About this Assignment
This is an advanced course on computer networks. Its main objective is to provide the learner with knowledge on the design of computer networks on different layers as well as the management of these networks. The course builds on fundamental definitions, aspects, and standards in order to give the learner basic knowledge to choose the best plans, architectures, devices, and technologies in a network design scenario.
In this project, you will use the knowledge you acquired throughout the course to plan and design a medium scale network. The same concepts apply on all kinds of networks. You will design this network using typical network design protocol, and making decisions on different types of IP addresses, devices, media, and servers to fit the given scenario.
Upon completion of this project, you will be able to:
- Understand and take into consideration networking project requirements
- Take decisions on the structure of a computer network, including subnetting addresses and devices on different layers
Prompt
In this project, you will design a network for a middle-size company. Connection to the internet will be provided by an ISP. The company is occupying 3 floors in a building. Floor1 contains the administration offices of the company.
Here are the requirements for floor1:
- The network in this building should service at least 20 employees.
- Each employee should have at least one wired and 2 wireless connections.
- This floor is the administration part of the company, and clients will not be accessing it. However, the company would like to make 10 additional wireless connections available for visitors that might be present in this floor.
- There are two printers in this floor.
- This floor also contains the servers of the company as well as the router receiving the connection from the ISP and the main switch that will service the switches of the three floors.
Floor2 and floor3 are the main service floors of the company.
The following are the requirements for floor2:
- The network in this floor should service 30 employees. Each employee should have at least one wired and 2 wireless connections.
- This floor will service many clients, and the company wants to ensure that they have a wireless connection. The connection should support as many clients as employees at any time.
- The floor contains one printer.
The following are the requirements for floor3:
- The network in this floor should service 50 employees. Each employee should have at least one wired and 2 wireless connections.
- As in the case of floor2 in this building, this floor will service many clients, and the company wants to ensure that they have a wireless connection. The connection should support as many clients as employees at any time.
- The floor contains two printers.
The following are the general requirements for the network:
- The company requires the networks for the three different floors to be different subnets. The connection between these 3 subnets is wired.
- Each floor requires only one wireless access point.
- Wireless devices could be smartphones, tablets or laptops.
- The company would like to have its own email domain and service.
- The company would like the addressing of the devices to be dynamic.
- The company would like to have its website hosted on a server that it owns.
In order to carry out this design project, you are required to answer the following questions:
- What is the IP address class required to meet all the above-mentioned requirements? Justify your decision.
- Suggest an address from the class you suggested previously along with a mask. This would be the address the company is getting from the ISP.
- What are the masks required to meet the subnetting requirements of the network and each subnetwork for each floor? Justify your decisions.
- What are the specifications of the used switches in this network? The network requires 4 switches: one main switch and one switch per floor. Justify your decisions.
- What are the specifications of the wireless access points in each floor? Justify your decisions.
- What are the servers that the company must have?
- Draw a simple diagram of your design, including the router, the wired connections, the switches, the wireless access points and the servers
Grading Rubric
Your project will be graded based on the following rubric:
| Category | Unacceptable (0-2) | Needs Improvement (3-6) | Acceptable (7-10) | Total Possible Points |
| Identify the IP address class required to meet the requirements (x2) | No IP address class is suggested and/or not justification | The IP address class serves much higher number of devices or less devices than required along with a reasonable justification | The IP address class is correctly chosen. It meets exactly the network requirements in terms of number of devices. The decision is correctly justified | 20 |
| Suggest an IP address from the previous suggested class along with a suitable mask (x1) | The design does not contain an IP address and/or a mask | The IP address is not from the class suggested in the previous question | The IP address along with the mask are correctly suggested from the previously suggested class | 10 |
| Suggest and justify the masks required for the different subnets (x1) | All masks are not correct and/or no justification | One or two masks not correct and/or justification is not clear or not reasonable | Masks for all subnets are correctly suggested with justification | 10 |
| Suggest the specifications of the wired switches with justification (x2) | All specifications are not correct and/or no justification | One or two Specifications not correct and/or justification is not clear or not reasonable | Specifications are correctly suggested with justification | 20 |
| Suggest the specifications of the wireless access points with justification (x2) | All specifications are not correct and/or no justification | One or two Specifications not correct and/or justification is not clear or not reasonable | Specifications are correctly suggested with justification | 20 |
| Name the servers required for the network by the company (x1) | All servers are not correct or the question is not answered | One or two servers are correct | All required servers are correctly listed | 10 |
| Draw a simple diagram of the designed network (x1) | Plan is not correctly drawn (most items are missing) or plan does not exist | Plan is partially correctly drawn (some items are missing) | Plan is correctly drawn | 10 |
References
This assignment covers material presented in different chapters in the course. You can refer particularly to the following chapters for guidance:
- Chapter 5: The TCP/IP Model
- Chapter 6: Network Servers & Services Fundamentals
- Chapter 8. Wireless Networks Overview
