Competency
In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competencies:
Explain the functions between hardware and software in a network
Design a simple network
Design and implement a secure interconnected network in support of an organization
Scenario
Throughout this course, you have been writing various reports as parts of Milestones One and Two for an advertising firm that is opening a new office in Fayetteville, NC.
This mid-size advertising firm already has offices in Albany, NY, and Springfield, MA. The Albany headquarters is home to the executive team and 150 employees. The headquarters also stores the corporate data and is the corporate internet backbone. It hosts the IT department that centrally manages all LAN services, including the wireless LAN. The IT department also manages the wide area network (WAN) that connects the two offices via site-to-site virtual private network (VPN) tunnels. The Springfield office hosts about 50 employees. Approximately 50% of these employees are mobile, defined as traveling more than 80% of the time.
To hire and retain the best talent, the firm allows employees to work from home. This removes the constraint that employees have to live within commuting distance from the firm’s offices. Remote and mobile employees are provided access to the corporate network via a VPN client. The VPN client requires employees to have access to reliable internet services to allow for effective collaboration across teams and for access to media content. The company provides all employees with a laptop with full disk encryption, data loss prevention (DLP), and antivirus software. The IT department manages all corporate laptops and has the ability to log into all systems for support. This means that all laptops are centrally managed by the one IT department.
Due to an increase in opportunities for expansion to new markets, the firm has embarked on an initiative to hire and train new college graduates for the company’s Future Vision program. Future Vision focuses on expansion beyond the regional northeast footprint. The initiative is to hire graduates into the marketing, finance, and IT departments. You were hired as part of the Future Vision program and have been working at this for some time now. You have spent a considerable portion of your time troubleshooting and analyzing the organization’s computer network to keep it running smoothly. Your direct supervisor and lead network administrator have been very impressed with your skills and fast learning abilities.
To determine whether you are ready to take on more responsibility, you have been asked for your input regarding the new Fayetteville, NC, office setup project. Your task is to conduct research on this area and deliver a report to the team with key considerations and recommendations for the setup of the network infrastructure. The Fayetteville office will be home to 50 employees, including the new executive vice president of sales and marketing. All the possible sites have offices located in an office building with access to fiber, cable, and T1 internet service providers. In addition to the standard network, the site must support live video teleconferencing calls with employees based at the other sites. It must also reliably send print jobs to billboard printers located in the company headquarters in Albany.
Directions
The primary goal of the project is to consolidate your findings from Milestones One and Two and compose a succinct and complete solution that you will present to the firm’s executive leadership team about the type of network they should design and implement at the new location.
It is recommended that you incorporate the feedback you received from your instructor on Milestones One and Two. You can use this feedback to succinctly refine your recommendations into a polished report.
Specifically, the following areas must be addressed in the report for the project:
Key Considerations
Explain your key considerations for the project.
Explain the OSI stack in relation to a modern communications network and how it influenced your network design.
Describe the important IP range considerations for a company of your size.
Summarize, in your own language, the strategic goals of the company, and detail how the network solution you are presenting aligns with these goals.
Remember that these key considerations were addressed in Milestone One:
Communications media and mode of data transport for the new network
Common network hardware components for this new location
In addition, you can make relevant changes to your report based on your instructor’s feedback from Milestone One.
LAN Topology
In Milestone One, you described the LAN topology possibilities and the strengths and weaknesses.
Provide your final revised solution for optimal support that may include any feedback from the instructor from previous milestones.
Internet Service Provider
In Milestone Two, you described the possible ISP solutions available to meet the needs of the company in its new location. The section was based on your research into actual providers at the Fayetteville, NC, location.
This section should include an explanation as to how the chosen internet provider meets the business goals and objectives of the firm.
Provide your solution, along with any feedback from the instructor.
Hardware and Software, Printer, and Bandwidth: In this section, you will include these additional parts from Milestone Two in your report. You can use your diagram from Milestone Two as a starting point for these three items.
Explain your proposed hardware and software solutions to meet the needs of the new office location.
Describe your printer configuration solutions to meet the distance printing needs of the new office location.
This could include considerations for tracking devices, automating driver distribution, and controlling access.
Explain your bandwidth and device solutions to meet the teleconferencing needs of the new office location.
Potential Errors: In this section, you will discuss common network errors and how your proposed solution will minimize and address these issues.
Based on your previous report, anticipate common network errors that the new location may encounter.
Describe effective troubleshooting approaches to the errors you identified, such as problem isolation, trace routing, and pinging.
Explain how these approaches would ensure the resolution of the errors. Be sure your response is specific to the business location.
Additional Considerations: In this section, you will make recommendations for industry standard documentation for ongoing network support.
Identify options for network monitoring that includes maintenance for network hardware and software (for example, port scanning, interface monitoring, packet flow monitoring, etc.).
Identify patch management options that will help acquire, test, and install multiple patches on existing applications.
Describe how you will control inventory, including how to discover and track assets on your network.
As you develop your work, continue to look back on and consider each of these key elements. Remember, writing is a process that unfolds over time, and it typically requires reconsideration and revision of key elements.
