Acme Manufacturing

IT 242 Final - WAN Design

Axia College of University of Phoenix

ABSTRACT

This recommendation is for Acme Manufacturing. Acme Manufacturing requires the design of a new network and new equipment. The headquarters are Atlanta, GA, which houses corporate operations, administrative staff, marketing, and accounting. Across the street from the main office in another building are the engineering and sales staffs. Distribution offices are in Chicago, New York, and Phoenix. A new facility has been acquired in China.

Recommendation

Acme Manufacturing is in need of a WAN with VoIP for secure communications across their network. By using VoIP costs are lower. It is recommended that Acme Manufacturing use a star topology for the network design. My proposed WAN topology is presented below in figure one for Acme Manufacturing.

WAN Topology Design

Figure 1 - Shows proposed WAN topology for Acme Manufacturing

Acme Manufacturing is growing and expanding their operations. They have acquired a plant in China, and host several offices throughout the United States. The main office being in Atlanta, Georgia; with distribution offices in Chicago, Phoenix, and New York. In the Atlanta, Georgia office are corporate operations, marketing, administrative staff, and accounting. An adjacent building across the street from the main office houses sales and engineering. Each distribution office has a small sales staff as well as administrative staff. Each week in the corporate conference room weekly meetings are held at the main office in Atlanta, with individuals attending from multiple locations, this includes China, New York, Phoenix, and Chicago.

Acme Manufacturing has acquired my services as a network consultant to design a new network. The requirements for the new wide area network are:

* Design the network with all new equipment

* Recommend the types of lines that should be used for each location (e.g. FiOS, Ethernet, satellite, etc.)

* Group multiple departments logically to address security issues

Network Setup and Local Connectivity

Satellite communication is required for network connectivity between the corporate headquarters and China. The other locations will be connected through leased T1 and T3 lines. The T1 line will be used for the building across the street from the headquarters that houses engineering and the sales staff because of the proximity of the buildings. The T1 line speed is parallel to DSL, 1.544 Mbps (Mitchell, (n.d.)). The T3 line is used for long-distance traffic, and to build the core network of a headquarters office, which yields 44.736 Mbps (Mitchell, (n.d.)). The high bandwidth speed will reduce communication time between the outlying distribution centers. Meanwhile, a LAN setup with routers (to transfer packets between networks) Geier, 2003) and Ethernet cables would be ideal. Using Cat-5 UTP will support 100BaseTx fast Ethernet networks operating at speeds of 100 Mbps. This way packet switching, latency, and channel capacity are more proficient. Packet switching data is broken down into smaller packets before being sent out optimizing the use of channel capacity. Packets are sent to their intended locations, and resources are reallocated as the need arises (Regan, 2004). The network speed with be noticeably greater, and network costs are low. Each location should be interconnected. With the combined leased lines and satellite communication this will ensure network communication over long distances and uninterrupted connectivity. Providing smooth data access across the network for orders, production, or administrative needs. Because of leasing lines, Acme will need a CSU/DSU (Channel Service Unit/Data Service Unit), a hardware device; it converts the digital data frame (Bradley, n.d.) into frames that can be used on a leased line, to end the lines as each of the distribution locations and at headquarters. By acquiring leased lines a separate frame type will be used for data that normally is used in LAN settings. A CSU/DSU changes LAN frames on leased lines (Regan, 2004).

The network topology will be a star topology, as indicated in figure one, with each site directly connecting to the Atlanta headquarters; this way network administration is centrally located.

Telecommunications

As mentioned before I would recommend a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for Acme Manufacturing. VoIP is very popular and has many benefits; enhanced productivity, decreased costs for wiring setup (most of the time existing wires and cables can be utilized), and lower maintenance costs are a few of the benefits. VoIP enhances virtual conferences by allowing employees from different locations to attending meetings via the Internet at a central location.

IP Address and VLAN

Acme Manufacturing would be considered a large network and would require a class C IP address with a range of 192.0.1.1 to 223.255.254.254 if the same network mask relates to each subnet (building) of the same network IP address (Regan, 2004).

Setting up a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) would be beneficial to Acme using a Dynamic membership. Dynamic VLAN is a management policy server. It will automatically assign VLAN ports. The reason, basically, is increased productivity, and improved communications because all six connections are accessible. Additional benefits are Virtual Group Model, improved administration efficiency, enhanced network security, and reduction of routing for broadcasting.

Network Equipment