CSC00240 - Data Communications and Networks - Network Design for a Modern High School
Background:
A private high school is located in 3 adjacent two-story buildings. Each building is approximately 50 metres long and 15 metres wide. They are set about 40 metres apart. The school needs your expertise to upgrade their existing network. Their current network is old and will need to be replaced. The principal has asked for a "high school of the future, using the latest technologies with a network which can accommodate the load now and for another five years".
The present high school has 500 students with only two computer labs each with 20 computers and 1 laser printer. There are a further 20 computers in the Library as well as another laser printer. The computer labs and Library computers have recently been upgraded to meet sufficiently the needs of the students. Staff room has 10 old desktop computers. The network was installed five years ago in 2011. Network operating system is Windows Server 2008. The network is simple hub/switch. The computers labs are not able to connect to other computer labs. Students cannot log in using their laptops. There is no wireless.
The new high school will have all teachers issued with Laptops/iPads and all the desktop computers have been removed from the Staff Room. There will be three computer labs each with 30 computers.
One building will have computer lab for multimedia students, the second building will have Programmers and the other building the Business students. The teachers and students each form communities of users with different needs and loads on the network. This understanding of communities of users is a key part of your assignment.
This school also needs to connect with a WAN of other modern schools. These other private high schools are located approximately 200km from this private high school. They need to be linked to the existing high school network formed by these other schools. This is a case for understanding distance remote situations for WAN.
Important objectives of the Network:
The two main objectives for the proposed solution are:
- A modern network for the school and
- To ensure that these schools have videoconferencing between them
The network is proposed to achieve the above objectives considering the school's following business and technical goals.
Business goals:
- Improved communications, wireless, videoconferencing, etc.
- Spare no expense,
- Protect school information,
- The classroom of the future will double enrolments,
- Be excellent in technology.
Technical goals:
- The current network, computer labs, and library are upgraded to a modern network (campus design) to meet student and teacher needs,
- Scalability - remember they plan to double in size,
- Availability - Wireless network access is available in all classrooms as well as some outdoor areas for teachers and students,
- Students have access to study resources from school and home (different servers),
- Performance - network performance must be high,
- Reliability - no single point of failure,
- Security - protection of school information and other IT assets,
- Multimedia classrooms for the excellence classes.
Part 2
For part 2 report, you are required to design a recommended network based on the findings of PART 1 on the following:
- Analyse user network requirements
- Describe and analyse the current network
What you need to do
You are required to design the network you would recommend and how it would be configured. Remember the goal of building a new network is that it will support the schools needs for the next five years. Your recommendations are to be submitted as a formal report containing your analysis of the present situation (i.e., PART 1), and your recommended network solution.
As PART 2 of your report, you are required to:
i. Suggest a type of network architecture that is suitable for the organisation. You will need to identify all the circuits (cabling), network hardware necessary to build the network(s) you are proposing and to justify your choice, i.e., you will need to explain the function of the hardware and network choice in your solution.
ii. Explain both logical and physical network diagrams for the proposed network.
iii. Draw compressive physical network(s) diagram that shows how you connect the hardware you have chosen in (i). It will be based on the layout of your high school presented in PART 1 showing where your network devices are located.
iv. Estimate the cost of implementing the network.
As part of your report, you are required to write an executive summary explaining why your design meets the business and technical goals. Presentation and referencing are important.
Remember that it is a school and access to the internet will need to be controlled and some sites blocked. Your report must include explanations justifying the design decisions you have made.
Attachment:- Report Template.rar