Instructions
Write 1 thread of at least 250 words. You must support your assertions with at least 1 citation in current APA format. Acceptable sources include Cisco material, the Bible, and scholarly journals. You must also reply to the 2 threads below. Each reply must be at least 100 words.
Topic: Hierarchal Topology
Question/Prompt: At your workplace or school, research to determine 1–5 network devices in your hierarchal model. Create a simple network topology using Packet Tracer software. Place 1–5 devices at the appropriate levels of the Cisco three-layer hierarchical model design. The model must include:
A labeled hierarchical model ( Access layer, distribution layer, and core layer);
Labeled Type, vendor, and model of the devices (ie. Cisco 2911 series router) ; and
1 Simulated cloud, 1 PC per subnet to represent a subnet of devices.
If you are unable to do research at your workplace or school, or you do not have one to research, then create your own hierarchical model. Share your .pka in the Discussion Board Forum. Do you agree with the way the network is designed? If so, explain why. If not, state 1 way to improve the design and why you would make improvements.
Replies(100 words each)
Thread 1 Reply
Signal flow
From my understanding we are only a fraction of the pie. We do not have full access of the network we fall under. The hierarchy can be related to how the infantry is broken down to fire teams of 4. Yet in an a platoon theres about 100 people which means theres about 20 fire teams, creating 20 fire team leaders reporting to the Platoon Sgt who then reports to the Platoon Commander and then he passes it to the Company Commander etc. The purpose of having multiple bosses helps to not overload the main boss with meaningless questions or information not protaining to them. The way our network is design is to mitigate unnecessary mistakes made on the network, only affecting us at our level not disrupting the entire network enterprise. It also brings a sense of organization, structure, and management. If anyone has the proper (AAA) Authorization, Authentication, and Access to be in our domain to can be part of all broadcasting that may be informative to them. Also file sharing and the access to the share drive on lower networks can help not overload the pipeline to the higher echelon of the network. If you don’t have any business with management or the boss then just avoid it, communicate between those at your level and later with the proper authorities your message Will make it to Mr.CEO. The Hierarchical Model we use in the military could improve if there was a way to communicate with everyone that shares your Military Occupational Specialty, is the only improvement I would try to implement
Thread 2 Reply
Importance of Redundancy
Since I was not able to examine a network at school or work, I went to a small business owned by a family member to see what kind of setup they had. It turned out that only three employees worked there, so they only had a very simple point-to-point architecture that consisted of a modem, a router, and a switch (attached packet- “Office Hierarchy”). Because of the limited budget and needs, I believe this basic setup fulfilled their needs adequately. However, one of the downsides of this setup is that each device is a single point of failure. A key factor of network stability is implementing redundancy (Yeh & Fiondella, 2017). There is no device redundancy on this network. As such, I decided I would make a second diagram that implemented redundancy (“Three Tier Hierarchy”), even though realistically it would not be possible to implement in the business I examined. Another benefit that this setup provides is additional scalability if the company were to hire more employees. In its current state, this company only has one small switch, meaning the amount of traffic that can flow through is extremely limited, and it would be unwise to try to add a lot more users to this network. The high-capacity switches used in the “Three Tier” diagram would allow more users to easily connect in. Another way to identify that the smaller network is not scalable is not only to see if its hardware exceeds its userbase, but also to ask: If I were to expand my company, would I need to raze my entire network design and start over? In this case, the answer is yes—a significant size increase would mean that a fully different scalable topology, such as a virtual bus, would need to be created. The business could not function with its current topology. In conclusion, because the business has not grown in size for fifty years and is not planning to, I see no need for them to change anything; however, I would advise them to place a high priority on keeping their security up-to-date because of the vulnerability of the point-to-point network.
