Data Communications and Networks

Assignment: Design a Modern Network for a Private High School

Background:

A private high school needs your expertise. Their network is old and will need to be replaced. The owner has asked for a "high school of the future, using the latest technologies with a network which can accommodate the load now and for another five years".

The present high school has two computer labs each with 20 old computers, 1 laser printer and a scanner (which is currently connected to a standalone computer). There are a further 20 computers in the Library as well as laser printer, a colour inkjet printer, a flatbed scanner, and a photocopier. Most of the computers are close to five years old, are very slow and have insufficient memory to meet the needs of the students. The network was installed five years ago. Network operating system is Windows Server 2003. The network is simple. The new high school will have all teachers issued with Laptops/iPads and all the desktop computers have been removed from the Staff Room.

The Administration Office computers and other peripheral devices such printer, photocopier, etc. have recently been replaced.

Important objectives of the Network:

The two main objectives for the proposed solution are:

- A modern network for the school and

- To ensure that the students in the high school have access to the best computer facilities.

The network is proposed to achieve the above objectives considering the school's following business and technical goals.

Business goals:

- Improved communications,

- Spare no expense,

- Protect school information,

- The classroom of the future will double enrolments,

- Be excellent in technology.

Technical goals:

- The current network, computer labs, and library are upgraded and/or redesigned to a modern network to meet student and teacher needs,

- Scalability - remember they plan to double in size,

- Availability - Wireless network access is available in all classrooms as well as some outdoor areas for teachers and students,

- Students have access to study resources from school and home,

- Performance - network performance must be high

- Reliability - no single point of failure

- Security - protection of school information and other IT assets.

- Multimedia classrooms and high speed videoconferencing facilities for the excellence classes.

What you need to do

You are required to design the network you would recommend and how it would be configured.

Remember the goal of building a new network is that it will support the schools needs for the next five years. Your recommendations are to be submitted as a formal report containing your analysis of the present situation, and your recommended network solution.

As part of your report, you are required to:

- Executive summary: Explain why your design meets the business and technical goals.

- Analysis of user requirements and assigning appropriate priorities.

- Description and analysis of the current network.

- Network Design Proposed: suggest a type of network architecture that is suitable for the organisation. You will need to identify all the circuits (cabling), network hardware necessary to build the network(s) you are proposing and to justify your choice, i.e., you will need to explain the function of the hardware and network choice in your solution.

- You will also need to include both logical and physical network diagrams for the current and proposed network.

- You will also need to provide a layout of your high school showing where your network devices are located.

Remember that it is a school and access to the Internet will need to be controlled and some sites blocked. You will need to make a number of assumptions regarding the school layout and organisational structure, existing software; hardware and circuit, user communities and network use patterns , etc. which will need to be documented in the appropriate sections of your report. Your report must also include explanations justifying the design decisions you have made.

You are strongly advised to adapt the suggested Report Template available on MySCU unit site. Please note presentation and referencing are also important.

To help make the various assumptions the following preferences are available from the client:

IT Platform: Server 2012 Microsoft Office/Adobe multimedia software Cisco hubs/switches/routers

School Hosted Messaging to contact students/teachers by School Management System (sms).

Number of students could be around between 500-700. Students form communities of users based on subjects. Some do multimedia design while others do less computer intensive subjects. Each lab needs a suite of software which matches the interests of these communities of students. Assume one computer lab is multimedia, one computer lab is programming and the third computer lab is business studies.

Size and layout of the school: make any assumption based on a school you are familiar with.

No real ceiling on network budget. However assumption should be reasonably justifiable.

Hint: work out the needs for each of the communities of users.