Designing A Campus Network Solution For USoft.com Organization

Business Goals of uSoft.com

The main business goals which are perused by the uSoft.com organization are discussed in the below section.

• Protection of various sensitive information within the organization and configuring the list of access control for handling the access of the user to the servers of different department of the organization.
• Improvement of the wireless communication and the VoIP among all the departments of the organization which will improve the performance of the current employees.
• Network scalability improvement of the current network for allowing increased number users to connect which will help in the growth of the company.
• Configuring the network in such a way that performance will not be decreased with increased number of users and other different types of risks must be mitigated such as jitter, packet loss and contestation.
• Configuring the access control list for communication management of the users for accessing servers of different department of the organization.
• Connecting different subnet wireless access point in such a way that the intruder will be able to gain local network access.

The main purpose behind the development of this network is creating a network solution that will consist a centralized management of data traffic flowing. This data flows from different of sources to a specific destination address within the network. The successful data sending and data receiving from the headquarters to the fellow branches of the organization will reduce the network responding time. The network of the organization must be configured in such a way that the employees will be connect with the organizational network from remote location. This will surely improve the productivity of the employees. Also, the network must be configured in such way that there is no error in the network configuration and no error will be occurring in the future cases. Besides that user activity monitoring should be done in this type of system to ensure that the resources are safe. Users can be monitored effectively by implementing a network security policy, firewall and by implementing a DMZ.

The discussed network solution is in the development process for the uSoft.com organization which is a private software development organization for biomedical solutions. This organization is having a HQ which comprises of total 6 different departments in it. The main aim of the organization behind developing this network solution expanding the organization with meeting the technical and business goals of the organization. In the present situation the organization is having total 102 numbers of employees in the department of software development. 92 employees are working for designing the solution, 52 peoples are in sales department, 22 employees in human resource department, 32 peoples in the financial department and 62 employees are serving in the customer support department. The present network setup consists 1 server in each department of human resource, finance and sales while the solution design department is having 2 severs and the software development department is having total 3 servers installed the subnet of the network. In this case some more numbers of IP addresses are kept in the reservation to support expansion process of the organization that will help more employees to connect to each of the subnet which are installed in the department of the organization.

The uSoft.com organization currently having two branches and both of them are located in the region of Gold Coast. The organization aims for further expansion and for that they must redesign the current network topology. The HQ of the organization consists total 6 departments each of the department is separate floors. The organization is planning to allocate two floors to the solution design department and due to that network of the organization must be redesigned.

Current Network Infrastructure

The requirement of the user must be analysed in a proper way for developing a solution. Hence, user requirement is analysed in this case on the basis of security, mobility, application, remote access and bandwidth.

Mobility is required for the employees of the organization and for that wireless access points should be installed in the organization so that peoples can connect wireless devices of them. The servers which are installed in the organization must be reconfigured as RADUIS sever. Through this server users will be able to access the organizational network from remote location. This will increase productivity and efficiency of the employees of the organization.

As per the security requirement the wireless access points must be secured from the external agents. For securing this access point, different subnets can be created for every department of the organization and encryption algorithm can be used. The routers of the organization must be configured with an access control list which will secure the sensitive information of the organization internally.

In this case initially required bandwidth for using various of application must be calculated. As it need to be ensured every subnet of the organisation is having sufficient bandwidth, interface must be divided and an efficient plan for cabling should be executed for interconnecting the network devices.

The department of the solution design often need to run various of web development software and tools for interface design purpose. In such of cases a proper efficient antivirus software must be installed in the all of the host to avoid the spyware risks, virus risks and malware risks which can negatively affect the network performance.

The existing server of the organization need to be reconfigured with RADUIS protocol which will help the employees of the organization to get access to organizational network independent of geographic location. In such a way the productivity of the employees will be increased and the organization will gain competitive advantage.

The network developed for the organization should be available to the users 24 *7  and the destination address of the network can be reached via different paths. The network should provide wireless access to the users connected in the network such that the BYOD policy of the organization is fulfilled. The speed of the network should not get down if there is a sudden increase in the number of users per subnet.

The network developed for the organization should not have delay, jitter, packet loss and specific measures should be taken for increasing the accuracy and eliminate the rate of error in the network. The QoS for each of the application should be listed for management of different types of traffic and examination of the capability of the current technology supporting the QoS metrics.  

User Requirements Analysis

There are different factors that helps in increasing the reliability of VoIP such as a reliable internet connection and traffic filtering. The type of service required should be identified and the quality should never be compromised since it can cause call drop and voice delay making the network unusable.

For the security purposes the network of the organization must be secured from external threats and for that a DMZ zone need to be configured that will assist to install core network devices and will limit the access of the users which will increase the security. Firewall need to be deployed in this network which will manage the incoming and outgoing packets of the data and will enable access control of users. A VPN also must be configured that will eliminate man in the middle attack.

A separate type of access point must be implemented for each of the department of the organization. Also, it must be ensured that the wireless access points are installed in such a way that it does not faces any type of obstruction. Also an efficient encryption must be implemented for improving network security.

It is very much important for the organization to ensure that any congestion is not present in the current network. To ensure that a virtual LAN need to be implemented. The virtual LAN will also ensure that the less number of data packets are broadcasted. Network management complexity is also reduced by the implementation of the VLAN. The VLAN will also enforce the security policy of the uSoft.com for different department of the organization.

The HQ of the uSoft.com organization is using 172.16.123.0/22 IP address designing IP address plan for the network solution configuration.

Subnet Name	Needed Size	Address	Mask	Dec Mask	Assignable Range	Broadcast
Software Development Data	102	172.16.120.128	/25	255.255.255.128	172.16.120.129 – 172.16.120.254	172.16.120.255
Software Development Voice	102	172.16.120.0	/25	255.255.255.128	172.16.120.1 – 172.16.120.126	172.16.120.127
Software Development Server	3	172.16.123.192	/29	255.255.255.248	172.16.123.193 – 172.16.123.198	172.16.123.199
Solution Design Data	92	172.16.121.128	/25	255.255.255.128	172.16.121.129 – 172.16.121.254	172.16.121.255
Solution Design Voice	92	172.16.121.0	/25	255.255.255.128	172.16.121.1 – 172.16.121.126	172.16.121.127
Solution Design Server	2	172.16.123.200	/30	255.255.255.252	172.16.123.201 – 172.16.123.202	172.16.123.203
Customer Support Data	62	172.16.122.64	/26	255.255.255.192	172.16.122.65 – 172.16.122.126	172.16.122.127
Customer Support Voice	62	172.16.122.0	/26	255.255.255.192	172.16.122.1 – 172.16.122.62	172.16.122.63
Customer Support Server	1	172.16.123.204	/30	255.255.255.252	172.16.123.205 – 172.16.123.206	172.16.123.207
Sales Data	52	172.16.122.192	/26	255.255.255.192	172.16.122.193 – 172.16.122.254	172.16.122.255
Sales Voice	52	172.16.122.128	/26	255.255.255.192	172.16.122.129 – 172.16.122.190	172.16.122.191
Sales Server	1	172.16.123.216	/30	255.255.255.252	172.16.123.217 – 172.16.123.218	172.16.123.219
Finance Data	32	172.16.123.64	/26	255.255.255.192	172.16.123.65 – 172.16.123.126	172.16.123.127
Finance Voice	32	172.16.123.0	/26	255.255.255.192	172.16.123.1 – 172.16.123.62	172.16.123.63
Finance Server	1	172.16.123.208	/30	255.255.255.252	172.16.123.209 – 172.16.123.210	172.16.123.211
Human Resource Data	22	172.16.123.160	/27	255.255.255.224	172.16.123.161 – 172.16.123.190	172.16.123.191
Human Resource Voice	22	172.16.123.128	/27	255.255.255.224	172.16.123.129 – 172.16.123.158	172.16.123.159
Human Resource Server	1	172.16.123.212	/30	255.255.255.252	172.16.123.213 – 172.16.123.214	172.16.123.215

A proper logical network diagram formed for the uSoft.com organization which will also identify the required hardware and network devices which are essential for the network framework development. The technologies and the protocol that are used for network framework development is evaluated for logical framework development. The design is created for increasing the flexibility, scalability and availability of the network. Extra number of address space are kept in reserve for supporting the future growth of the organization.

A physical network diagram must be developed in this case for developing the diagram Microsoft Visio is used in this case. This diagram will demonstrate topology and hierarchy for network framework development. In this case organizational floor plan, physical network design is evaluated and the structure of the organization is evaluated technical and business need of the organization. In this design separate switches will be used by each department of the organization and the solution design department will use two switches as they are using total two floors. For developing the network framework three level hierarchal model will be used and all the devices will be grouped into access, core and distribution device that will increase scalability, availability and redundancy of the network. This network design will assist in the future growth of the organization will also minimize the management cost. Data traffic will be managed by the core router and a firewall and a DMZ zone will be created to secure accessibility of the server for external and internal user of the organisation.

Proposed Network Solution

Conclusion:

Form the above discussion it can be concluded that a new network framework is needed by the uSoft.com organisation. Various of technologies are need to be considered in this case for developing the assessed network. This network is designed to bring improvements in the communication between various department of the organization. A subnet plan is developed in this report and for that the total number of employees need to be determined in this case which has been done properly. The above discussion also suggested that the VLAN is created for each of the each present subnet of the organization according to the department of the organization. The implementation of VLAN and VoIP will increase the network security. From the discussion it has been determined that the voice chinned must be separated so that there no lag or call drop in the organization. Accessibility of the network should be managed and users must be categorised as per the service requirement of them and that will improve the network flexibility. This network solution consists multiple of paths and has a remote access to different of parts of the organization. Also the network must limit the access of the internal and external users.

References:

Da Cunha, F.D., Boukerche, A., Villas, L., Viana, A.C. and Loureiro, A.A., 2014. Data communication in VANETs: a survey, challenges and applications (Doctoral dissertation, INRIA Saclay; INRIA).

Dong, X., Lin, H., Tan, R., Iyer, R.K. and Kalbarczyk, Z., 2015, April. Software-defined networking for smart grid resilience: Opportunities and challenges. In Proceedings of the 1st ACM Workshop on Cyber-Physical System Security (pp. 61-68). ACM.

Ghali, C., Tsudik, G. and Uzun, E., 2014. Network-layer trust in named-data networking. ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, 44(5), pp.12-19.

Grassi, G., Pesavento, D., Pau, G., Vuyyuru, R., Wakikawa, R. and Zhang, L., 2014, April. VANET via named data networking. In Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS), 2014 IEEE Conference on (pp. 410-415). IEEE.

Haas, H., 2013. High-speed wireless networking using visible light. SPIE Newsroom, 10(2.1201304), p.004773.

Jawhar, I., Mohamed, N., Al-Jaroodi, J., Agrawal, D.P. and Zhang, S., 2017. Communication and networking of UAV-based systems: Classification and associated architectures. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 84, pp.93-108.

Katsaros, K., Chai, W., Wang, N., Pavlou, G., Bontius, H. and Paolone, M., 2014. Information-centric networking for machine-to-machine data delivery: a case study in smart grid applications. IEEE Network, 28(3), pp.58-64.

Kayastha, N., Niyato, D., Hossain, E. and Han, Z., 2014. Smart grid sensor data collection, communication, and networking: a tutorial. Wireless communications and mobile computing, 14(11), pp.1055-1087.

Li, J., Zhou, Y. and Lamont, L., 2013, December. Communication architectures and protocols for networking unmanned aerial vehicles. In Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps), 2013 IEEE (pp. 1415-1420). IEEE.

Nunes, B.A.A., Mendonca, M., Nguyen, X.N., Obraczka, K. and Turletti, T., 2014. A survey of software-defined networking: Past, present, and future of programmable networks. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 16(3), pp.1617-1634.

Puthal, D., Nepal, S., Ranjan, R. and Chen, J., 2016. Threats to networking cloud and edge datacenters in the internet of things. IEEE Cloud Computing, 3(3), pp.64-71.

Sakano, T., Fadlullah, Z.M., Ngo, T., Nishiyama, H., Nakazawa, M., Adachi, F., Kato, N., Takahara, A., Kumagai, T., Kasahara, H. and Kurihara, S., 2013. Disaster-resilient networking: a new vision based on movable and deployable resource units. IEEE Network, 27(4), pp.40-46.

Saxena, D., Raychoudhury, V., Suri, N., Becker, C. and Cao, J., 2016. Named data networking: a survey. Computer Science Review, 19, pp.15-55.

Shang, W., Bannis, A., Liang, T., Wang, Z., Yu, Y., Afanasyev, A., Thompson, J., Burke, J., Zhang, B. and Zhang, L., 2016, April. Named data networking of things. In Internet-of-Things Design and Implementation (IoTDI), 2016 IEEE First International Conference on (pp. 117-128). IEEE.

Shang, W., Yu, Y., Droms, R. and Zhang, L., 2016. Challenges in IoT networking via TCP/IP architecture. Technical Report NDN-0038. NDN Project.

Zhang, L., Afanasyev, A., Burke, J., Jacobson, V., Crowley, P., Papadopoulos, C., Wang, L. and Zhang, B., 2014. Named data networking. ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, 44(3), pp.66-73.

Zhao, Y., He, R., Chen, H., Zhang, J., Ji, Y., Zheng, H., Lin, Y. and Wang, X., 2014. Experimental performance evaluation of software defined networking (SDN) based data communication networks for large scale flexi-grid optical networks. Optics express, 22(8), pp.9538-9547.