Case Project 1: You have been hired to upgrade a network of 50 computers currently connected to 10 Mbps hubs. This long overdue upgrade is necessary because of poor network response time caused by a lot of collisions ocurring during long file transfers between clients and servers. How do you recommend upgrading this network? What interconnecting devices will you use, and what benefit will you get from using these devices? Write a short memo describing the upgrade and, if possible, include a drawing of the new network.
Case Project 2: Two hundred workstations and four servers on a single LAN are connected by a number of switches. You're seeing an excessive number of broadcast packets throughout the LAN and want to decrease the effect this broadcast traffic has on your network. What steps must you take to achieve this goal?
Case Project 3: Do internet research on each topic, Write a shor
- Physical versus logical topolgy
- Bus topology
- Star topology
- Ring topology
- Ethernet and CSMA/CD
Case Project 1: Old-Tech Corporation has 10 computers in its main office area, which is networked in a star topology using 10 Mbps Ethernet hubs, and wants to add five computers in the manufacturing area. One problem with the existing network is data throughput. Large files are transferred across the network regularly, and the transfers take quite a while. In addition, when two or more computers are transferring large files, the network becomes unbearably slow for users. Adding the manufacturing computers will only make this problem worse and result in another problem. Because the ceiling is more than 30 feet high, there is no easy way to run cables to computers, and providing a secure pathway for cables is next to impossible. Devise a solution to this company's networking problems. As part of your solution, answer the following questions.
1. What changes in equipment are required to bring this company's network up to date to solve the shared-bandwidth problem?
2. What topology and which type of device can be used in the manufacturing area to solve the cabling difficulties?
Case Project 2: EBiz.com currently has 250 networked computers and five servers, and uses a star topology wired network to reach employees' offices, with a bus interconnecting three floors in its office building. Because of a staggering influx of Internet business, the network administrator's task is to boost network performance and availability as much as possible. The company also wants a network design that is easy to reconfigure and change, because workgroups continually form and disband, and their membership changes on a regular basis. All computers must share sensitive data and control access to customer files and databases. Aside from the customer information and billing databases, which run on all servers, workers' desktop computers must run standard word-processing and spreadsheet programs. Use the worksheet that follows to evaluate the requirements for this network. Once you complete the question, determine the best network topology, or topology combination, for the company. On a blank piece of paper, sketch the network design you think best suits EBiz.com's needs. Remember: high performance and easy reconfiguration are your primary design goals!
1. What type of topology should be used in this network?
2. Will the network be peer to peer or server based?
3. How many computers will be attached to the network?
4. What kind of networking device is easiest to reconfigure? what kind offers the best access to the network medium's bandwidth between pairs of devices?
Case Project 1: During the design of most real-world networks, you'll discover that using more than one type of networking medium is common. The usual reasons for needing more than one type of medium include the following:
Two or more areas must be interconnected, and the distance separating them is greater than the maximum segment length for the type of medium used in (or best suited for) each area.
A connection must pass through a high-interference environment (across some large transformers, near heavy-duty electrical motors, and so on). Failure to use a different type of medium increases the risk of impeding data flow. This reason is especially common for choosing fiber-optic cable or wireless in many networks, particularly when connecting floors in an office building and the only available pathway is the elevator shaft.
Certain parts of an internet work might have to carry more traffic than other parts. Typically, the segment where traffic aggregates is the backbone, a common cable segment that interconnects subsidiary networks. (Think of a tree trunk as the backbone and its major branches as cable segments.) Often, a higher-capacity cable is used for a backbone (for example, fiber-optic cable or Cat 6 cable rated for Gigabit Ethernet), along with a higher-speed networking technology for attachments to the backbone.
This arrangement means outlying segments might use conventional 10 or 100 Mbps Ethernet, and the backbone uses 1 Gbps or 10 Gbps Ethernet. Using this information, suggest solutions that involve at least two types, if possible, of networking media to address the following problems:
A-XYZ Corp. is planning a new network. Engineers in the design shop must have connections to accountants and sales people in the front office, but all routes between the two areas must traverse the shop floor, where arc welders and metal-stamping equipment create potent amounts of EMI and RFI.
Given that both the design shop and front office use 10BaseT (twisted-pair Ethernet), how might you interconnect these two areas? What medium guarantees immunity from interference?
B-After the front-office network at XYZ Corp. is set up, an accountant realizes that if the loading dock connected to the network, dock workers could log incoming and outgoing shipments and keep the inventory more current. Even though the loading dock is nowhere near the shop floor, the dock is 1100 feet from the front office. What kinds of cable will work to make this connection? What kind would you choose and why?
C-ABC Company occupies three floors in a 10-story building, where the elevator shaft provides the only path to all three floors. In addition, users on the ninth and tenth floors must access a collection of servers on the eighth floor. Explain what kind of connections would work in the elevator shaft. If more than one choice is possible, pick the best option and explain the reasons for your choice. Assuming that inter floor connections might some day need to run at much higher speeds, reevaluate your choice. What's the best type of medium for open-ended bandwidth needs? Explain your answer.
Case Project 2: XYZ Corp.'s facilities in Nashua, NH, are two office buildings 400 feet apart, each with its own LAN. To connect the two networks, you plan to dig a trench and lay cable in conduit between the two buildings. You want to use fiber-optic cable, but your budget-conscious facilities manager wants to use 100 Mbps Ethernet over twisted-pair. What reasons can you use to justify fiber-optic cable in this case? Explain your answer.
a: Twisted pair won't span a 400-foot distance.
b: Fiber Optic cable is cheaper and esasier to work with than twisted pair.
c: Twisted pair is a conductive cable and can, therefore, carry current based on the difference in ground potential between the two buildings.
d: Fiber optice cables leaves more room for growth and future needs for increased bandwidth than twisted pair does