Objective

This project involves the design of a Wide Area Network (WAN) for a school district in Arizona. I am to design a LAN (Local Area Network) for Sunset School.

Design & Functionality

Among the major points of the design of this WAN involve designing the WAN for the school district, providing E-mail for students and faculty, Internet access from the WAN via the administration POP only, Implementation of file servers at each LAN segment within the WAN, a library server, and a DNS (Domain Name Server). One of the major requirements is that a student or faculty member must be able to connect to the Internet from any site in the district, via the POP (point of presence) located at the school district’s main office. Three regional hubs must be set up and administered. Only two networking protocols will be allowed for use: TCP/IP and Novell’s IPX. 1000% LAN growth and 100% WAN growth must be planned for and implemented in the WAN structure and setup. Several specific – function servers will be set up throughout the WAN for network services. Two LANS will be constructed in each school and the District Office; one will be a student/curriculum LAN and the other will be an administration LAN. Routers will be utilized at each core WAN location and at each school location. The minimum speed of the new WAN must be 100mbs to the servers and 1mbs to any workstation. The WAN will be based on LAN switching. This concept will help reduce network traffic by eliminating the use of some bridges, help create smaller, more manageable LAN segments, and help manage bandwidth inside of the WAN. Other principles to be followed in the Project Scope are: the 5-4-3 rule; LAN segmentation involving switching; decongestion of network traffic, and high network security.

Scalability

The design of the Sunset LAN must be scalable, which means that the LAN must be able to grow and meet user demands for the next 7-10 years.
Security

LAN security will be managed with the use of a firewall router and access lists. Access lists will prohibit outside traffic from entering the LAN yet allow LAN traffic to access the Internet.

1. This network design/implementation must be functional for a minimum of 7-10 years
   1000% LAN growth & 100% WAN growth within 7-10 years must be planned for in the design
2. Access Control Lists to keep out hackers
   LANs in each school and district office: Implementation of Curriculum and Administrative VLANS will give further network security
3. Router at each WAN core location and each school
   1 router for Sunset School
4. 100 mbps to servers and 1 mbps to any workstation is minimum bandwidth speed requirement
   a.Horizontal cabling must be cat 5 100 mbps
   b.Vertical cabling will be fiber-optic multi-mode
5. LAN infrastructure must be based on Ethernet LAN switching
6. 4 runs of cat 5 100 mbps cable to each classroom; 1 of these runs leads directly to administrator/teacher’s desktop from switch; the other three come from switch to hub in closet.
7. Access to the Internet from any site in school district via the District WAN must be implemented
8. In each location, an MDF should be established as the central point to which all LAN cabling will be terminated as well as the WAN POP connection. Use star topology to connect IDF’s to MDF
9. TCP/IP and Novell IPX are the only network protocols allowed
10. IP addressing
    a.All computers located on the administrative networks should have static addresses
    b.Curriculum computers should obtain addresses by utilizing DHCP
11. Layer 3 LAN topology design goals
    Build a path between LAN segments that will filter the flow of data packets
    Isolate ARP broadcasts
    Isolate collisions between segments
    Filter layer 4 services between segments
12. Network design and implementation basics:
    a.Functionality: the network must work
    b.Scalability: network must be able to grow
    c.Adaptability: design network with future technologies in mind
    d.Manageability: network should facilitate monitoring and mgmt.