LAN Design Case Study Sample Solution

Layer 1 Design
What LAN Technology is to be used?
According to Section 1 of requirements doc, Ethernet should be used. This makes sense, since Ethernet is the most widely used LAN technology so equipment should be relatively cheap and it should be easy to find somebody qualified to install the networking media. Also, there are no special requirements here that would be to the advantage of other technologies.

Where are the MDF and IDFs to be located?

The MDF is marked on the map it is in a room that is also the telephone POP (point-of-presence). Drawing a circle of radius 100m around the MDF shows (outer circle in the diagram above) that most areas of the school (all except porta-cabin and P.E. building) are within its catchment-area for copper cable if we could lay the cable in a direct line. As a rule of thumb, however, we should use a circle with radius of 50m (inner circle in the diagram above) to allow for indirect pathways requiring a longer run of cable to end points. However, since the wings appear to be separate buildings, as a rule we should put an IDF in each building. Another consideration is that since we are restricted to laying cable that runs between wings through already-installed ducting, we should assume that the ducting has a limited diameter - limiting the number of cable runs that we can put through it so that we are required to put an IDF in each wing, and one in each of the P.E. building and the double portable classroom. X marks the spot for each IDF on the maps below these are rooms that appear suitable for the purpose assuming they are not already in use.

What type of cable should be used for each run?

Since each wing is a physically separate building, and well assume that these buildings all have individual grounding points, it makes sense to use fibre to connect the IDFs back to the MDF. In fact, Section 1 of the requirements document specifies the use of multimode fibre-optic for vertical cabling anyway. This cable will be run at 1Gbps initially, and later on can be run at higher speeds (10Gbps, or possibly higher when the technology becomes available). Then Category 5e UTP should be used from an IDF out to each telecommunications outlet, tested for 1Gbps although lower speeds (10Mbps or 100Mbps) will probably be used initially.

How many runs of each type of cable are required?

Section 1 of the requirements document specifies that four runs of Category 5e UTP cable should go from an MDF/IDF to each classroom. One run is terminated at the teachers desk, the other three can then be used to connect students workstations. Regarding the fibre-optic cable, the number of fibres required will depend on the amount of data that must be carried back to the MDF from each IDF to be worked out below.

Layer 2 Design
What bandwidth is required over each cable run?
Firstly, from IDF to each classroom: The general requirements specify 10Mbps minimum to any host. This is easily achieved for the teachers machine, since this machine does not need to share bandwidth through its termination point with any other machine. For the 24 student machines, one way of providing the required bandwidth is to connect the machines in groups of eight to three 100-Mbps switches (e.g. 8-port switches), and then each switch can use one termination point. This takes care of current requirements, but does not plan enough for the future. We recommend one 10/100-Mbps 24-port switch, with a 1000Mbps uplink port. All student machines can connect to this and it in turn just requires one termination point connected back to a 1000Mbps port in the MDF/IDF. Each student machine has an average of 41.6 Mbps with this solution (Up to 1000Mbps dedicated going to the switch in the classroom, but 1000 / 24 = 41.6Mbps between that switch and the one in the IDF due to traffic aggregation), and more can be supplied in the future by buying more switches, connecting those to the two spare cable runs and moving some student machines over these. Further into the future, the switches can be replaced by 10-gigabit switches. Note that within each lab, we need long patch leads to go from the student PCs to the switches in the equipment cabinets. Secondly, from each IDF back to the MDF: Need to work out the total bandwidth requirement from each IDF back to the MDF and then what this translates to in terms of the number of optical fibres. In general, the bandwidth requirements for each class room can be worked out as follows: 10Mbps x 24 machines to satisfy student requirements, plus 10Mbps x 1 machine to satisfy the teachers machine requirement = 250Mbps bandwidth. Then, for each IDF depending on how many rooms it services: Location No. of Rooms IDF Wing 1 IDF Wing 2 East IDF Wing 3 East IDF Wing 4 West IDF Wing 4 East IDF Wing 5 West IDF Wing 5 East IDF P.E. Building IDF Portable Double Classroom B/W requirement 11 6 5 4 5 4 4 4 2 No. of 1Gbps Fibres 11x250 = 2750 6x250 = 1500 5x250 = 1250 4x250 = 1000 5x250 = 1250 4x250 = 1000 4x250 = 1000 4x250 = 1000 2x250 = 500 3 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 1

What Layer 1 & 2 equipment should be used, and where on the network should it be placed?
10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet cards be bought for every student and teacher machine, as a minimum. This will allow for up to 100-times growth in traffic per machine. We have specified wiring installation for 45 rooms that appear to be classrooms. However, Section 5 of the requirements says to allow for 250 student/curriculum computers and 75 teacher/administration computers that will actually be initially on the network. The 250 student computers suggests that no more than about 12 rooms will be fully computer equipped. The 75 teacher machines leads us to believe that every classroom will have a teacher machine. So we assume that 12 classroom switches will be enough, and need to buy NIC cards for 325 computers.

At this point, the question of whether to implement VLANs or not should be addressed. There is a requirement (in Sections 1 and 4) to have separate LAN for teachers/administrators and students. Physically separate LANs would require duplication of equipment (e.g. two switches Portable Double Classroom IDF) and therefore extra expense that would otherwise not be necessary. And in fact it isnt really necessary, since we can separate out the traffic and give the same level of security by implementing two VLANs (administration & curriculum) with membership based on port number or IP address. The next problem is that we dont know which 12 classrooms will actually be fully equipped. That probably doesnt affect how many switches we need, but it does affect how many vertical switch ports will be required. In the absence of any other information, well assume the classrooms to be fully equipped are divided out as follows: 8 in Wing 1 and 4 in Wing 3 East. Assuming we go ahead with implementing VLANs, these are the calculations for how many switches/switch ports we need: Location Each equipped classroom IDF Wing 1 IDF Wing 2 East IDF Wing 3 East IDF Wing 4 West IDF Wing 4 East IDF Wing 5 West IDF Wing 5 East IDF P.E. Building IDF Portable Classroom MDF Wing 3 West No. Horiz. Ports 24 8x2 + 3 = 19 6x1 = 6 4x2 + 1 = 9 4x1 = 4 5x1 = 5 4x1 = 4 4x1 = 4 4x1 = 4 2x1 = 2 12x1+5x1= 17 No. Vert. Ports 1 3 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 No. and Port-concentration of Switches 12 x 24 100BASE-TX-port & 2 1000BASE-TX-port switch 1 x 20 1000BASE-TX-port & 4 1000BASE-SX-port switch 1 x 20 1000BASE-TX-port & 4 1000BASE-SX-port switch 1 x 20 1000BASE-TX-port & 4 1000BASE-SX-port switch 1 x 20 1000BASE-TX-port & 4 1000BASE-SX-port switch 1 x 20 1000BASE-TX-port & 4 1000BASE-SX-port switch 1 x 20 1000BASE-TX-port & 4 1000BASE-SX-port switch 1 x 20 1000BASE-TX-port & 4 1000BASE-SX-port switch 1 x 20 1000BASE-TX-port & 4 1000BASE-SX-port switch 1 x 20 1000BASE-TX-port & 4 1000BASE-SX-port switch 1 x 20 1000BASE-TX-port & 4 1000BASE-SX-port switch

We also need a switch in the MDF to aggregate the vertical connections and to connect routers and enterprise servers i.e. a switch with at least 16 1000BASE-SX ports and at least 4 1000BASE-TX ports. Notes: Using fibre in the MDF to connect the switch supporting Wing 3 West to the aggregating switch although its not strictly necessary. Justification for over-specification of switch ports: extra TX ports allow for future connection of workgroup servers, extra FX ports allow for more bandwidth to be allocated on vertical connection; also limited by available equipment Reason for restricted choice of port-concentrations used based on configurations provided by Cisco Systems on http://www.cisco.com. Equipment from Cisco that satisfies the above requirements and supports VLANs: 24 100BASE-TX-port & 2 1000BASE-TX-port switch: Catalyst 2950T 24 (WS-C2950T-24) 20 1000BASE-TX-port & 4 1000BASE-SX-port switch: Catalyst 2960G-24TC (WS-C2960G-24TC-L) Switch chassis for MDF: Catalyst 4503 24-port TX module for above: WS-X4424-GB-RJ45 18-port Fibre-compatible module for above: WS-X4418-GB Fibre GBICs required for 18-port module: WS-G5484

Layer 3 Design
What are the requirements of the school with regard to routers?
Just one router is required this will route between the 2 VLANs, and also support access to the district network and so out to the Internet. This router will router TCP/IP and IPX/SPX traffic (according to the general requirements) and will have ACLs set to restrict traffic between administrative, curriculum and external networks. We recommend a Cisco 2821 router which has two 1000Base-TX Ethernet LAN ports and support for VLANs, also a WAN Interface Card.

Addressing
The TCP/IP addressing scheme is to be decided by the district office. Our recommendation would be to subnet the private class A address space (10.0.0.0) as follows: There is 1 district office, 1 service center and 34 schools. The schools require 2 subnets each (one for administration, one for curriculum), so a total of 70 (34x2 + 2 = 70) subnets required. The current maximum size of any subnet is 250 nodes, according to Section 5. To allow for expansion in the number of subnets and also in the number of nodes in each subnet, we recommend borrowing 8 bits this will allow up to 254 subnets eventually and up to 65534 nodes on each subnet. The subnet mask for this is: 255.255.0.0 Since were using the private address space, NAT will need to be implemented at the district office in order to support the Internet connection. According to the documentation, static IP addresses must be assigned to computers on the administrative VLAN, while computers on the curriculum VLAN should request their addresses from a DHCP server. We recommend that, as an exception, any servers located on the curriculum VLAN should also be assigned static IP addresses.

Server Placement
Within the school we need to have an administrative server, a library server, and application server and possibly some workgroup servers (section 3). The administrative, library and application servers will be located in the MDF. Any workgroup servers should be placed in the IDF closest to its clients. The administrative server should be placed on the administrative VLAN. The library server should probably be placed on the administrative VLAN, assuming it does not get much traffic from the curriculum computers. We recommend that the application server be multi-homed i.e. that it should have a connection to both the curriculum VLAN and the administrative VLAN because of the amount of traffic it will receive.

What will the network cost?

Horizontal cable installation cost estimate of 65 to 100 per patch point, including materials and labour, for a decent sized installation. For 208 patch points (rough count), thats a worst case price of: 20800. Vertical cable installation cost estimate of 130 to 200 per run, including materials and labour. For 12 runs, thats a worst case price of: 2400 Equipment costs (and assume we do configuration ourselves, saving labour costs) Unit NIC cards 325 x 10/100/1000BASE-TX Ethernet cards 20 Switches & accessories 12 x Catalyst 2950T 24 900 10 x Catalyst 2960G-24TC 1900 1 x Catalyst 4503 chassis + Power Supply 1300 1 x WS-X4424-GB-RJ45 2400 1 x WS-X4418-GB 5000 14 x WS-G5484 150 Router 1 x Cisco 2821 2500 1 x High Speed WAN Interface Card (NM-1HSSI) 2000 Switch/router prices found by searching Google Total Cost So Far Total 7500 10800 19000 1300 2400 5000 2100 2500 2000

84550