IFSM 370 Project 4: Network Diagram Instructions

Introduction

This is an individual project. This project is related to the Case Study project. Each student must complete an Architectural Diagram that illustrates the placement of security and other technologies within the converged network solution. The foundation for this project is the requirements analysis and proposal document that you completed for the Case Study project (see below rubric). The target audience will be the organization’s Chief Information Officer (CIO). The Architectural Diagram deliverable is an MS Word document.

Case Study

Company Overview

FractalApps is a software development start-up. It was founded by three friends who went to undergrad school together at the University. They founded their startup recently and set up headquarters at the condo of the two founders in Washington, DC. They have focused their attention on mobile app development and have developed and successfully marketed a popular app for job seekers. Now they are expanding their company into a full-fledged software development house.

They have recently received a cash infusion from an angel investor in Silicon Valley and are ready to build out their business. Their plan is to have three locations: a small headquarters in DC where the founders and senior staff reside, a sales office based in NYC (Brooklyn), and a development house in San Francisco where the bulk of the developers live and work.

They are looking for you to develop a network design for their business. They are seeking a standardized LAN design (using consistent hardware/software) for the three offices, and a cost-effective WAN design that allows all of their staff to communicate and collaborate quickly, efficiently, without a lot of network delay. The network should support both their voice and data needs.

Further, they require a secure way for mobile workers to remote in to the network and participate as if they were in the office. Many of the sales staff are in the field, as well as the development staff who want to be able to work practically anywhere. A VPN solution is what they are seeking but need guidance on what the hardware/software requirements are.

The Deliverable

For this assignment, you will use your proposed solution for the Catacomb requirements analysis. Briefly describe the proposed technology solution and list the business requirements (including security requirements) that are satisfied. This should be done on one to two pages. Then provide a diagram that illustrates the placement of various communications components within the context of developing an effective, efficient, security posture for the proposed solution for Catacomb’s converged network.

Your deliverable is a one to four-page document that contains:

· A recap of your proposed network (make sure you address all aspects of the network (LAN, WAN, VPN).

· A detailed network diagram that shows the three FractalApps offices, the required LAN components, WAN technology and components, and VPN components (for both the office and mobile).

· The Network diagram can be developed using any drawing applications (MS Visio or PowerPoint, CAD, etc.). I will even accept hand-drawn diagrams (take a high-res photo of your diagram and upload it with your Word document). You may submit multiple diagrams (one for the LANs, one showing the WAN technology components, and VPN network), and one high-level diagram that shows the interconnections between the three offices.

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Your deliverable will be scored according to the Scoring Rubric below. Be sure you have incorporated all required aspects of the assignment.

Scoring Rubric

Case Study project: Business requirements analysis and proposal (Completed)

Introduction.

When deciding on the networks that should be implemented to meet the modern dynamic business and information technology needs and also trends, FractalApps being an enterprise needs to involve a network designer who will use a top-down approach to analyze and design their network solution. This is for the reason that the Company requires a design solution that is from a business-driven approach. To add, FractalApps is determined to maximize profits, satisfy customers and achieve other business goals; this is only possible if they adopt the new IT technologies.

Business requirements for network implementation.

When designing and implementing any network, these requirements are what the network is expected to do. FractalApps being a business, it requires a network solution that is;

I. Secure- Security is essential for any company to run smoothly. There are so many forms in which attackers can penetrate the organization and interrupt the operations or even steal data. The most prevalent security threats are interruption, fabrication, interception, and modification among others. Attackers can be hackers, amateurs or even crackers. There is a denial of service and physical attacks as well. The source code and other sensitive information are critical to the organization and should be well guarded against possible harms. The solution being implemented should be able to optimize network security in a way that it can accommodate the newest designs that involve voice and even wireless security. A good example is authenticating users using 802.1x (Asnis, 2018).

II. Scalability- business keeps growing as times goes by, FractalApps require a solution that can always support the increased growth of its business. An excellent example of such a solution is the dynamic multipoint Virtual Private Network.

III. Availability- availability of the network is vital to ensure proper communication across the network. Specific critical traffic such as voice should be highly available at any time.

IV. Quality of Service- to satisfy the FractalApps organization, the person implementing the network should ensure that the network is improving the experience of the developers and the management by introducing quality of service that will enable achievement of high-quality voice and other services. An example is traffic shaping.

V. Traffic isolation- this is a technical requirement that the network being provide should provide the FractalApps organization with. Traffic isolation will ensure that it is meeting the information security requirements (Asnis, 2018).

Cabling and components in the LAN.

The various offices of the FractalApps organization require a Local Area Network; the LAN is made up of a structured cabling system. Cabling in LANs is the cables, connectors plus other accessories that altogether make up the LAN. FractalApps need proper internet access for the various offices set up in the three separate cities. The basic cable that links the Company to its service provider is necessary to carry out any network activity. The components of cabling in the Local Area Network is the router, Ethernet cabling, and a network switch (Hsu et, al, 2017).

Routers and switches do not work alone; you need a lot of Ethernet cabling. Many cables make the working spaces messy, and so when designing and implementing a LAN, the network designer should never forget the right angle patch cables and the rack panels used to manage the wires. Identifying specific colors for various cables will ensure that there is no confusion of which cables are carrying what signals. For remote connectivity locally, the network designer should use wireless accessories such as antennas and amplifies, however, should not forget the lightning protection since electrical surges can occur and cause significant losses to the organization.

Components in the Wide Area Network.

An extensive area network is a type of computer network that usually extends over a huge geographical place. The FractalApps has satellite offices in the other towns, the only way that the management and the staff can communicate or transfer data is over an extensive area network. The headquarters and the small business branches will have WAN. The international network is an example of a WAN, the largest WAN known (Boyd, 2016).

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The three very basic components of a WAN are;

i. Customer Premise Equipment- the CPE is what serves as the border router that connects the business to the wired access lines. Examples of the customer premise equipment are the gateways, switches, and telephones (Boyd, 2016).

ii. Network Core- the role of a network core in a WAN is to connect the access links to the rest of the links. The carrier takes care of some parts of the network

iii. Access Links- the wired access links are predominant. They connect the customer premises to the network core of the extensive area network (Boyd, 2016).

VPN hardware and software components for FractalApps organization.

A virtual private network is recommended for FractalApps because it will protect the organization from security threats such as snooping and interference (Larson et al., 2015). For FractalApps to deploy a virtual private network, various things should be considered. The following components are what a VPN is comprised of;

i. VPN-aware firewalls and routers that will protect the organization’s network from illegal VPN traffics. It will filter the traffic and let in the legitimate VPN traffic.

ii. Client VPN software is the software component of a virtual private network that ensures that the remote connection is secure.

iii. VPN server and concentrator handle the incoming VPN traffic. It also establishes sessions and oversees them plus their network access.

FractalApps should implement a VPN for it to have a safe connection to the other networks by changing the endpoints frequently (Larson et al., 2015).

References

Asnis, I. (2018). U.S. Patent Application No. 14/054,410.

Boyd, R. W. (2016). U.S. Patent No. 9,274,207. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Hsu, W. L., Hsieh, P., Fan, C. H., & Fan, C. H. (2017). U.S. Patent No. 9,549,435. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Larson, V., Short III, R. D., Munger, E. C., & Williamson, M. (2015). U.S. Patent No. 9,094,399. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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