Network Design Project: IP Network Design, Hardware Requirements And Configuration Details

Project functional requirements

In this project, we are required to design a network for a business organisation. The users of the network will be five departments encompassing of human resource, finance, sales, engineering and administration department. We are going to use DHCP server to manage our IP addresses for client personal computers except the few computers and specific devices such as Wireless Access Points. In addition, some IP addresses will be reserved for manual assignment.

Project functional requirements

A functional project requirement denotes to what a project is destined to do. For our network design project, the following are some of our functional requirements.

1. Our network will be subnetted into five subnets. Each subnet will be representing a department. Subnets are necessary in our network. The subnets will be under each VLAN. Virtual local area networks are necessary for ease management of the network and achievement of security requirements.
2. Security requirements: the network to be developed should allow human resource, administration and finance departments to have full access to network infrastructure resources. For sales and engineering department, the two departments should have no access to finance department resources but should have access to print and web access.
3. DHCP server requirements: the DHCP server should be configured to handle management of IP addressing to client computers [1].

Project non-functional requirements

Project non-functional requirements refers to the measure of how well or behaviour of a system should be. Our network design to be designed will have the following non-functional requirements.

1. Performance: performance measures the throughput of a system. Our network’s design should perform highly without straining the resources.
2. Scalability: the network being designed should allow future expansion without disrupting business activities. For instance, the network should allow addition of another department with new VLAN together with hardware resources without interfering with operations of the current network processes.
3. Reliability: the network to be designed network ought to be reliable. That is to say, the network should have very minimal down times. Just in case there is a failure, the network should not take long to come to live.

Network design (User Centric Approach)

Since we are designing a network for a business setting, the designed network should be business oriented. Performance and reliability should be highly be considered. The network should be kept simple and clear without maximum output. The router and switch configurations should be clearly simple for the business’ IT support team to understand the network with ease [2].

IP addressing

Device name	IP address	Sub netmask
Router	10.10.2.1	255.255.255.0
DHCP SERVER	10.10.3.4	255.255.255.0
HR CLIENT PC	10.10.2.2	255.255.255.0
AP 1	10.10.3.5	255.255.255.0
AP 2	10.10.3.3	255.255.255.0
SALES DEP CLIENT PC	10.10.4.2	255.255.255.0
ENGINEERING CLIENT PC	10.10.6.2	255.255.255.0
FINANCE	10.10.5.2	255.255.255.0
ADMIN	10.10.3.2	255.255.255.0

Hardware requirements

In our network design, we will need the following hardware materials to accomplish the network design.

Item name	Features	How much required	Justification	Cost in US Dollar
Firewall	Model: Cyber roam	One	Cyber roam firewall will be used for filtering traffic to and from the network	2120.54
Router	Interface Card Slots: 4. Compact Flash: 64 MB Fixed USB 1.1 Ports : 2 Network slot module : 1 DRAM: 512 MB	One	Router will be used to implement inter-vlan routing	1551
Server	Processor speed:3.6 GHz Processor core: 28 Processors number: 2 Processor family: Intel Memory slots: 20 DIMM Cache level: L3 38.50 Maximum Memory: 2TB, 128 GB DDR# RAM Network controller: HPE 1 GB 321i 4 adapter-ports	1	Server will be used to host DHCP services	21544
Wireless router	Model: Cisco router 3500 DRAM : 512 MB LAN interface: 4 fast Ethernet ports. WAN interface: 1 gigabit Ethernet 0 and 1 Serial interfaces Auxiliary port: RJ 45 Single Port Series. Flash memory: 256 MB	Two	WAP will support handheld devices	55*2=130
Switch	Flash memory: 64 MB RJ 45 ports: 48 DRAM: 128 MB Model: Cisco Switch 2900 series	2	The switches will be extending our network.	2481*2=4962

Network topology diagram

Router configuration

Router#confi ter

Router(config)#inter fa0/0

Router(config-if)#no shu

Router(config-if)#inter fa0/0.2

Router(config-subif)#ip address 10.10.2.1 255.255.255.0

Router(config-subif)#encapsulation dot1q 2

Router(config-subif)#inter fa0/0.3

Router(config-subif)#ip address 10.10.3.1 255.255.255.0

Router(config-subif)#encapsulation dot1q 3

Router(config-subif)#inter fa0/0.4

Router(config-subif)#ip address 10.10.4.1 255.255.255.0

Router(config-subif)#encapsulation dot1q 3

Router(config-subif)#no encapsulation dot1q 3

Router(config-subif)#encapsulation dot1q 4

Router(config-subif)#inter fa0/0.5

Router(config-subif)#ip address 10.10.5.1 255.255.255.0

Router(config-subif)#encapsulation dot1q 5

Router(config-subif)#inter fa0/0.6

Router(config-subif)#encapsulation dot1q 6

Router(config-subif)#ip address 10.10.6.1 255.255.255.0

Router(config-subif)#end

Router#copy run start

 [4]

Switch 1 configuration

Switch>ena

Switch#conf ter

Switch(config)#inter f0/1

Switch(config-if)#switchport mode tr

Switch(config-if)#switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q

Switch(config-if)#switchport trunk allowed vlan al

Switch(config-if)#inter range f0/2-6

Switch(config-if-range)#switchport mode access

Switch(config-if-range)#inter fa0/2

Switch(config-if)#switchport access vlan 4

% Access VLAN does not exist. Creating vlan 4

Switch(config-if)#inter fa0/3

Switch(config-if)#switchport access vl 5

% Access VLAN does not exist. Creating vlan 5

Switch(config-if)#inter fa0/4

Switch(config-if)#switchport access vl 2

% Access VLAN does not exist. Creating vlan 2

Switch(config-if)#inter fa0/5

Switch(config-if)#inter fa0/5

Switch(config-if)#switchport access vl 3

% Access VLAN does not exist. Creating vlan 3

Switch(config-if)#inter fa0/4

Switch(config-if)#no switchport access vl 2

Switch(config-if)#inter fa0/4

Switch(config-if)#switchport access vl 6

% Access VLAN does not exist. Creating vlan 6

Switch(config-if)#inter fa0/6

Switch(config-if)#switchport access vl 3

Switch(config-if)#end

Switch#copy running-config startup-config

Switch 2 configurations

Switch>ena

Switch#conf ter

Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.

Switch(config)#inter f0/1

Switch(config-if)#switchport mode trunk

Switch(config-if)#switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q ?

<cr>                   

Switch(config-if)#switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q

Switch(config-if)#switchport trunk allowed vlan all

Switch(config-if)#inter  f0/2

Switch(config-if)#switchport mode trunk

Switch(config-if)#switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q

Switch(config-if)#switchport trunk allowed vlan all

Switch(config-if)#inter rang f0/3-6

Switch(config-if-range)#switchport mode access

Switch(config-if-range)#inter f0/3

Switch(config-if)#switchport mode access

Switch(config-if)#switchport access vlan 2

Switch(config-if)#inter f0/4

Switch(config-if)#switchport access vlan 3

Switch(config-if)#inter f0/5

Switch(config-if)#switchport access vlan 3

Switch(config-if)#inter f0/6

Switch(config-if)#

Switch(config-if)#switchport access vlan 3

Switch(config-if)#end

Switch#cop run star

 [6]

Assigning IP address to client computer

C:>ipconfig /ip 10.10.2.2 255.255.255.0

C:>ipconfig /all

Checking ip address of a client pc

C:>ipconfig /all

[7], [8]

Access point configuration guidelines

The following step guidelines are used to configure our wireless router:

1. Connect a patch code to your computer and another end connect to the blue end of the cable.
2. Power the wireless router.
3. In the browser, type the default gateway IP address printed at the bottom of the wireless router.
4. Type in the default user name and passcode.
5. Click on “Quick setup”. Click Next
6. In the Wireless Network Name field, enter the SSID that suits administration requirements.
7. In the WPA2-PSK field, enter a standard password.
8. Click “Next”.
9. Click “Finish”. The device is ready for use.

Confirmation

In the confirmation area, we use ping the default gateway

DHCP server configuration

1. Hold windows key + R, type in the field dhcpmgmt.msc.
2. On the DHCP console window expand the domain name and access IPv4. Right click “New Scope”.
3. Click “Next”.
4. In the scope name area, name defines the scope and type the description. Click “Next”.
5. Assign start IP address and end IP address. Click “Next”.
6. Add the excluded range to prevent them from being leased.
7. Let the lease duration to be default. Click “Next”.
8. Click “Next” on the “Configure DHCP options” and finally “Yes”.
9. Add router IP address, click “Add”.
10. Type your domain name.
11. Click “Next”.
12. In the Active Scope click Next
13. Click “Finish”. DHCP server is ready for use.

Executive summary

With the network design we have done, the design can be handed over to the business’ IT team leader. Cisco hardware components are recommended during the purchase of the network design materials. We will be using windows 2012r operating system as our DHCP server.

The router is configured to with router on stick commands to enable InterVLAN routing technology. To achieved by creating virtual sub interfaces on the router physical interfaces. Encapsulation dotq1 is the enabled and the interfaces changed to trunk mode. Additionally, the router is configured with ACLs to achieve the security factor.

Switches are configured to have five VLANs. Each VLAN represents a department. The VLANs enables us to achieve the network security requirement as each department is logically grouped and the group can be blocked from accessing certain resources.

The DHCP server is used to manage the IP addressing issue. Client computers are issued with an IP address for a period of time then the address is renewed.

Systems security goal is achieved by the use of firewall and ACLs on the router. The access lists are used to block some departments from accessing certain department’s resources. The firewall monitors incoming and outgoing traffic.

  References

[1]	C. A. Ogaja, A Practical Guide to Project Design, Boca Raton: crc press, 2016.
[2]	S. Noble, Building Modern Networks, Birmingham: Packt Publishing Ltd, 2017.
[3]	T. Nguyen, Understanding TCP/IP Subnetting, EnCognitive.com., 2015.
[4]	J. Pyles, ‎. L. Carrell and ‎. Tittel, Guide to TCP/IP: IPv6 and IPv4, Boston: Cengage Learning, 2016.
[5]	W. Panek, ‎. Wentworth and ‎. Chellis, MCTS Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure Configuration Study Guide, Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2015 .
[6]	D. Rountree, Windows 2012 Server Network Security: Securing Your Windows Network Systems, Boston: Newnes, 2013.
[7]	R. Nobel, ‎. Ziliotto and ‎. Lovison, CCIE Wireless Exam (350-050) Quick Reference: CCIE Wirel Quick Ref ePub _1, Indianapolis: Cisco Press, 2012.
[8]	M. Duggan, Cisco CCIE Routing and Switching v5.0 Configuration and Troubleshooting, Indiana Polis: Cisco Press, 2014.
[9]	TP-Link, “How to Setup a TP-Link WiFi Router,” 23 September 2018.