How to design a networked solution to meet a particular situation with specific requirements

In this article we’ll look at how to design a networked solution to meet a particular situation with specific requirements. The example we’ll use here is of Y Youth – a fictional a youth centre that is opening soon. It is spread over a four story building with a lot of networking requirements including:

  • 3 offices – Top floor, administration, marketing and co-ordinator
  • Café area – 1st floor, Area for café, music and bands
  • Basement – Basement Area for games, activities
  • Computer room – for training purposes
  • Front drop in computer area and reception – Drop in for the public to use computers

Topology

Each area of the building has separate but similar requirements when it comes to setting up the network. First of all we will look at the topology choices for this building. There are two main choices when it comes to connecting the various areas:

  1. Bus Topology – This topology would be useful to connect separate networks together in a simple, linear fashion.
  2. Ring Topology – The ring topology would mean that if there are separate networks in the building they would be all interlinked and connectable which wouldn’t really be suitable.

We would only use the Bus topology for connecting the networks together, not for each separate network. To connect devices to a network we would choose from a different group of topologies:

  • Star Topology – A star topology connects all devices to a central server in order to connect to a network and use the devices and resources of that server.
  • Tree Topology – A tree topology is a mix of star and bus topologies which would be used throughout the whole building in order to connect to a central communication box.

The tree topology would be the choice because:

  • If there are network errors, the network would still work but would not affect other networks in the building. If a bus topology were used, then all of the networks would go down.
  • A tree network is easy to expand as there can be several switches in each part of the network. When more computers are added, they simply connect to a switch within the area and then they are connected to the network.
  • Being able to split a network into network segments by using the tree topology is one its most useful features. In the building there are different areas and departments which require different levels of access and usage.
  • Using a tree topology you can keep each network segment local so all of the information can be kept local, independent of other network segments. You can also use a virtual private network (VPN) which can work in different geographical areas which may be suitable if there were another satellite office connected to the business.

Wireless

As well as the common wired topologies, we have to look at if and where wireless networking capabilities would be useful. For the youth centre, young people can gather in a number of places but mainly go where staff tell them to. We would look at putting wireless access in the café area and in the basement area. For this we would connect a wireless router to a router, then to a switch, then to the internet server. An additional wireless access point may be needed to increase or improve range.

Cabling

There are many different types of cabling used in networking such as:

CAT 5 – This provides speeds of 10/100MBs but is an older, outdated cabling standard.

CAT 5e – This has speeds of up to 1000Mbps (gigabit Ethernet) and is the most common / cheapest cost-effective type of cabling used today. It is acceptable for simple office and home networks.

CAT 6 – Slightly more advanced wiring with speeds of 10/100/1000MBs/10GBs and is more suited to larger networks that have lots of traffic or are constantly transferring large amounts of data.

Fibre Optics – Fibre optic has been used lately to expand broadband service speed for large companies. It has much greater speeds of 100 Gb/171Gbs 26Tb/273Gbs depending on the amount of cores in the wires. It is also the most expensive type of cabling on the market.

To connect each network segment to the server, the choice of cables we’d use would be CAT 6 as although they are more expensive than CAT 5e, we would only need it to connect the switches to the server so wouldn’t require much of it. Fibre optic cable would be the best solution if there were blank cheques available.

In order to connect each piece of equipment to the network we would use CAT 5e cables as there wouldn’t be a requirement to handle any more information than these cables could handle.

Equipment

We will need to list the equipment necessary in order to use the network.

  • Computers – The amount of computers needed and the specifications of the computers depending on the users’ needs
  • Printers – Laser and/or inkjet
  • Router – To manage traffic and requests from network devices
  • Switch – We would need a switch for each area in order to be able to connect computers and leave room for expansion in the future
  • Server – In order to create user profiles and hold data, we would need a server. This would also all users to gain access to their permitted resources such as printers & scanners.
  • Backup – There should be some form of external backup made available as well as an internal backup such as a zip or tape drive.

Network Services for each network segment

Each department or area in the building will have different needs and permissions:

  • Reception – The reception area will need internet access and access to the printer in that area. It is also a public area and it will be separated as a network node so it cannot access any sensitive data from other areas.
  • Café – The café area will not have any wired computers but will have a need for wireless access so a wireless router will be set up in here and any user connecting will connect to another separate network node. Restrictions should be set here so as to ensure limited downloading, otherwise this could affect the network performance if left unlimited.
  • Basement – The basement will work similar to the café – there will be no need for any wired computers but a wired access point should be available for the likes of games consoles etc…
  • Computer/Training Room – This room will contain more computers than anywhere else so there would need to be switch, printers, scanners, projectors etc.. depending on the training needs. This area contains the largest amount of access points to the network so it would be a good idea to have its own separate file server.
  • Offices – The offices are the main source of information for the business so it needs to be the most secure room physically and in the digital sense. It has to have its own information system, accounts, and video calling facilities. The information has to be on a separate network node to keep it private with no unauthorised access allowed.