Top Down Network Design Chapter 10, Design Scenario The WVCC case study in this
ID: 3762459 • Letter: T
Question
Top Down Network Design
Chapter 10, Design Scenario
The WVCC case study in this chapter left some design decisions to the reader. In particu- lar, the case study doesn’t mention actual product selections made by the network designers. Making these selections is your job. Read through the case study and answer the following questions.
Please answer:
WVCC’s IT department would like to deploy a solution for managing the wireless
network. The solution should allow the network administrators to remotely manage
the access points and discover any rogue access points that students or faculty might
install without permission from the IT department. Either a hardware appliance or a
software application that runs on a shared server will meet the need. Do some
Internet research to find a wireless management product that will meet WVCC’s
needs, and write two or three paragraphs about the product and why you chose it.
Explanation / Answer
Wandering Valley Community College (WVCC) is a small college in the western United States that is attended by about 600 full- and part-time students. The students do not live on campus. Approximately 50 professors teach courses in the fields of arts and humanities, business, social sciences, mathematics, computer science, the physical sciences, and health sciences. Many of the professors also have other jobs in the business community, and only about half of them have an office on campus. Approximately 25 administration personnel handle admissions, student records, and other operational functions. Enrollment at WVCC has doubled in the past few years. The faculty and administration staff has also doubled in size, with the exception of the IT department, which is still quite small. The IT department consists of one manager, one server administrator, two network administrators, and two part-time student assistants. Because of the increase in enrollment and other factors covered in the next three sections, the current network has performance and reliability problems. The administration has told the IT department that both student and faculty complaints about the network have increased. Faculty members claim that, due to network problems, they cannot efficiently submit grades, maintain contact with colleagues at other colleges, or keep up with research. Students say they have handed in homework late due to network problems. The late submissions have impacted their grades. Despite the complaints about the network, faculty, staff, and student use of the network has doubled in the past few years. Wireless access has become a point of contention between the IT department and other departments. Students often place wireless access points in the Computing Center and the Math and Sciences building without permission from the IT department. The IT manager is concerned about network security and has assigned part-time students to roam the network to locate and remove unauthorized access points. The part-time students resent this task because in many instances the rogue access points were installed by peers and associates. Also, they think that wireless access should be allowed. Many students, faculty, and staff members agree. 2. Business Goals The college still wants to attract and retain more students. The college board of trustees believes that the best way to remain fiscally sound is to continue to increase enrollment and reduce attrition. The college administration and board of trustees identified the following business goals: Increase the enrollment from 600 to 1000 students in the next 3 years. Reduce the attrition rate from 30 to 15 percent in the next 3 years. Improve faculty efficiency and allow faculty to participate in more research projects with colleagues at other colleges. Improve student efficiency and eliminate problems with homework submission. Allow students to access the campus network and the Internet wirelessly using their notebook computers. Allow visitors to the campus to access the Internet wirelessly using their notebook computers. Protect the network from intruders. Spend a grant that the state government issued for upgrading the campus network. The money must be spent by the end of the fiscal year. 3. Technical Goals The IT department developed the following list of technical goals, based on research about the causes of network problems, which is covered in more detail in the “The Current Network at WVCC” section: Redesign the IP addressing scheme. Increase the bandwidth of the Internet connection to support new applications and the expanded use of current applications. Provide a secure, private wireless network for students to access the campus network and the Internet. Provide an open wireless network for visitors to the campus to access the Internet. Provide a network that offers a response time of approximately 1/10th of a second or less for interactive applications. Provide a campus network that is available approximately 99.90 percent of the time and offers an MTBF of 3000 hours (about 4 months) and an MTTR of 3 hours (with a low standard deviation from these average numbers). Provide security to protect the Internet connection and internal network from intruders. Use network management tools that can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the IT department. Provide a network that can scale to support future expanded usage of multimedia applications. 4. Network Applications Students, faculty, and staff use the WVCC network for the following purposes: Application 1, homework:Students use the network to write papers and other documents. They save their work to file servers in the Computing Center and print their work on printers in the Computing Center and other buildings. Application 2, email:Students, faculty, and administrative staff make extensive use of email. Application 3, web research:Students, faculty, and administrative staff use Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer to access information, participate in chat rooms, play games, and use other typical web services. Application 4, library card catalog:Students and faculty access the online card catalog. Application 5, weather modeling: Meteorology students and faculty participate in a project to model weather patterns in conjunction with other colleges and universities in the state. Application 6, telescope monitoring: Astronomy students and faculty continually download graphical images from a telescope located at the state university. Application 7, graphics upload: The Art department uploads large graphics files to an off-campus print shop that can print large-scale images on a high-speed laser printer. The print shop prints artwork that is file-transferred to the shop via the Internet. Application 8, distance learning: The Computer Science department participates in a distancelearning project with the state university. The state university lets WVCC students sign up to receive streaming video of a computer science lecture course that is offered at the state university. The students can also participate in a real-time “chat room” while attending the class. Application 9, college management system: The college administration personnel use the college management system to keep track of class registrations and student records.