The Bead Bar

The Bead Bar is in need of a network that not only meets the needs of the corporate office, but also allows the corporate office to communicate effectively with the individual studios. In addition to this, the Vice President of Bead Bar on Board, Mitch, travels extensively and needs to be able to connect to the network from on board the cruise ships. The network recommendations contained herein are designed to meet the specific needs of the Bead Bar and those that will be accessing the Bead Bar network. Recommendations will be made on the specific network topology that should be used, such as bus, ring, star, mesh, tree, or hybrid; on the network architecture, and the advantages and any potential drawbacks that the recommended network would provide to the Bead Bar organization.

The Bead Bar has three divisions: studios, franchises, and Bead Bar on Board. The company has six bead bar studios - the original studio in New Canaan, Connecticut, two studios in New York City, one studio in Long Island, one studio in Washington, D.C., and one in Boston, Massachusetts. The company also has five franchises - Kansas City, Missouri; Chicago, Illinois; Los Angeles, California; Seattle, Washington; and Miami, Florida. Each franchise sells bead packages to businesses that want to open their own bead studio. Bead Bar on Board is a portable bead bar that is designed for cruise ships. The Bead Bar employs fifteen full-time employees and about twenty part-time employees. The part-time employees help the customers in the studios and work the cash registers. (Malaga, 2003)

We are going to recommend that a Local Area Network (LAN) be established in the original studio in New Canaan, Connecticut. The other studios and franchises will be able to securely access the server housed in New Canaan from their individual workstations via a Virtual Private Network (VPN). The VPN can also be used by Mitch, who spends most of his time out of the office. Mitch can access the VPN from anywhere he can access the internet.

Due to its functionality, we are going to recommend that an Ethernet protocol be used. This is by far the most widely used protocol. The Ethernet protocol allows for a variety of network topologies. The data that is transmitted can be transmitted over wireless access points (WAPs), twisted pair wire, coaxial cable, or fiber optic cable at speeds of up to 1000 Mbps. (University of South Florida, 2005)

We will also be recommending hardware for the network. A variety of hardware including file servers, workstations, network interface cards, hubs, and routers will be recommended. The file server will be housed at the studio in New Canaan. The network operating system software will reside on the server, as well as any software applications and data files that need to be shared. The server will control the communication of information between the workstations at the studios and franchises.

When choosing a network topology, a few considerations should be taken into account. First of all, financial considerations should be made. Although a linear bus network is the least expensive way to install a network, another consideration, future growth, is also a very important consideration to take into account. A linear bus network is not feasible for a fast growing and potentially large network. Therefore, our recommendation is a star network configuration. A star configuration is easily expanded by adding additional concentrators, or hubs. The type of cable is also something to take into consideration.

There are a variety of cables used in network configurations - twisted pair, coaxial cable, and fiber optic cable. There are two types of twisted pair cable - Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) and Shielded Twisted Pair (STP). There is a disadvantage to using UTP. Because it is not shielded, UTP is very susceptible to radio and electrical frequency interference. Although coaxial cable is highly resistant to signal interference, coaxial cable is also very difficult to install and difficult to work with due to its thickness. The other option, fiber optic cabling, is difficult to install and modify, but also would be an unnecessary expense. It is most commonly used in areas with large amounts of electrical interference and for connecting networks between buildings. Due to its ease of install and use, and the fact that it is a more financially feasible alternative, our recommendation is a Shielded Twisted Pair cable- CAT5e. We will still get the high speed that we would get with the other options. Category 5e networking cable transmits data up to 100 Mbps.

In addition to the physical cables that we will be running from some of the devices to other devices, we are also recommending a wireless LAN using high frequency radio signals. Meredith is concerned about the look of the studios. In order to keep the studios looking nice and organized, we feel that a wireless connection between workstation and hub would be beneficial. Information is relayed between transceivers as if they were physically connected by cabling.

As with all star network topologies, the hub will be the central connection point. Most commonly, hubs are configured with 4, 8, 12, or 24 RJ-45 ports. Of course, the more ports on the hub, the more expensive the hub is going to be. To allow for growth, we are recommending a 12 port hub for the New Canaan studio and smaller 4 port hubs for the other studios. The hub in the New Canaan studio will be connected via Cat5e to a Router, the Server, Wireless Access Point (WAP), and a network printer. The individual workstations/clients will be able to access the server via the WAP. The Router is going to allow access to the internet and also access to the other studios. The other studios