the single switch will enhance the performance of the network and will reduce the total delay of the network.

5.2 Recommendations
This project introduces some recommendations for TAGO to enhance the networks performance. In these scenarios OPNET simulator results indicate that we can greatly improve the WLAN performance. The WLAN simulation results show that the throughput can be improved by using RTS/CTS mechanism, this mechanism increases the reliability of the transmission. Fragmentation threshold is another parameter used to enhance the throughput of the WLAN simulation results show that increasing this parameter will reduce the throughput unless the RTS/CTS mechanism is employed which will change the result (increase the fragmentation threshold will increase the WLAN throughput ). Increasing the number of the VLANs within the floors in the company, would enhance the network performance. OPNET IT Guru Academic Edition enables students to better understand the core concepts of networking and equips them to effectively troubleshoot and manage real-world network infrastructures, so including the OPNET IT GURU in our colleges syllabus, as a network lab for example, would be a good idea in order to better understand the main concepts of networks.

5.3 problems
While working in this project, we faced some problems, listed below: 1. one problem was about finding good resources for teaching OPNET IT GURU 2.finding wireless LAN simulation resources.

5.4 Future work

1- study other parameters that are available in opnet IT GURU to enhance the performance of wireless and weird networks.