Networking as the it Manager

Networking

As the it manager for the four-year-old, single level, combined twelve classroom and library Schaumburg Elementary School, there are several issues to address in order to coordinate and integrate current and future computing needs. The school has recently received a donation of some computers that it wishes to incorporate with existing PC's and networking hubs. The plan also has to take into consideration current and future needs including planned growth expectations of both the student population and the network itself. The project entails linking the 6 existing classroom hub combinations to the network headquarters which will be in the centrally located library. Each classroom will have enough connections to meet the initial student requirements because each hub combination provides 36 network connections. However, the library DNS server will require ample growth potential for the remaining 6 classrooms that will be added to the network in the future as well as room for any additional potential classroom growth.

The school intends to utilize a network star topology. The star topology would therefore be designed with each network node (including workstations, printers and servers) connecting directly into the library's Dell PowerEdge T310 tower server through a centralized switch backbone. This methodology will allow for an easily installed wiring scheme as well as ease for detecting system faults or bad connections while also providing fewer disruptions to the rest of the network when the future nodes and classrooms are added to the backbone. The star topology has some disadvantages such as additional cable cost when compared to other network topology options, the potential of hub and switch failure and the additional costs associated with purchasing cable, future hubs and switches. For example, every 100 feet of Category 5 Unshielded Twisted Pair cable could cost up to $15.

The centrally located library will serve as both the connection to the outside world as well as the central hub for the internal network. The library will therefore require an efficient server and the Dell PowerEdge T310 tower server meets those needs. It will have the ability to house all required routing tables and DNS server table connections for both internal and external network communication. To increase bandwidth, the external communication will also flow through an at&T ATM cloud. at&T provides a Private Frame Relay Cloud that allows for circuit switched transmission facilities through ATM switches. The beauty of this type of connection is that although the school district can only provide 2 IP addresses for the school to access the internet, the cloud technology will provide a seemingly virtual connection to the school as the server in the library parses out the internet bandwidth to each of the internal subnet IP connections. This process will make it seem as though every PC workstation has its own internet connection similar to a house with a single internet connection and through an antenna provides connections for any PC within range of the signal.

Internal communications hardware will consist of CISCO routers in addition to the DELL server technology. Routing to and from these classrooms will require two hubs per class. The reason each class needs two hubs will be because each classroom currently has 24 students and could grow to 32 students. Each workstation will need network interface cards to communicate with the hubs and are easy to manage. The stackable hubs provide 12 and 24 connections each for a total of 36 connections for each classroom. This number will therefore provide an additional set of node outlets for things like printers, servers or teacher stations. How many IP addresses the school needs will be set by the student population. The overall network should easily provide just under 500 potential subnet IP connections in order to meet the need of the 12 classrooms and the library. If and when the school expands beyond 12 classrooms, these requirements will have to be re-addressed. Internet Protocol (IP) for the school can be met by utilizing a class C address structure where the entire school's needs are met with hosts and subnets. The subnet mask for the school would be able to offer 254 hosts which will easily cover future requirements.