Top-Down Network Design (3rd edition)

Question: Discuss about the Top-Down Network Design (3rd edition). Answer: The assignment is based upon creating an IT network for Farmers for Farmers (3F) co-operative society. The society is based in Australia and mainly dealing with crop sale and distribution. As earlier due to untimely sales of the crops leads to loss of farmers so they have decided to create an own online platform. The society will now contact directly with the clients without any intermediate so that they can earn more and compete with the supermarkets in terms of market share. This will facilitate them with the timely sales and distribution of the crop they have produced. 3Fwill operate from a small office in Rockhampton. When a customer places an order using the web interface of 3F or over the phone, the order will be processed using a proprietary software algorithm of 3F. The Software will help them in creating a checklist as well as timely delivery of the crops to the consumers. They have also wanted on time communication system between the administrative center, vehicle and the f armer support centers. Our company got this contract from the company for the development of the software which will be maximizing customers experience and farmers sell as well as earning. Requirements: The software system, as well as the IT network, will have satisfied and address the requirements of the farmers. There are some requirements, these are; Web-based platform fro the sales and promotion of the crops . This will help the society to directly contact with the farmers without any intermediate. Communication system between the administrative office, distribution vehicle, and farmers support centers. Software need to be enables banking facility for the farmers. Secure Network system. Online system in the vehicle as well as in the farmers places so that quick delivery to the distribution centers as well as directly to the customer's Overall the requirements are to create a network design which can comply with these requirements. The network must be equipped with on time communication system over one server so that each of the three objects like the administrator office, vehicles, and the farmer support center can operate. The security of the network is another concern which is needed to be take in concern as this will help the organization in effective operation. The security issue will be minimized by taking appropriate action regarding the issue. The banking operation, which is another requirement by the co-operative society requires high tech security from any kind of cyber threat. Assumptions: I have taken some assumptions regarding the following scenarios, these are The network will be installed between three objects of the whole operation. There will be need of a database or a cloud storage system which will be used to store the datas and informations related to the consumers and the business. The whole operation will require an administrator who will see the whole operation and maintain the security of the organization. These are some additional requirements or the assumptions which I have taken for the whole operation. The additional requirements will be taken into consideration for proper operation and function of the network system. The Logical Diagram: Logical Network Diagram Explanation: The network topology is the systematic arrangement of the different components which is used in the communication. This could be nodes, connecting lines and server arrangements of the organizations. There are different network topologies which can be used for the communication network arrangements. These are Mesh, Bus, Star, tree, and ring; all of the five have different properties and advantages (Forouzan, 2007) The above-shown network diagram is one of the required network topologies for the organization. The following network topology is the ring topology which is one o the network topology used in the networking. There are different reasons behind the selection of the Ring topology for the organization. Logical Network Justification: Ring topology is considered as one of the secured network topologies for the business environment. As in this Ring, topology has some advantages such as High security to the server and the system. In a ring topology, the workstation will be connected as a ring means in a closed loop condition the adjacent t pair of the workstation are directly connected whereas other are indirectly connected with each other in which all the traffic moves either in clockwise or anti-clockwise directions. The security is considered as the main concern of the organization so as the security of the 3F co-operative society is needed to be upgraded. The operation of the 3F co-operative society requires banking system which will be needed for the proper operation of the organization. The security of each transaction and the security of the organization is utmost requirement so Ring topology will be one of the best network topologies to apply over the organizational infrastructure (Peterson and Davie, 2011). The logical diagram which is based upon Ring topology is used to connect the administrative building, farmer support system, farmer system and the distribution vehicle. These are interconnected to each other which will benefit the organization for proper and secure operation. There are two security systems which are used for the protection of the database and the server. As each component of the network system is connected via a server through which the information made available to each place. Security of the server is important to prevent any kind of security breach into the system. The administrative building, farmer support, farmer system and the connected via Ring topology so when a customer put an order into the website this will directly share with the distribution vehicle and the farmer system. Each farmer has unique ID and Password which they can use to log in into respective accounts. Once they confirm about the availability of the crops which are demanded by the customer t he administration will notify the distribution vehicle. Distribution vehicle will be need to be informed about the farmer's place and the delivery address. These will make the work more quick and effective by implementing these steps. The network topology which is used in this will facilitate the organization to effectively communicate with each other so that they can work properly without time delay. Addressing and Naming: The network layers should be structured and planned for effective operation of the organization and the established network diagram. The numbers should be planned and administrated, the numbering helps in maintaining and troubleshooting the networks. There are many different vintage networks where the numbering of the network was not done that make them hard to troubleshoot. There are the different advantage of the addressing and numbering of the networking protocol. This help the technical persons while troubleshooting the organization's establishments and helps in recognizing the device which is needed to troubleshoot. In the case of this network architecture, I have used structured model for network layer addressing which means the addresses are meaningful and hierarchical as well as planned. An IP address will be provided to the network created for the 3F co-operative society further I will subnet the network address this is considered as structured or hierarchical model for IP a ddressing. The well established and planned IP address helps an organization in creating and maintains the network. The structure will make it easy to understand, create and maintain the network for the organization. The network has different routers, modems and other security and network components which are needed to be numbered and addressed. This will help in the troubleshooting and take security measures such as installing firewalls. In the above-mentioned Network diagram the components are numbered as well as perfectly addressed. IP addresses are either local or public, public addresses are uniquely distributed and registered with a numbering authority. The IP of the CO-operative society is also registered and unique so that this can be accessed from anywhere. The IP can be allocated by three different ways such as Automatic, manual and Dynamic (Oppenheimer, 2010). The list of routing and switching protocols: There are different choices regarding the switching and routing of the network establishments. Switching can be done via Layer 2 transparent switching , multilayer switching and span tree protocol enhancements. Apart from that, the Routing can be done by Static or dynamic process, distance vector and link state protocols and interior and exterior method. The selection criterion for the routing and switching is based upon different aspects which are; Network traffic characteristics Bandwidth, memory, and CPU usage The number of peers supported The capability to adapt to changes quickly Support for authentication These are some of the criterias which are needed for the switching and routing of the network components. Another aspect of the switching and routing is making decisions, the goal must be known and established as well the consequence with the decision should be investigated for perfect operation control (Oppenheimer, 2010). There are different routing protocols from which we have selected the best-suited option for the organization. There are the routing protocols for the organizations, Classifying Routing Protocols (3.1.4.1) ii) IGP and EGP Routing Protocols (3.1.4.2) iii) Distance Vector Routing Protocols (3.1.4.3) iv) Link-State Routing Protocols (3.1.4.4) v) Classful Routing Protocols (3.1.4.5) vi) Classless Routing Protocols (3.1.4.6) These are some of the routing protocols which can be selected for the organization. We have selected the Distance vector routing protocol for the organization as this can be a better option for perfect and effective operation. Distance Vector Routing Protocols: The selected protocol is the Distance vector routing protocol which mainly use the router as a sign post and it does not have proper knowledge about the path which is being used. Only information which they know is the distance and the direction from which they have to go. There are four different IPV4 IGPs (Oppenheimer, 2010). The list of security mechanisms: The security of the organization is an important aspect as this requires proper attention and focus for proper and secure operation. The networking team involved in the planning and the operation of the network will take different measures for the security of the network architecture. There need proper planning for the security of the organization from physical security to the logical security of the organization. Physical security: Whether the components of the network are perfectly installed and maintained. The computer room should have proper protection from unauthorized access. The server room should be locked and well maintained so that any kind of threat from eh disasters like fire and flood does not impact the organization's stored data and information. The server room must be locked and unauthorized access into the room must be prevented. The information must be backup to an external drive for future use and access. Logical Security: To prevent any kind of attacks on the organization's server can do by proper security measures. Logical security mainly uses software to allow access to the system for only some individuals based upon who they are and what their position within the organization. The logical security protects the system by access codes. For the logical security of the organization from any outer attack, the organization must provide an access code to the organization employees so that only they can access the system and other will not be allowed to enter into the system. If a system is open that will automatically lock if not any action is being taken by the working personal, this will improve the security of the System and important files stored in the system (Sherwood 2005, 38). Security Measures: The security in an organization is a collective effort from all of the employees and also from the management. There are different reasons behind the data breach in an organization. There are different data breach situation which is generally faced by the organizations. There are the different reason behind the security breach into an organization server and database. Lowe security establishment or human error can be considered as two loopholes which initiate security issues. According to security advisor of BT, the main problem is data being emailed to someone else. This is one of the security mishaps which could not be handled by the IT security expert and in this case the organizations must educate the working staffs. Every organization follows some security matrices which are approved and instructed by the government of the Country. The security matrices generally are used to provide security to informations related to the organization. There are different matrices which were app lied to the network security, but educating the staffs regarding the security matrices and the regulation will make a perfect security condition (Barry. 2012) . We have created a security setup which will be used to maintain the security of the organization. The network is protected by Security system and firewall protection. The firewall protection will prevent any kind of unauthorized access to the organization. The server is secured by a security system which will prevent any kind of security breach into the system. In most of the cases, the intruders take the benefit of the unsecured or poorly secured server for entering into the organization's system. The human factor also plays a significant role in the security of the organization. The security is considered as a collective approach which is aimed to maintain A preventive approach regarding the security of the organization (Vacca, 2013). Human resources and security: Human resources of a company play an important role in the security of the organization as they are responsible for the security and functionality of the organization. The security awareness among the staffs is considered as an important and required aspect to prevent any kind of threat. The threat which is related to the security aspect of the organization is a security breach to the server of the company, system hacking, and other malicious activities. A better awareness about the protection and the threat will minimize the chance of any attack on the organization. The organization has arranged some training to the employees so that they can recognize the malicious attack over the system. The training is conducted in the presence of technical experts who make them understand the kind of threats they may have to face in future. The staffs of the organization have a unique ID and password which is provided by the organization for the secure login into the system. The firewall protect ions into the system recognize the unauthorized access and block it from entering the server. If an employee came into attack form a malicious mail and checked it from the system, then the hacker will get a way to enter into the server. As all of the members are using the same server so there will be chances that the entire organizational informations may face data breach problem (Barry, 2012). Implementing a Security matrix is an essential thing for each company. In the year 2000, National security of standard and federal government releases a document which covers some of the necessary steps so that companies can protect their data. The security matrix mainly is mainly created by the companies so that they can check out the security preparation in the organization (Calder Watkin 2010, 50). Reference: Oppenheimer, P. (2010) Top-down network design (3rd edition). 3rd end. Indianapolis, IN: Cisco Press Peterson, L.L. and Davie, B.S. (2011) Computer networks, fifth edition: A systems approach (the Morgan Kaufmann series in networking). 5th edn. Amsterdam: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers In Sherwood, N.A., Sherwood, J., Clark, A. and Lynas, D. (2005) Enterprise security architecture: A business-driven approach. United Kingdom: Elsevier Science. Forouzan, B.A. and Fegan, S.C. (2003) Data communications and networking. 3rd edn. New York: McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math. Calder, A. and Watkins, S. (2015) IT governance: An international guide to data security and ISO27001/ISO27002. United Kingdom: Kogan Page. Software Used: Edraw Max for the Network design Vacca, J.R. (2013) Computer and information security handbook. 2nd edn. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers In. Barry, Coldewey, (2012), Correlation Between Human Factors and the Prevention of Disasters. IOS Press