develop a wiring plan for an Ethernet extended star topology LAN and fully document it.
Specification
Your company has been asked to design a new network for a company. The company want you to develop a wiring plan for an Ethernet extended star topology LAN and fully document it.
To complete this exercise you will need to be familiar with TIA/EIA-568 and TIA/EIA-569 standards.
The descriiption of the area to be networked is as follows:
The building has four floors but the company only occupies the third floor.
The dimensions of the floor area is 40 m. x 37 m.
The building has only a single earth ground.
All rooms are covered with ceramic tiles, unless otherwise specified.
A large walk-in cupboard has been allocated for the Wiring Closet. This is 3m by 2m and is located on an outside wall. The door opens out of the room and can be secured with a lock. The light switch is located inside the door and to the right upon entering. There is no dropped ceiling in this room. The room has florescent lighting and there are two electrical outlets in the room.
The smaller offices require (as a minimum) 2 drops in each room, the larger offices require (as a minimum) 4 drops in each room, the reception area requires 2 drops (as a minimum) and the conference room requires (as a minimum) 6 drops. You will also need to make provision for the copy area, as the machine has the capability to email scanned documents to users’ email accounts. You will also need to allow for future expansion, as the company is in negotiations to buy more square footage in the same building.
Using the above descriiption of the building and the schematic provided at the end of this document, you are required to provide a plan to network all the computing devices in an Ethernet extended star topology. Generate both a logical and a physical topology to use, following the step-by-step guide below. State any assumptions that you make.
Step 1. Layer 1 Structured Cabling
A. Physical Topology
Produce a design for the network showing all the details of the physical cabling and the wiring closet (clearly labelled).
Location of the MDF and HCCs.
Location of any backbone cabling runs.
Details of the type of networking media to be used for the horizontal and backbone cabling.
B. Logical Topology
The logical diagram is the network topology model without all the detail of the exact installation paths of the cabling and includes the following elements:
Specify the location and identification of the MDF wiring closet.
Document the type and quantity of cabling used to interconnect the equipment with the MDF.
Document how many spare cables are available for increasing the bandwidth between the wiring closets. For example, if the vertical cabling between IDF 1 and the MDF is running at 80% utilization, two additional pairs could be used to double the capacity.
Provide detailed documentation of all cable runs terminated at the HCC.
In the report you should also include: –
Your evaluation of the location of the MDF – its suitability and any changes required.
A summary of the total lengths of the various types of cables that will be required to complete your design. This is to facilitate costing at a future time, should your design be accepted by the company.
Step 2. Develop a Layer 2 LAN topology
Layer 2 devices are required to for the design. A switch is a Layer 2 device and may be referred to as a multi-port bridge. Add switches as necessary to reduce congestion and collision domain size.
Deliverables
State the location of all switches and briefly discuss how they will be interconnected.
Include another logical diagram showing all the Layer 2 devices, clearly indicating the location of each.
Step 3. Develop a Layer 3 topology
The LAN’s link to WANs and to the Internet must also be considered. Layer 3 is where routing is implemented. Routers will impose logical structure on the network you are designing. They can also be used for segmentation. Routers break up both collision and broadcast domains.
Deliverables
Show how the Layer 2 topology can be enhanced with the use of routers. State where any routers used will be located.
Include a further logical diagram of both the Layer 3 and 2 devices.
Step 4. IP Addressing
Deliverable
Briefly indicate a plan for using sub-netting to give the network a more logical structure. You have available the Class C addresses – 192.60.22.0. Develop a subnet solution for this network based on variable length subnet masks. Assume that that there are two separate departments (three offices in each). There is also a separate subnet for the reception and the conference room. There is a server for each department and two servers that are for general use (e.g. email and Web servers). Don’t forget to allocate IP addresses to any routers.
Deliverables
You are required to produce a complete design for a network as described above. This should take the form of a report for the company’s Network Administrator. You need to develop a wiring plan (both logical and physical topology) for an Ethernet extended star topology LAN, chose relevant networking equipment to make the network function and consider how Layer 3 subnetting can be implemented to improve the network design. Remember – you are trying to “sell” your design and win the contract.
