Objectives

This assignment has been designed to test the following areas:

• Wireless LANs
• Wide Area networking technologies
• Switched LAN Technologies
• Backbone/Switched Technologies

Note

• Answers must be within the specified word limit. This is an absolute word limit and no excess will be allowed.
• All assumptions must be stated clearly in your answers.
• Remember, there may not be one right answer for some of the questions. Rather, your explanations do need to present your case clearly. The explanations you provide do not have to be long, concise is preferred to meandering.

1. [5 marks] (Wireless LAN)

Identify and briefly explain any four key requirements that need to be examined when considering deploying a WLAN technology. [300words]

2. [12 marks] (Backbone Networks)

You have been hired as a network consultant by an organization called Dwight Motors. Your job is to recommend an elegant solution to support their needs and to address their current problems. The IT manager of Dwight motors wants you to be aware of the following facts:

• The organization has 3 departments. All addresses are assigned using IP.
• Key servers are currently randomly placed in different departments. So a user in one department X reads and writes to file servers in another department Y. Similarly, users in departments X and Y would read mails from a server in department Z.
• The traffic and broadcast storms originating in one department is causing bandwidth saturation in other departments.
• The core of the network is slow and is unable to meet the response time requirements of various critical business applications.

Propose remedial solutions with adequate justification. In particular, in your recommendation you need to suggest the following:

a) Core technology design.

b) Specific LAN technologies to be used in each department.

c) Specific design solutions to address inter-departmental traffic issues. ((600 words)

3. [6 marks] (Switched Backbone Networks)

You are the network administrator for a small manufacturing firm that runs Ethernet. You are currently using hubs and repeaters for connectivity but have decided to upgrade to a Layer 2 (L2) switched infrastructure.

a) The CFO has looked at your brief proposal and would like some information on the benefits of migrating to a switched network. What benefits would you list and why?

b) Your company is rapidly growing. The IT manager of the firm wants to know what additional key features one might look in L2 switches that your company might deploy in future as it grows? Identify and explain 3 key featuresand justify how these features will scale to support yourcompany's growth and any future network expansion.(500 words)

4. [2 marks] (Wide Area Networks)

Explain the flaw in the following reasoning: Packet switching requires control and address bits to be added to each packet. This introduces considerable overhead in packet switching. In circuit switching, a transparent circuit is established. No extra bits are needed. Therefore, there is no overhead in circuit switching. (100words)

5. [15 marks] (Wide Area Networks)

An organization called Ranbaxy Inc. has currently 3 divisions in 3 different locations within Sydney city. One of the divisions serves as the company headquarters. They hire you as a network consultant to recommend a networking plan. The following are the requirements outlined by the company's CTO:

• Large volumes of data need to be exchanged between the divisions but only during certain times (random-not known a priori) during the day.
• The organization has a sizeable pool of employees who will need to regularly access their networks resources from home.
• Mobile sales personnel require access to their respective branch networks to upload/download sales data from remote locations.
• Since the data exchanged between the divisions is critical, privacy is of utmost concern.
• There is a budgetary constraint that will force the manager to go for the cheapest and most viable solution.

What type of WAN solution would you recommend and why? Provide adequate justification in support of your solution. (400 words)

Assessment

For all questions in this assignment not only content but also presentation will affect your mark. You will lose marks (and not necessarily only a small portion) if there are problems with the presentation, particularly with clarity. This means that your answers to each question should be a coherent statement and that the spelling and grammar of your submission will be taken into account in assessing its presentation.

For full marks, your answers should all be clear, coherent and correct.

The standards of marking described in the unit outline L.O. 1 will be applied to this assignment as relevant to the assignment topics.

In addition, the following particular standards will be applied in marking this assignment:

• Spelling and grammar:

Assignment submissions with more than 4 spelling or grammatical errors will not achieve a grade higher than distinction; submissions with more than 8 such errors will not achieve a grade higher than credit.

• Clarity:

• Ambiguous or poorly worded answers will receive a grade no more than a pass for the individual question.
• Minor issues of clarity will receive a grade no more than credit for the individual question.

• Correctness of approach taken and answer obtained:

• Incorrect answers with the correct logic or approach willreceive no more than a pass for the individual question.
• Correct answers with incorrect logic or approach willreceive no more than pass for the individual question.
• Incorrect answers with no explanation of the approach taken or with the incorrect approach will receive a failgrade for the individual question.

The questions will be marked individually, the marks totaled, and a final grade assigned that is no more than indicated by the total marks, and no more than allowed by the standards specified above and in the unit outline.