MOD006123 Advanced Network Solutions

1 Case Study Assignment

1.1 Report & Implementation

You have been hired as part of a team of network and system developers to develop
proof of concept solutions for varied clients in convince them to invest in full cost
solutions.

You must implement a “virtual” based proof of concept solution which will be used to
demonstrate functionality to the client for a representative sample of the overall
infrastructure. Full documentation will be needed to provide justifications for your
choice of solution tools and components, configuration details and a full test plan
outlining how the functionality has been tested.

It is expected you will carry out extensive research for your recommended solution
and document accordingly.

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1.2 Part 1 - Case Study – Network Performance and Security Design

The Dead Duck Publishing Company has been experiencing significant problems with
its IT infrastructure in recent months.

They have had a number of problems

• Issues relating to response times between clients and servers. At peak times,
there have even been timeouts with web applications crashing.

• Staff involved in VoIP and video communications regularly experience severe

delays with communication either buffering or connections being broken
completely.

• On a number of occasions, all branch offices have experienced periods of

complete downtime when core routers have crashed.

• Access to the internet to send large print runs has been extremely problematic
as well as the onsite print runs never seem to work properly.

The company has extensive plans to expand its operation from the UK to cover a
number of major European cities as well increasing the number of sites to 8 in the
very near future. They are very worried the current model of network will not be cost
effective in the future.

Dead Duck has its main office within Cambridge. It has 4 specific workgroups on site

Accounts, HR & Management 123 users

Graphic Design 82 users
Publishing 237 users
Consulting 88 users
.
All storage, servers and applications are hosted on the Cambridge based Data Centre

At the moment, there are branch offices with 40 staff in each at Manchester,
Edinburgh and Peterborough connected via 2Mbps Leased Lines.

The Cambridge office is used to host a connection to the Internet via a DSL
Broadband connection with an allocated address range of 198.222.123.16/28.

As the organisation has connected to the Internet and will not be granted any more
Public v4 IP addresses , The new network design must use a configuration to reflect
this lack of addresses and utilise appropriate addressing through use of RFC1918
addresses

The network schematic of the existing network design will be made available on the
VLE as a Packet Tracer file. No configuration other than the physical topology will
be included, however students should take note of how devices are connected.

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You are required to produce a report of not more than 2500 words (but not including
appendices) which details

• Document the numerous issues and problems with the current design and how
your new design will solve them

• Propose and suitably justify an appropriate IT infrastructure which will

overcome the poor design choices made in the existing infrastructure resulting
in some of the problems that the client has been experiencing recently.

• Use should be made of appropriate design models to give a uniform and

scalable approach to the design. Expansion capacity should also be a factor in
any design decisions taken.

• Develop a suitable addressing plan which will accommodate both current and
future requirements in both the LAN & WAN and what addressing will be
used. Consider carefully the implications of utilising private IP addressing

• Consider the routing infrastructure necessary for site, inter-site and Internet
connectivity and make recommendations accordingly.

• Make appropriate security recommendations for the infrastructure you

recommend,

• Any design choices made MUST be justified and supporting references used.

• Test Solution Configurations (including fully annotated configurations)

• Test Plan and Operational Results on the Test Bed

• Evidence Linked to the Test Plan

• Integration & Scaling Factors (including other solutions)

• Issues & Gotcha’s

• Conclusion and Recommendations

You are required to develop a demonstration model of your proposed

design and prove that it both solves the problems Dead Duck Publishing
was experiencing and meets the extended requirements of the client.

To prove the operation of the solution, it should be implemented

within a simulated or emulated environment and a test plan/evidence
produced to prove to the client that the solution meets the
requirements. You should choose functionality carefully that can be
fully demonstrated within the Packet Tracer Environment.

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You are required to critically analyze the effectiveness of the solution with detailed
examples from your test bed construction showing outputs from the implementation.

You will then be required to make appropriate conclusions and

recommendations on the scenario with critical analysis as to how you
have reached this decision.

Please ensure your report is bound appropriately, a nicely bound report puts the
marker in a better mood for marking your assignment. Comb bound sets a very
professional approach whilst staples or unbound work are likely to lose marks or
result in the work not being marked (in the case of unbound work).

As well as submitting your report, you will be expected to provide the packet tracer
file detailing the implementation of the test plan.

Ensure that all others work is referenced to the Harvard Referencing Standard. It is
expected in a third year assignment that there will be lots of evidence of research
being undertaken and used appropriately in the text.

1.3 Hints for Implementation / EXISTING PROBLEMS

Proper use of VLAN’S

Enough bandwidth
SPOF – ROUTER & SWITCHES
Lack of Resilience/Redundancy
No Security
OUT OF DATE EQUIPMENT
DATA CENTER CONNECTIVITY

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1.4 Testing the Solution

In order to fully meet the assignment criteria, you need to be able to demonstrate that
the solution you have recommended, configured and implemented has been fully
tested against the criteria given in the case study.

You are recommended to use a detailed formal test plan, it is recommended that you
formalize the test plan by using a tabular form

Test Description & Operation Expected Actual Evidence

Reference Result Result
NM-1 Example Test utilising Ping Test Ping See Appendix 4,
Demo Network Successful Test Figure 5
2 VM’s Failed

It is imperative that you document the testing correctly and show any reader
how they could repeat the experiments to obtain the same results.

All evidence should be documented and details shown where it can be found if
not in the table. Hint: use appendices for large amounts of evidence or
screenshots.

Do not just rely on pings or the equivalent to show connectivity, you are looking
to demonstrate functionality so much richer tests are needed!!! Make sure
evidence is relevant to the tests as well!

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1.5 Case Study Marking Scheme –Network Design & Implementation

(90% overall)

Criteria Marks
Evidence of understanding of network problems associated in old 10%
design
Evidence using design methodologies in proposed design 10%
Evidence of understanding of installation & configuration (including 10%
annotated configuration details)
Evidence of a test strategy/plan, evidence & results recorded 20%
Detailed & Justified Addressing Scheme, Routing Protocol, LAN, 15%
WAN & Resilience/Redundancy Design Features
Research of potential solutions including justifications for decisions 10%
made,(including references)
Depth of analysis, issues and conclusion/recommendations 15%
Report Presentation 10%

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