Network design principles and implementation

Network Requirements

With the acquisition of a newly leased building, UMUC requires a new network. The network includes coverage for the following places: six (6) instructional computer labs, a student computer lab, six (6) various offices, an admission office, library, and five (5) general classrooms. The network should encompass the following devices with respect to location:

Each computer lab should have 22 computers. The network should allocate 21 computers for students and one computer for each instructor. The network should allocate a collective total of 132 computers, given the requirement of six total instructional labs.

The student computer lab requires 31 computers.

The network should allocate one computer for each of the six various offices-six computers in total.

The admission office requires five computers.

The library requires 15 computers, 10 for students and 5 for faculty.

Five individual classrooms each require a computer.

Network IP Addresses

Each device of the network must have a unique IP address. Reese (2015) writes, "In a network, every device must have its own unique IP address. That is every network device (printer, server, router, etc.) must be identified with a separate IP address."Reese (2015) explains, "With IP addresses, an organization is assigned a unique IP network, such as 192.168.1.0, but a single IP address must be assigned for each network device." For example, Device 1 (router) and Device 2 (office printer) would respectively have IP addresses, 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2 (Reese, 2015).

Network IP Address Schematic

The following table provides the IP address ranges for the 194 computers that comprise the network. This network design assigns a sequential IP address within the designated IP address range.

Device Location & Designation

Start of IP range

End of IP range

Sequential IP examples within range

Labs 1, 2,3,4,5 & 6 instructor

10.11.0.0.1

10.11.0.0.6

10.11.0.0.1, 10.11.0.0.2,10.11.0.0.3

Lab 1 students

10.11.0.0.7

10.11.0.0.27

10.11.0.0.7, 10.11.0.0.8, 10.11.0.0.9

Lab 2 students

10.11.0.0.28

10.11.0.0.48

10.11.0.0.28, 10.11.0.0.29, 10.11.0.0.30

Lab 3 students

10.11.0.0.49

10.11.0.0.69

10.11.0.0.49, 10.11.0.0.50, 10.11.0.0.51

Lab 4 students

10.11.0.0.70

10.11.0.0.90

10.11.0.0.70, 10.11.0.0.71, 10.11.0.0.72

Lab 5 students

10.11.0.0.91

10.11.0.0.111

10.11.0.0.91, 10.11.0.0.92, 10.11.0.0.93

Lab 6 students

10.11.0.0.112

10.11.0.0.132

10.11.0.0.112, 10.11.0.0.113, 10.11.0.0.114

Library staff

10.11.0.0.133

10.11.0.0.137

10.11.0.0.133, 10.11.0.0.134, 10.11.0.0.135

Library student

10.11.0.0.138

10.11.0.0.147

10.11.0.0.138, 10.11.0.0.139, 10.11.0.0.140

classrooms A, B, C, D, E staff

10.11.0.0.148

10.11.0.0.152

10.11.0.0.148, 10.11.0.0.149, 10.11.0.0.150

Subnet Mask

A subnet mask corresponds to one of the following numerical codes: 255.255.255.0, 255.255.0.0, 255.0.0.0 (Reese, 2015). The network design determines the selection of the subnet mask. For instance, class C addresses have "a number from 192 to 223 in the first octet." The corresponding subnet mask is 255.255.255.0. "The number 255 indicates that the corresponding section of the address is part of the network address. The 0 indicates that the corresponding section is the host portion of the address (Reese, 2015)."

For the Network and IP address of 10.11.0.0, the subnet mask is 255.255.0.0, over a IP class A (0.0.0.0 to 127.255.255.255). Following is a summary of the network address details.

IP Address: 10.11.0.0

Netmask: 255.255.0.0

Wildcard Mask: 0.0.255.255

CIDR Notation: / 16

Network Address: 10.11.0.0

Usable Host Range: 10.11.01-10.11.255.254

Broadcast Address: 10.11.255.255

Total Number of Hosts: 65,536

Number of Usable Hosts: 65,534

IP Class: A (0.0.0.0-127.255.255.255)

Table A, following, depicts the network and host portion of the IP address and corresponding subnet mask.

Table A: Subnet Mask

Network portion

Host Portion

10

11

0

0

0

0

Subnetting

Typography

The network design will incorporate the use of a bus, a rectangular ring, and tree typography to connect all the devices in the network. Since the classrooms are positioned across the floor and at opposite ends of the floor, a single bus line would not be ideal. A rectangular ring will form the base infrastructure for the network for each floor. However, within each of the sectioned rooms, the network design calls for parallel bus lines from opposite sides of room from a node of the larger ring. No bus line would be needed for at the opposite ends of the floor. The network design calls for the use of trees from the resulting inner frames in some rooms to enable up to 40 device connections. These trees can branch from any side of an inner rectangular ring and branch off to computers that cannot just be lined up against the sides of the wall adjacent to the inner rectangular ring. Each of the floors will be connected by a single bus line.

Following is an example of how a ring and bus lines could be incorporated in the design. The blue lines represent shared bus lines, and the blue rectangular frame represents cable.

Network Media

The design plan requires fiber optic cable for both floors as well as lines to connect the floors. The building spans 260 feet long and 95 feet wide. The base rectangular frame or ring for the each floor would require 710 feet of cable. Since both floor 1 & 2 will feature these rectangular rings, a total of 1420 feet of cable is required for these outer rectangular cable structures. In estimation the bus lines will be about 35% the width of the building or about 33 feet. With 9 lines for each floor, the network design will require another 594 feet of fiber optic cable. Both floors require 1200 feet of cable. Finally, given some rooms will use a tree typography structure from the rectangular ring or bus nodes, the network design calls for another 300 feet. The network design calls for a total of about 3,320 feet of fiber optic cable.

Fiber Optics

This network design incorporates the use of fiber optics. Freudenrich (2015) points out some of the advantages of using fiber optics could allow expansion of the network beyond digital needs.

Thinner:Optical fibers can be drawn to smaller diameters than copper wire.

Digital signals: Optical fibers are ideally suited for carrying digital information, which is especially useful in computer networks.

Higher carrying capacity: Because optical fibers are thinner than copper wires, more fibers can be bundled into a given diameter cable than copper wires. This allows more phone lines to go over the same cable or more channels to come through the cable into your business or home.

Less signal degradation: The loss of signal in optical fiber is less than in copper wire.

Less expensive: Several miles of optical cable can be made cheaper than equivalent lengths of copper wire.