Complete the following exercises from FitzGerald and Dennis, Business Data Communications and Networking, 10th ed.
Chapter 1: Mini Case IV
Consolidated Supplies Consolidated Supplies is a medium-sized distributor of restaurant supplies that operates in Canada and several northern U.S. states. They have I 2 large warehouses spread across both countries to service their many customers. Products arrive from the manufacturers and are stored in the warehouses until they arc picked and put on a truck for delivery to their customers. The networking equipment in their warehouses is old and is starting to give them problems; these problems arc expected to increase as the equipment gets older. The vice president of operations. Pat McDonald. would like to replace the existing LANs and add some new wireless LAN technology into all the warehouses, but he is concerned that now may not be the right lime to replace the equipment. He has read several technology forecasts that suggest there will be dramatic improvements in networking speeds over the next few years, especially in wireless technologies. He has asked you for advice about upgrading the equipment. Should Consolidated Supplies replace all the networking .
Chapter 2: Mini Case I
I. Deals-R-Us Brokers (Part 1) Fred Jones, a distant relative of yours and president of Deals•R-Us Brokers (DRUB), has tome to you for advice. DRUB is a small brokerage house that enables its clients to buy and sell stocks over the Internet, as well as place traditional orders by phone or fax. DRUB has just decided to offer a set of stock analysis tools that will help its clients more easily pick winning stocks, or so Fred tells you, Fred's information systems department has presented him with two alternatives- for developing the new tools. The first alternative will have a special tool developed in C++ that clients will download onto their computers to run. The tool will communicate with the DRUB server to select data to analyze. The second alternative will have the C++ program running on the server, the client will use his or her browser to interact with the server. a. Classify the two alternatives in terms of what type of application architecture they use. b. Outline the pros and cons of the two alternatives and make a recommendation to Fred about which is better.
Chapter 3: Mini Case III
Ill. Amalgamated Stores Amalgamated Stores is a chain of 50 discount retail clothing stores. Each store has its own computers that are connected over the company's WAN to the central corporate computer via a TDM multiplexer. Each store uses the network primarily to exchange accounting. payroll, and inventory data to and from the corporate head office. The data is gathered into batches of data and transmitted at different times during the day. The network is also used for email, although this is of secondary importance. A sales representative at Discount Networks has approached Amalgamated Stores and suggested that by installing Discount Networks' newest STDM multiplexer, Amalgamated Stores can save money by buying smaller. lower•apacity WAN network circuits for each store without changing the store network. Even though the WAN circuits will be smaller and cheaper, the new STDM multiplexer can still enable all the computers in the store to communicate normally with the central corporate computer. Would you recommend buying the STDM multiplexer?
Bibliography
[1] J. FitzGerald and A. Dennis, Business Data Communications & Networking, 10th ed. Wiley, 2009.