POLYTECHNIC OF NAMIBIA

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS AND NETWORKS

PROJECT PROPOSAL OPTIMIZING THE CITY OF WINDHOEK LOCAL AREA NETWORK

PROPOSAL PRESENTED FOR THE RESEARCH PROJECT FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (HONOURS) AT THE POLYTECHNIC OF NAMIBIA

Presented by: .Paulus A Tshiningayamwe,.200409051.. Supervisor: Isaac Nhamu.. Proposal Submitted: .(20 May 2011) Project Period: .(11 Jully 2011) to (21 October 2011)

METADATA TITLE: Optimizing The City of Windhoek Local Area Network CREATOR: Paulus A Tshiningayamwe CO-CREATOR: SUPERVISOR: Isaac Nhamu INSTITUTION: Polytechnic of Namibia DEPARTMENT: Computer systems & Networks DEGREE B. IT (Honours) in: Computer Networking KEYWORDS: Optimization, LAN, QoS, VLAN SUBJECT: Research Methodology METHODOLOGY: Case Study approach STATUS: Proposal SITE: Polytechnic of Namibia DOCUMENT DATE: 20 May 2011 SPONSOR: City Of Windhoek

DECLARATION

I, Paulus A Tshiningayamwe born on the .(9th May 1985)...at (Elim, Omusati region, Namibia). hereby declare that the work contained in the proposal for my B-IT. Honours project, entitle: Optimizing The City of Windhoek Local Area Network., is my own original work and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it at any university or other higher education institution for the award of a degree.

Signature: _____________________________ Date: _____________________

SIGNATURE OF THE SUPERVISOR I, _____________________________, herewith declare that I accept this proposal for my supervision Signature: _____________________________ Date: _____________________

(1) Abstract

In an organization slow performance is one of the most irritating problems on a LAN. Users are mostly concern about the speed or transfer rate. Most businesses nowadays automate their business activities with different applications and data stores in order to optimize revenues and profits. So, performance of a business is directly dependent on the efficiency of data access and processing. It is therefore a need for businesses to seek different approaches on network optimizing techniques to meet the high demand of bandwidth on their organizational networks. Traditionally organizations are known to upgrade their LAN infrastructure by buying new devices or redesigning their networks to keep up with new technologies and accommodate bandwidth intensive applications. In this paper we will study the City of Windhoek local area network (LAN) using appropriate tools to identify bottlenecks so that corrective measures can be taken. Network performance results will be presented at the end, to compare performance before and after the optimization.

(2) Introduction and Background

The City of Windhoek Local Area Network connects different buildings throughout the city with fibre links. All backbones run over fiber and horizontalwiring on cat 5e.The network comprise of one routing switch (catalyst 6500) on which 14 VLANs have been configured, and about 80 layer 2 switches (catalyst 2960). Ports and interface speed range between 100 and 1000 mbs. Unlike other LANs, quality of service has not been configured and both data & voice traffic runs over the same network. Users often complain of network speed as their PCs tend to be slow when accessing files and other network resources. Telephone conversations are also not clear over IP phones and users get frustrated on that. Several attempts were made to tackle this problem, but not much improvement was experience. Unfortunately bandwidth problem on TCP/IP is not just addressed by a single bottleneck. Performance losses can be influence by a combination of several overheads between the CPU, memory, and network interface controllers (Binkert, Saidi & Reinhardt 2006).

Many researches (Cai, Lu & Wang, 2003), (Yang & Vaidya, 2002) on network optimization have been reported, and bandwidth optimization techniques have been well studied, however most researches focus on wide area networks. In this paper we focus on LAN optimization without the need of using bandwidth optimization software. We are mostly interested in studying a poorly designed LAN and propose a strategy on improving it, so that users can experience high bandwidth.

(3) Hypothesis
Identifying problems and taking corrective measures will optimize the City of Windhoeks LAN and increase productivity.

(4) Aims and Objectives

Identify bottlenecks on the LAN Analyze traffic flowing on the LAN: By making use of packet sniffers and analyzers to determine protocols flowing on the network.

Segment the LAN: Configure VLANs to minimize collision and broadcast domains. Configure and implement quality of service Configure Access Control Lists: To secure and minimize traffic flow on the LAN Install Network management software: To monitor network usage and break down bandwidth usage by protocol or users

(5) Limitations
Doing research on production network is not an easy task as it involves a lot of risks and does not give you enough power or control over the network. A lot of factors have to be considered before engaging in such a research and one has to consider the following: Time Access to resources and information Funds Background knowledge

Considering the above mentioned factors, this research will be feasible as it can be complete in 3 4 months. My position as a Network infrastructure specialist at the City of

Windhoek also makes it easier for us to do research of this type as we have access to the City of Windhoek network infrastructure. With our technical expertise in computer networking and background knowledge on this organizations network, It gives us more advantages on carrying out this research. The city of Windhoek has also allocated funds should there be a need to buy new devices or do network upgrades. Network management and monitoring tools like Cisco Works and Solar winds are already available, eliminating the need of buying or looking for new traffic management software.

(6) Expected outcomes

At the end of this research we expect to list all possible bottlenecks hindering the City of Windhoeks LAN and present an optimization solution on this. We are also positive on the outcomes of the solution we are going to provide and therefor expect LAN performance to improve. So business productivity will increase as users experience the pleasure of the LAN at its optimal.

(7) Benefit
This research paper will serve as a guideline for network administrators intending to boost bandwidth on their LANs. Upon completion of this research, the City of Windhoeks LAN will provide elements of convenience in terms of: Better Communication: Allows video conferencing and clear conversation on VoIP telephone Resource and file sharing: Sharing of resources and file will be much more efficient on higher bandwidth network

Cost reduction: According to Frank Owen (2005), Most people find that a high speed connection also saves them money in the long term. Using a faster connection may also reduce the problems or normal pitfalls people associate with conducting business.

Increase in business productivity: In overall, high speed LAN creates a pleasant working environment that accelerates business activities because of convenient communication, quick access to information, systems and resources.

(8) Methodology Case Study: City of Windhoek Local Area Network An in-depth investigation of the City of Windhoek LAN is to be done, to explore and identify underlying problems. The following tasks will be done for collecting data and information required: Obtain current LAN performance results (speed, latency and throughput). Use network management tools Measuring time taken to copy a specific file size

Monitor LAN traffic

Use packet analyzers to identify traffic and protocols on the LAN

Study the LAN setup: This can be done by acquiring City of Windhoeks network diagrams, configuration files and settings of network devices. Our main interest will therefore be focusing on the following: Switches used and their configuration Other nodes on the network as well as their configurations and settings Ethernet port speed and duplex Connection media type Servers (disks, CPU and memory)

Once the above mentioned tasks have been completed, the data collected will be analyzed and corrective measures will be taken.

(9) Work plan OBJECTIVES ACTION STEPS TIMELINE OR SCHEDULED COMPLETION DATE 11 July 2011 15 July 2011

Study the City Of Windhoek Acquire documentation of local area network Requirement specification Data collection the current network infrastructure Identify and collect all required resources Use packet sniffers and network analyzers to Analyze Data determine traffic type Analyze the data collected and recommend corrective Design Document Network Configuration

18 July 2011 20 July 2011 25 July 2011 1 August 2011 2 August 2011 12 August 2011

measures Documentation of logical and 15 August 2011 31 August physical design Configure Network as proposed in the Design document Monitor performance with 2011 1 September 2011 16 September 2011 19 September 2011 28

Evaluation Report writing

network management tools September 2011 Writing the final report of the 30 September 2011 21 project October 2011

(9) (Risk/ feasibility analysis and Ethical considerations) The ethical issue that needs to be considered in this research is breach of confidentiality as network analyzers tend to reveal all data including passwords on the network. This is

not to be a major problem as network infrastructure specialists are already in that capacity of assigning user passwords and have access to users folders network folders. Another ethical conflict that could be violated is informed consent. It is good practice to inform users about activities or operation being carried out on the network in case there will be down time. Informing users helps as they will be prepared for any down time to avoid data loss or corrupting files. On the other hand users will be worried and in fear at the same time as they are not sure of what the results could be.

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(Resources needed) Laptop computer EtherTrace (free tool available online used to infer layer 2 topology) Cisco works (a network management software used to monitor performance on cisco devices and discover network nodes)

Solar winds (another network management software that can monitor realtime traffic and has more other network utility tools) Network analyzers and packet sniffers to identify protocols and other traffic on the network (example, wireshark, ethereal)

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(Preliminary Literature Review)

Network capacity and performance is traditionally increased by grouping nodes into multiple segments using switches to interconnect segments, (Choi, 1996). Switches forward packets between segments if the communicating nodes reside on separate segments. Traffic sourced and destined on the same switch does not interfere with traffic on other segments, thus minimizing traffic collision on the LAN. Another easier straightforward method to reduce networking overheard is by the use of servers with integrated NICs on the CPU die (Binkert, 2006). Binkert also advised system designers to reduce the use of file server CPU service demand because they create network bottlenecks. According to Sung et al. (2008) network administrators face challenges as they need to secure their networks and meet performance requirements. Such challenges include

setting up and configuring virtual local area networks (VLANs). A VLAN simply groups users in a logical subnet based on their roles or functions in an organization regardless of their physical location (Tariq et al., 2009). A study by Sung et al. (2008) shows that through systematic VLAN design, bandwidth can be boosted, as broadcast and data traffic is reduced by over 24% and 55%, respectively. When VLANs are properly configured, each VLAN creates its own broadcast domain minimizing broadcast traffic on the entire network. Tariq et al. (2009) used a technique called VLAN-induced sharing on a LAN by designing and implementing a tool called EtherTrace. This tool is used in a VLAN environment to discover the layer 2 topology for corresponding set of IP hosts. EtherTrace proved to help LAN design planning and improve performance as it can detect bad roots and reveal links and nodes that are not part of the spanning tree. A similar study on Local Area Network optimization was done by Choi in 1996. He described the approach using genetic algorithm and genetic programming. The approach has shown good performance results on the 3 test cases used, even though an investigation is still to be done to integrate it into a live LAN for realistic results (Choi, 1996). Another method used in network optimization is the implementation of quality of service (QoS). QoS is a set of technologies for managing data traffic that allows you to measure bandwidth and prioritize network traffic. Ma et al. (2009) described QoS as a broad measurement of the concept of service quality. In most cases QoS is applied on voice and video application to prioritize this traffic and control the impact of latency. More researches based on QoS were done recently to improve on network stability and performance. Vandermeulen and Vermeulen (2000) designed and implemented a QoS management architecture which handles QoS form both the network and users perceptive. The architecture allows users to specify their own QoS requirements and then matched on the network to create an optimal QoS equilibrium.

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References

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for High-Bandwidth TCP/IP. ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News, 34(5). Cai, Z., Lu, M., and Wang, X. (2003). Distributed Initialization Algorithms for

Single-Hop Ad Hoc Networks with Minislotted CarrierSensing. IEEE Trans. Parallel and Distributed Systems, 14 (5), 512-528.

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Choi, A. (1996). Optimizing Local Area Networks Using Genetic Algorithms.

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Design of Enterprise Networks. CoNEXT '08 Proceedings of the 2008 ACM CoNEXT Conference. Article No:22. Retrieved in May16, 2011, from the ACM Digital Library.

Tariq, M.B., Mansy, A., Feamster, N., and Ammar, M. (2009). Characterizing

VLAN-Induced Sharing in a Campus Network. IMC 09Proceedings of the 9th ACM SIGCOMM conference on Internet measurement conference. 116-121. Retrieved in May 11, 2011, from the ACM Digital Library.

Vandermeulen, F., Vermeulen, B., Demeester, P.,Steegmans, F., and Vermeulen,

S. (2000). An End to End QoS Discovery Architecture Embedded in a TINA based Multimedia Platform. Computers and Communications, 2000. Proceedings. ISCC 2000. Fifth IEEE Symposuim on. 320. Retrieved in April 12, 2011 from IEEE Eplore Digital Library.

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