Advanced Networks - Component Scenario

AMY Networks is a consultancy business that designs, installs and operates networks for clients in the financial sector. As one their project leaders you have been asked to responding to an ITT (Invitation to Tender) for a network design, installation and operation for a trading floor. The network will include providing services for the back office teams as well as traders.

The ITT document is included with this ICA. The tender that you produce in response to the ITT should take the following form.

Part 1 - Design

You need to respond to the ITT with following documents: -
- Logical Design. This must take care of the 3 connections per desktop. The switch design capacity must take this into consideration. You must indicate the total number of switches the design will use along with your calculations. Assume a 24 or 48 port switch for your design.
- Associated Design documents
o Design an IPv6 subnetting scheme for the control centre. Use the following IPv6 address:
o 2001:0DB8:0002:/48
o Specify how you will allocate IP addresses to the different blocks in the new design.

Part 2 - Report

The report must provide a description for the design and all of the decisions that you have made in the process of developing the design. This will include a discussion of the design, technologies, protocols (Restrict your discussion to Layer 1, 2 and 3 protocols) and security measure that you have decided to use.

Part 3 - Presentation
Marks will be awarded for the overall presentation of your work.

UKF

Replacement of Trading Floor Network

Invitation to Tender

1 INTRODUCTION

UKF uses 2 trading floors in Manchester. The network in one of these is in urgent need of replacement. It no longer meets the stringent demands for availability and performance required for today's trading floors. All hardware and cabling requires updating along with the design. We are looking for a solution that will not only meet current needs but will be future proof for the next 5 - 10 years, and so continue to deliver a service level that meets our needs for the foreseeable future.

1.1 Project Goals and Objectives
Key goals and objectives for the new network include: -
• High performance
• High availability
• Flexibility, allowing for a range of devices including mobile devices
• Manageability, a network that will be cost effective to run and provide a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) than our current network.

1.2 Purpose of this Invitation to Tender
This ITT lays out in detail the requirements for the new network, this includes any constraints and limitations. It provides all of the information required for the tender process including specific requirements.

1.3 Form of Tenders
Tenders will take the form of a report that will include all network diagrams and a detailed discussion of design decisions. The report will make clear links between specific requirements and how the design will address these.

1.4 Procurement Timetable
See the ICA for details of Tender submission date.

2 BACKGROUND

2.1 Institution's Background
UKF is one of the leading financial institutions in the UK today, we own two of the key trading floors in Manchester. Our Head Office is based in central London, and we have regional offices in Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh. We provide financial services for a wide range of British businesses and industries.

2.2 Technical Environment
Our technical environment is as follows: -
• Currently running with Windows on the desktop. Each desktop has 3 network connections.
• Servers are a mix of Windows and Linux
• Using TCP/IP - currently using IPv4
• Networks -
o Using Layer 2 switches, and router.
o OSPF for internal routing

2.3 Current Business Systems
Business systems that the new network must support: -
• Email
• Trading floor systems
• Financial systems
• Payroll
• Purchasing
• Office applications

3 SCOPE AND SCALE OF SYSTEMS

3.1 Scope
The scope of this project is limited to our 2nd trading floor in Manchester. This includes the network services to the trading floor itself as well as services to the support office which must provide all services listed in section 2.3.
The trading floor will support 600 traders. There are 45 support staff and a management team of 15. All staff require a desktop PC. At present there are 30 networked printers in a room just off the trading floor. Management staff have their own networked printers.
The trading floor and support services operate on core hours of 6am to 6pm.

4 KEY REQUIREMENTS
• Performance
o All trading floor transactions must complete in less than 1ms
o All supporting transactions must complete in less than 5ms
• Availability
o Trading floor availability must be 99.999%
o Support services availability must be 99%
• Flexibility
o The network must be able to support wireless mobile devices, though not with the same availability requirements
• Future Proof
o The new design must guarantee to meet the above requirements for the next 5 years.
• Security
o Secure external link to the Internet
o Secure connection for remote workers
o Internal security mechanisms, including access controls
• Cost effective
o Overall TCO lower than current TCO
o Manageable services that will reduce power usage and maintenance requirements

5 DETAILED FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
We require a new network that will meet the key requirements outlined in Section 4. The network will handle all of the data traffic for one of our central London trading floors. The data traffic from traders themselves must be handled with high performance and availability requirements. The requirements for all other traffic are less rigorous.

The new network must continue to provide this level of service for a minimum of 5 years, and so must be designed with this in mind. The network must provide a cost effective solution. The organisation is aiming to reduce its overall power usage by 25% over the next 10 years and so the new solution must be able to provide significant improvements on power usage.

6 TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
Technical requirements
• Protocols
o IPv6 required
Subnet designs must be provided
o OSPF or alternative internal routing protocol
o Ethernet required
o VLAN designs are required
o Other protocols such as STP should be covered
• Cabling - choice of cabling dependent on provider
• A wireless segment must be provided, and secured
• Security
o Perimeter security is required
o Internal security measures must be explained
o An IDS/IPS is required
• Ports
o All desktops must have at least 3 ports

7 COST INFORMATION REQUIRED
For the purposes of this exercise no cost information is required though information on power saving can be included. An explanation of how TCO is being kept to a minimum is also required.

8 SUPPLIER INFORMATION REQUIRED
8.1 General Information
8.2 Proof of Supplier's sound Financial and Company Standing
8.3 Evidence of Capacity to Deliver Contract Requirements
8.4 Other

9 IMPLEMENTATION REQUIREMENTS
An overview of how the network will be implemented is required however dates/times etc. are not required.