Computer Science

Network Improvement Plan Document

For the assignments in this course, you will be developing a comprehensive Network Improvement Plan document, which is the final Key Assignment deliverable.

Throughout this course, you will be working on several aspects of network analysis that will result in a comprehensive Network Improvement Plan document for a scenario organization of your choosing. You will work extensively with the concepts of good networking practices in this project. Additional information and the deliverables for each Individual Project will be provided in the assignment description for the project.

Target Organization Selection

The first step will be to select a scenario organization as the target for your Network Improvement Plan. This scenario organization will be used as the basis for each of the assignments throughout the course and should conform to the following guidelines:

• Nontrivial: The selected organization should be large enough to allow reasonable exercise of the networking principles in the course assignments.

• Domain knowledge: You should be familiar enough with the organization to focus on the assignment tasks without significant time required for domain education.

• Accessibility: You should have good access to the people and other information related to the organization because this will be an important part of the process.

Select a scenario organization that fits these requirements, and submit your proposal to your instructor before proceeding further with the assignments in the course. Approval should be sought within the first several days of the course. Your instructor will tell you how to submit this proposal and what notification will be given for approval.

Assignment

For the assignments in this course, you will be developing a comprehensive Network Improvement Plan document. Your first task in this process will be to select an organization to use as the basis of your plan. You will also create the shell document for the final project deliverable that you will be working on during each unit. As you proceed through each project week, you will add content to each section of the final document to gradually complete the final project delivery. Appropriate research should be conducted to support your work, and assumptions may be made when necessary.

As part of your weekly tasks, you will be reviewing and answering some questions based on what you learned going through the LabSim for Network Pro (which also covers Network+) Certification Training modules. This will help you to compile a toolkit to reference should you decide to take this exam. The topics you will be going through in LabSim will be spread out over a series of networking courses; however, should you choose to go through all of the materials on your own, this will prepare you to take the certification exam at sponsored locations. The modules under LabSim for CompTIA - Network+ include the following:

• Videos: 141 (18:44:06)
• Demonstrations: 81 (10:47:01)
• Simulations: 92
• Fact sheets: 142
• Exams: 101

The project deliverables are as follows:

• Submit your target organization selection to the instructor for approval.
• Network Improvement Plan Document Shell

o Use Word
o Title Page

- Course number and name
- Project name
- Your name
- Date

o Table of Contents (TOC)

- Use an autogenerated TOC.
- This should be on a separate page.
- This should be a maximum of 3 levels deep.
- Be sure to update the fields of the TOC so it is up-to-date before submitting your project.

o Section Headings (Create each heading on a new page with "TBD" as content, except for sections listed under "New Content" below.)

- Week 1: Target Organization
- Week 1: Analysis and Recommendations
- Week 2: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Addressing and Management
- Week 3: Fault Tolerance Plan
- Week 4: Security Plan
- Week 5: Network Monitoring
- All Weeks: Network Pro Prep Toolkit

• New Content

o Target Organization

- You must include a brief description of the organization.
- In the description, include the organization's size, number of locations, and other information that is necessary to describe the organization's networking needs as they relate to this project.
- Material can be taken from the approved proposal submitted to the instructor.
- Be sure that this organization is approved by the instructor.

o Analysis and Recommendations

- Describe the current network in use by the target organization, including a synopsis of the hardware and software.
- Perform an analysis of the current network, and describe the upgrades necessary to improve the network speed, security, and capacity sufficient for future growth.

- Include specific metrics and measurements to support the recommendations.

o Network Pro Prep Toolkit

- Take or review the following Network Pro lab lessons:
- 3.1: Network Adapters
- 3.2: Network Devices
- 3.3: Internetwork Devices
- 4.2: Ethernet Specifications
- For each completed lesson, include a screenshot of the completed lab and exam as applicable.

• Name the document "yourname_IT327_IP1.doc."