Sample MITS5003 Wireless Networks and Communication Assignment

MITS5003 Wireless Networks and Communication Assignment Sample

Task

The university's head of IT has recruited you as a third-party consultant to provide them with a wireless LAN solution for their network. The institution has little over 800 employees who work in a complex of seven buildings in an urban area. Employees routinely walk between buildings because they are all near enough together. Wireless technology is something that the management team wants to implement in their company's network. They've heard that, compared to the current leased line network, this type of network will save them money. They anticipate that increased mobility will result in a significant boost in production. Because the workforce moves from building to building, it appears to be a good idea to offer them with portable computer equipment and data. Figure 1 depicts the area covered by the university buildings. The assessment requires you to plan and design a wireless network for the university using any industry tool of your choice. Citation of sources is mandatory and must be in the IEEE style.

Solution

Introduction

With the rapid advancement of technology and smart devices, most organizations are enhancing their communication channels by implementing different tools and techniques. Healthcare, education, telecommunication, retails, and other industries are now implementing the ICT (Information Communication Technology) network architectures to enhance their communication system. In this task, an information communication architecture will be developed for an university. After analysing all the major requirements of the university, a wired and wireless network architecture will be developed in this paper. All the necessary networking components and devices will be identified in this report. In order to design the network design, MS Visio diagramming tool will be utilized. However, the network design will also be critically analysed in terms of different factors or usability by the university employees. Moreover, some major constraints and limitations of designed network will also be discussed in this report. Based on the university’s requirement, all the major networking components will be included into the network architecture. This network design must offer an advanced and speed communication network to the users.

Requirement analysis

In order to resolve disagreement or misunderstanding in requirements as needed by different individuals or groups of users, eliminate functionality creep, and document every step of the project creation process from beginning to end, requirements elicitation requires continuous communication with network administrators and consumer. Instead of seeking to shape consumer expectations to match the requirements, effort should be concentrated on making sure that the end product or service adheres to customer needs. In this task, all the major requirement of the university including functional and non-functional requirements have been identified [1]. The characteristics that the system must offer to its clients and end users are specified by the functional requirements. It outlines the functionality required for the system to operate. The characteristics of the technology for assignment help are the malfunctioning needs. They are made up of operational or resolution restrictions as well as outside variables like system dependability.

Functional requirements

Functional requirement for the network design can be categorized into different components including hardware, software, client device, connection media and other models. In this section, function requirements for the university has been illustrated. In order to design the network, a number of networking equipment will be required. In the below table, all the major functional requirements for network design have been illustrated.

Table 1: Hardware requirement

In the above table, all the major hardware requirements have been illustrated that could be utilized for the network design. On the other hand, some major software and protocol requirements have been identified in the below points:

• TCP and IP model that could give a standard layered internet architecture to the university [4].

• OSI model that gives raw data transmission and connection to network users.

• IP addressing approach must be adopted to provide network address to each devices and networking components.

• Windows 11 operating system must be installed into the workstations which will be accessed by the users of the university.

• Anti-malware application or programs should also be installed into each workstations to protect devices from being hacked or breached by the hackers [5].

• FTP is another vital protocol that need to be implemented by the network developers.

Therefore, a complete functional network requirement analysis need to be done before designing the network.

Non-functional requirements

There are several non-functional requirements are also associated with this project that need to be considered. These are such characteristics that helps to understand performance and reliability of the develop network design. In the below points, major non-functional requirements have been identified:

• Performance: Current network performance must be enhanced with better speed and function of the network. This will help to higher the productivity of workforce into the university.

• Usability: An advance and simple network architecture will be available to the users. A number of features and functions will be available to the users. Based on the system architecture, all the major changes into the system could be easily made by the users [6].

• Security: In order to protect data and information of the university, a secure data transmission protocol could be enabled by the users. The communication channel must be secured by using security protocols and anti-malware programs.

• Scalability: With increase in student size or university architecture, the network could be expanded with other networking components. Scalability is a major requirement of the designed network architecture.

• Reliability: The designed network must be reliable for each users of the university. During the peak hours, it must give a better communication channel to the users. This characteristic will give better networking experience to the users [7].

• Availability: Each feature of the network must be available to the users at any time. It can be defied with the request made and potential response acquired by the users.

Depending on the university infrastructure, the above functional and non-functional requirements will be fulfilled during the network design.

Network design

In this section, the network architecture design for university has been developed that includes a number of networking components. In the below figure, the network architecture design has been given. The network architecture design has been developed by using MS Visio diagramming tool. This network has been developed to fulfil all the major requirements of the university.

Figure 1: University network design
(Source: Author)

In the given figure, complete network architecture design for an university has been developed. All buildings of the university has been given with a wireless network facility. Different aspects of network architecture design has been considered during design development.

Critical Analysis

The network design task becomes critical if size of the institute or organization is larger. Depending on the IT infrastructure and industry requirement, some major actions need to be taken by the users. In order to achieve the business goal of the institute, all the possible challenges and issue must be considered and mitigated by the network engineers. Therefore, it is important to critically analyse the available network architecture after development and testing. In the developed network design, all the major considerations have been addressed for the university. Here, the star network topology has been adopted which gives a better networking facility to the users [8]. The gateway router has been installed into the main building and from gateway router other seven routers have been connected. For each building separate routers have been installed. In each building, network switches have been connected from the network router. In each building, wireless access point have been installed to provide remote networking facility.

This section includes how several sorts of needs can work together to produce the required information system, which will eventually make it easier to accomplish business objectives. The top-down technique, as shown in figure, is used in this presentation to build up the specifications beginning from the organisational objectives to the functional requirements stage, such as the necessary characteristics. With the help of wireless devices, users will be able to work from any location or building of the university. Different servers have been installed into the main building of the university. This will work as an IT support building of the campus. At the same time, firewall protection has also been given. It has been installed into the gateway router. Firewall helps to filter malicious data packets or viruses entering into the network [9]. If network applications or products are deployed without taking into account their properties and network needs, it's likely that business objectives won't be met. In this network design of contemporary educational services might offer video contact between its IT team and students in an effort to set itself apart from rival businesses. If the network administrator did not properly take into account the needs for videoconferencing as a network application, the programme is likely to fail to provide the end users with the intended experience.

Therefore, both the wired and wireless network design has been included into the network design. In order to enhance the network performance, network bandwidth could be increased by the service providers. On the other hand, high speed routers have been installed into the network which will also make the performance better. An internetworking facility has been introduced into the LAN design. This network design could be expanded in future according to the university requirement. A reliable network architecture has been developed which could give a smooth networking opportunity to the users.

Constraints and Limitations

There are several constraints and limitations are also associated with the network design that should be considered to enhance the network performance. Some major constraints have been illustrated in the below points:

• Cost is a major limitation that must be considered during the network design. In order to purchase high speed networking equipment, enough budget need to be allocated by the university authority [10]. In this context, it may become a challenging aspect for large scale network infrastructure development.

• Time is another constraint that need to be considered by the network developers as it may take unto several months to complete network design project. From the initial stage of requirement analysis to the networking device configuration, each task must be done on time.

• Expertise of staff and internal staff if also a major aspect that need to be considered by the network developers. Initially, user may not be able to use each features properly as there may be some limitations for network design. In this case, a proper training schedule need to be enabled for the network users.

• Updated cabling structure for better communication and connection need to be adopted by the users. Speed of the network may different due to the different cabling standards [11]. On the other hand, wireless communication may cause drop in network speed. Based on the system architecture of the university, proper bandwidth must be given by the service providers.

• Security infrastructure of the network must be strongest as a number of security breaches have been recorded in recent times. Each devices need to be updated and introduced with advanced version of software and anti-malware applications. Security requirement checking periodically is another major challenge in this case.

In the above points, most potential limitations and constraints associated with the network infrastructure has been identified that need to be considered by the network engineers. In order to provide a proper network infrastructure to the university authority, each requirements must be considered. However, the impact of the design limitations and constraints have also been discussed in the below points.

• The network architecture will be successfully established for the university if all the potential challenges and issues have been considered in the initial phase. The communication channel could be established by the network developers.

• The network will become fully secured form any external entities or hackers. Data and information security could be enabled by the users.

• Users will be able to communicate with each other with the help of wired or wireless network. Data and information of the university will be stored into the database server of the company.

• Usability and accessibility to the network devices and data will be increased with the successful implementation of the network architecture into the university.

The usefulness of such ICT network for each individual rises with the overall quantity of users, which is perhaps their most important feature. The value of innovations like smart phones and email is more closely tied to the number of people one can connect with through the system than it is to the services they provide consumers. As the user base expands, technologies has a tendency to gain velocity and begin expanding via a self-reinforcing mechanism into the educational institutes. The network keeps expanding on its own the more people who use it, the greater the cloud computing use value, the much more new customers who will use it, and so forth.

Conclusion

An information communication architecture has been created for a university in this project. In this paper, a wired and wireless network architecture has been built after evaluating all of the university's key requirements. This report includes every device and networking element that is required. MS Visio has been used as a diagramming tool to create the network design. But university staff members has critically evaluate the network design in terms of several elements or usefulness. This study also cover several significant design-related restrictions and limitations. All of the key networking elements have been incorporated into the network design in accordance with university requirements. Therefore the designed network architecture will give a better networking experience to both internal and external users of the university.

References