Overview Your assignment is to complete a wireless network design for a small co

Question

Overview

Your assignment is to complete a wireless network design for a small company. You will place a number of network elements on the diagram and label them appropriately. A network diagram is important to communicate the design features of a network between network administrators, system administrators and cyber-security analysts. It helps to create a shared mental model between these different technologists, yet each will have their own perspective on what is important to have documented on the diagram. Please review a description of ABC Corporation’s network resources and how they are allocated.

ABC Corporation’s Network Description

ABC Corporation is a small business in the heart of Central Pennsylvania. They provide services to their clients all over the region. The three-story main office building is where all of the employees report to work each day. There are no remote users. ABC Corporation is a very traditional business. While they have a computer network and are connected to the Internet, they aren’t very fancy and don’t yet have a need for telecommuting, wireless networks, or smart phones. All of their computers are desktop machines and are connected with wired Ethernet connections. All of the network wiring is CAT-6 twisted pair wiring that goes from the office location to a wiring closet. There is one wiring closet on each floor. Each closet is connected to the basement wiring closet via fiber.

There are several departments of the company. The administrative office has ten employees including the CEO, executive Vice-President, a human resources manager, and several assistants and secretaries. The finance office has fifteen employees. Both of these divisions are on the third floor.

The second floor has the Sales and R&D departments. There are a total of twenty employees in the Sales Department and includes sales executives and assistants. All of the sales department personnel have laptop computers, but they are still connected via the wired network. The R&D department has ten engineers who have two computers each – one in their office and one in their lab spaces.

The first floor has the shipping/receiving department, manufacturing department and the receptionist. The receptionist shares a computer with the night watchman, since they work opposite shifts. There are 20 people in manufacturing, but they only use three computers to enter their production details into the company’s ERP system. The shipping/receiving department has six people, each with a computer that connects to UPS, Fedex and USPS systems, prints packaging labels and shipping documents. There is also a conference room/training room on the first floor with a multimedia system that includes a podium computer, projector, and all of the bells and whistles.

The basement houses the maintenance department, information technology and the mail room. The mail room clerk doesn’t use the computers at all. The two maintenance workers have computers at their desks that they use to enter reports of work performed. The IT Department has seven employees, each with a desktop computer. They also manage the server farm, which includes two domain controllers, one print server, one mail server, one database server, one internal web server, one external web server (on the DMZ interface of the firewall), a file server, a special server for the ERP system, and a backup server.

Add Wireless Network Access Points

Each floor, with the exception of the basement (the basement does not need wireless), needs to have two wireless access points, one for the north end of the building, and the other for the south. However, the wireless access points will overlap in the middle of the building, so you need to pick different wireless network channels for each end. On the first floor, there should be an additional wireless access point in the conference room for guests.

The “guest” network should have a different SSID than the company’s wireless network. It should be configured to allow anyone to connect, with a password. The password will be provided by the receptionist to any visitors and will be changed each week. The company wireless network should be configured to have the same SSID on all of the wireless network access points (but different from the “guest” network). It should be configured with WPA-2 Enterprise with AES and should be connected to the company’s servers for authentication (Windows Server with RADIUS server enabled for the Active Directory).

Note: You might want to review this informative webpage (Links to an external site.) to see how to configure Windows Server to handle the authentication for the access points.

Place your network access points on your network diagram you did for Homework #2. Segment the wireless network separately from the wired network so that it is on its own subnet. Segment the visitor wireless network so it’s on its own subnet, separate from both the wired network and the company wireless network.

Label each access point with its own IP address and basic configuration. Each device should have its own name, IP address and should list its configuration in terms of encryption protocol (TKIP, AES, 3-DES or None) and authentication protocol (WPA, WPA-Enterprise, WPA2-Enterprise, WPA-2, WEP, etc, none, etc). Identify the SSIDs that are used for each device.

Place the wireless access points in the building. Use a building floorplan similar to this one (Links to an external site.).

Create a Network Diagram

Your network diagram needs to include the following elements:

Each Wireless Access Point (WAP)

Each WAP’s critical configuration details – name, IP address, SSID, connection protocols, encryption protocols and wireless channel.

The Windows authentication server – including name, IP address, and important configuration details

Additional switches and connections between the building’s floors to establish the network(s).

IP Address ranges that will be assigned to network devices when they join the wireless networks

Network Documentation

Your network design document needs to explain each of the elements in your wireless network design. Explain how you segmented your wireless network from other parts of the network. Describe what security settings you might want to implement in your router. Describe the reason for the number of access points that you need on each floor.

What to Turn In

Turn in your Visio Diagram (.vsd/.vsdx) that includes your entire network. You also need to turn in a .doc/.docx file that explains your network diagram elements. Include snapshots from your network diagram in your .doc/.docx file – and annotate your diagram snapshots to better help your explanation of your network.

Explanation / Answer

the Internet-based economy often demands around-the-clock customer service. This means that business networks must be available nearly 100 percent of the time. They must be smart enough to automatically protect against unexpected security incidents. These business networks must also be able to adjust to changing traffic loads to maintain consistent application response times. It is no longer practical to construct networks by connecting many standalone components without careful planning and design. Building a Good Network Good networks do not happen by accident. They are the result of hard work by network designers and technicians, who identify network requirements and select the best solutions to meet the needs of a business. The steps required to design a good network are as follows: Step 1. Verify the business goals and technical requirements. Step 2. Determine the features and functions required to meet the needs identified in Step 1. Step 3. Perform a network-readiness assessment. Step 4. Create a solution and site acceptance test plan. Step 5. Create a project plan.After the network requirements have been identified, the steps to designing a good network are followed as the project implementation moves forward. Network users generally do not think in terms of the complexity of the underlying network. They think of the network as a way to access the applications they need, when they need them. Network Requirements Most businesses actually have only a few requirements for their network: The network should stay up all the time, even in the event of failed links, equipment failure, and overloaded conditions. The network should reliably deliver applications and provide reasonable response times from any host to any host. The network should be secure. It should protect the data that is transmitted over it and data stored on the devices that connect to it. The network should be easy to modify to adapt to network growth and general business changes. Because failures occasionally occur, troubleshooting should be easy. Finding and fixing a problem should not be too time-consuming. Fundamental Design Goals When examined carefully, these requirements translate into four fundamental network design goals: Scalability: Scalable network designs can grow to include new user groups and remote sites and can support new applications without impacting the level of service delivered to existing users. Availability: A network designed for availability is one that delivers consistent, reliable performance, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In addition, the failure of a single link or piece of equipment should not significantly impact network performance. Security: Security is a feature that must be designed into the network, not added on after the network is complete. Planning the location of security devices, filters, and firewall features is critical to safeguarding network resources. Manageability: No matter how good the initial network design is, the available network staff must be able to manage and support the network. A network that is too complex or difficult to maintain cannot function effectively and efficiently. The Benefits of a Hierarchical Network Design To meet the four fundamental design goals, a network must be built on an architecture that allows for both flexibility and growth. Hierarchical Network Design In networking, a hierarchical design is used to group devices into multiple networks. The networks are organized in a layered approach. The hierarchical design model has three basic layers: Core layer: Connects distribution layer devices Distribution layer: Interconnects the smaller local networks Access layer: Provides connectivity for network hosts and end devicesHierarchical networks have advantages over flat network designs. The benefit of dividing a flat network into smaller, more manageable hierarchical blocks is that local traffic remains local. Only traffic destined for other networks is moved to a higher layer. Layer 2 devices in a flat network provide little opportunity to control broadcasts or to filter undesirable traffic. As more devices and applications are added to a flat network, response times degrade until the network becomes unusable. Figures 1-1 and 1-2 show the advantages of a hierarchical network design versus a flat network design.Modular Design of Cisco Enterprise Architectures The Cisco Enterprise Architectures (see Figure 1-3) can be used to further divide the three-layer hierarchical design into modular areas. The modules represent areas that have different physical or logical connectivity. They designate where different functions occur in the network. This modularity enables flexibility in network design. It facilitates implementation and troubleshooting. Three areas of focus in modular network design are as follows: Enterprise campus: This area contains the network elements required for independent operation within a single campus or branch location. This is where the building access, building distribution, and campus core are located. Server farm: A component of the enterprise campus, the data center server farm protects the server resources and provides redundant, reliable high-speed connectivity. Enterprise edge: As traffic comes into the campus network, this area filters traffic from the external resources and routes it into the enterprise network. It contains all the elements required for efficient and secure communication between the enterprise campus and remote locations, remote users, and the Internet.

Step 1: Identifying Network Requirements The network designer works closely with the customer to document the goals of the project. Figure 1-5 depicts a meeting between the designer and the business owner. Goals are usually separated into two categories: Business goals: Focus on how the network can make the business more successful Technical requirements: Focus on how the technology is implemented within the network Step 2: Characterizing the Existing Network Information about the current network and services is gathered and analyzed. It is necessary to compare the functionality of the existing network with the defined goals of the new project. The designer determines whether any existing equipment, infrastructure, and protocols can be reused, and what new equipment and protocols are needed to complete the design. Step 3: Designing the Network Topology A common strategy for network design is to take a top-down approach. In this approach, the network applications and service requirements are identified, and then the network is designed to support them. When the design is complete, a prototype or proof-of-concept test is performed. This approach ensures that the new design functions as expected before it is implemented.

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