Wireless network implementation (Enterprise Network Design (Aston)) Case Study

Wireless network implementation (Enterprise Network Design (Aston)) - Case Study Example There will be a mesh topology setup in the core and distribution layers. Along with the redundant paths there will be redundant hardware in those layers. This will allow for more throughput and fault tolerance. QoS will also be implemented in all layers of the network to improve performance. The current reliability problems are half hardware failure and half over utilization of circuits. With the addition of QoS and redundancy, we can assure that mission critical applications will never fail. Aston is a leading firm in the private sector legal support business. These accounts are served worldwide by their franchise network. As you can tell, Aston is on a mission to keep trucks rolling by creating and delivering the best products and services for customers. The current network design analysis showed us that there are strong areas of the network and many weak areas. The current networks strongest point is in the campus backbone. Currently there is a full mesh between all routers. Because of this setup the backbone is the strongest part of the network. However, the backbone is currently running on 100 Mbps copper which is causing bottlenecks during peak usage. The existing network has far more weak areas then strong ones. We found one of the weakest areas of the network to be in the server farm. ... Also, all connections were made with copper to the campus backbone which limits the speed. Another area of concern is with the building distribution layer. This layer also has no layer 3 capabilities and has no redundant paths. There are multiple switches in the building distribution but in the event of a failure the core will have to reroute all traffic due to lack of appropriate redundancy. Another area that lacks redundancy is the edge distribution module. Currently if the edge distribution router were to fail, all internet and internal communications with other branches would be lost. Along with lack of redundancy, there were many security concerns. Currently there is only one firewall and it is placed between the internet service provider and the edge distribution router. This is a good start to securing the network but there is a lack of intrusion detection which is a concern. Also, the current e-commerce connection is in front of the firewall which provides absolutely no protection to the e-commerce server from the outside world. Finally, the other area of concern is the lack of outside accessibility. Currently there is only one remote access server which accepts incoming modem connections. The current system is not capable of support the very large mobile work force of Aston and it does not support current technology. In order for a remote worker to gain access to the network they have to have a dial up modem and a telephone line. Once the connection is made the speed is slow and the functionality is limited. Along with the lack of speed and functionality, the network is limited on its ability to upgrade to VPN technology. Currently there is only one internet service provider that only provides 3 Mbps which is barely enough