Network Design

A brief recap of switches, hubs and routers can be found at Routers, Switches and Hubs, and a lengthier and more complete one at http://www2.edc.org/cope/networkprimer/primch5.pdf.

The objective of today's assignment is to solve a real life problem and design a network. Using the knowledge that you acquired over the past lessons, for each of the two cases below you should:

a) Draw a diagram that depicts the schematics of the network, including images of the various components (hubs, switches, etc.) that you can easily obtain from the Internet.
b) Write a rationale for the design decisions that were made, explaining teh reasons for them in each case.

Bear in mind, when making your design decisions, the costs of all components involved, remember that routers are more expensive than switches and that these are more expensive than hubs. Also include, whenever necessary, proxy servers and firewalls. The assignment should be completed by the end of Friday without exception.

1) A school has two small campuses that operate at different physical locations, 10 km apart. The North campus has a computer lab with 9 workstations and a printer that are connected via a network, and 4 administrative computers and two printers that are networked to each other. A file server and colour printer are accessed by all computers in this campus, which are also connected to the Internet by means of a dedicated cablemodem. The South campus has two computer labs with 6 and 8 computers respectively, plus 5 other computers that are used for teaching and administrative purposes. There is one file server and network printer that must be accessed by all computers in the network. The North Campus will access the Internet via a dedicated cablemodem. Both campuses must be linked.


2) A multinational company has branches in Argentina and the US. The Argentina branch has 8 networked computers that are used to handle customer requests and post-sale service, whereas the US office deals with sales and production through 12 computers. Each branch has two network printers and a file server, and they must be connected to each other. Design a network that satisfies the requirements and explain which hardware and/or software solutions you need to adopt.