Ntc 362 - Integrative Network Design Project

Integrative Network Design

Integrative Network Design

NTC/362

Integrative Network Design Project

Kudler Fine Foods is one of the biggest and fastest growing food companies in the Unites States. Because of this fast expansion there are expected and often increased goals that must be done in order to keep all parts of the company working as they should. One of these areas that must be kept up to date and secured at all times is its integrated network. Again because of the company's recent growth there will be challenges that will happen especially with the network so a good integrative network design must be developed in order to continue this positive trend both in present and in the future. Kudler Fine Foods is taking the next step to upgrade the existing infrastructure with new wireless technology which will provide a better communication link for not only all of the stores, but for all of the employees as well.

Kudler Fine Foods wants to implement a new network design that will connect their three locations that is spreaded out across the U.S. With the new systems and servers the ability to maximize the company's profits will increase overnight. This new inventory system will allow the stores POS systems to alert the warehouses to ship more products when they are running low automatically. This will eliminate the need of wasted man hours checking the stock.

Using a Wide Area Network (WAN) would be the best choice for connecting the three locations together. They also want to implement a communication system throughout the network of their stores and make the internal network in each store a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). The communication throughout all the stores will be upgraded with a VoWLAN system that will give the employees the flexibility of taking calls and the ability maintain and provide the services needed for each customer. The other technological advances that will be introduced will provide real time network analysis and security monitoring. Once the new network is completed it will bring Kudler Fine Foods to a new standard of service.

Current Systems Analysis

When evaluating a network topology we must first have an understanding of what a network topology is. In simple terms: Network Topology is the pattern in which your network operates. Wireless Mesh Topology seems to be favored for WAN and VoIP design. You would need to write dynamic routing algorithms to communicate from node to node. In this network each device needs to communicate routing information to other nodes in the network. Then that node will determine what it needs to do with the data that has just been received, pass the data on, or keep the data. This kind of network is inexpensive, reliable, and resilient. The WLAN will provide new ways of communication to take place, which will be by computer and by a new voice over wireless local area network.

Kudler Fine Foods is using the Bus network infrastructure which is at a point of extinction. The Bus network which is installed does not allow the stores to communicate with each other because they are on separate networks. This is a problem because there is no central location for any network servers and no backups or security is set up. This is why an enterprise wireless wide area network is being rolled out. Having a network that provides mobility is essential in today business world and why it will become a corner stone for Kudler Fine Foods for years to come.

The Timeline

The new network roll out for Kudler Fine Foods will not take place overnight. Designing this network is going to take some time since all the old technology is going to be replaced. The new desired network should take about three to five weeks. An important factor of this build out is the documentation that will be taken at each phase. This information will be used to provide vital network information and proper network install accreditation for the client. The ability to keep business up and fully operational is very important to the owners and is why implementation will take place in three phases that is list below in figure1.

| Del Mar | La Jolla | Encinitas |

Phase 1 | Installation | Installation | Installation |

Completion | 1 week | 1 week | .5 week |

Phase 2 | Testing and security checks | Testing and security checks | Testing and security checks |

Completion | 3 weeks | 3 weeks | 1.5 weeks |

Phase 3 | Removal of the old network. | Removal of the old network. | Removal of the old network. |

Completion | 4 week | 4 weeks | 2 weeks |

Total Weeks | 8 | 8 | 4 |

Figure 1 Timeline Chart

Phase I. The Del Mar site will be the first store to be upgraded because it will become the backbone to the entire operation. This site will contain the POS server, inventory data base, File integrity checker, security console for monitoring and the T1 line. The completion for the Del Mar site will take eight weeks. Once this site has been completed the La Jolla site will begin. The integration for this site is expected to go smoothly; however, there could be some unknown factors, so the expected completion time for this site will be eight weeks as well. The Encinitas site should go much smoother and take have the time to complete of the first two sites which would be four weeks.

Phase II. Loading and speed testing of the network will be conducted the first week. This would detect any lagging, latency, or jitter that may be on the network. This also helps with increasing the speed and performance. Week two would cover pen testing and security hardening of the new network. This will prevent any security holes from being left opened. Any discrepancies that are discovered must be fixed by the end of the second week. Week three will be for retesting of any discrepancies found in the prior weeks and will provide the time needed to fine tune all firewalls and policies.

Phase III. This will be a four week phase and will make sure everything is working at 100% normal. The first three weeks will be checking to make sure that all systems are updating and working together as designed. Once everything checks out the removal of the old network will be completed. Finally all documentation that was gathered during the build out will be passed down.

Design Approach

The hardware that should be requested for this task is: four central servers, two 802.11n wireless