Final Project: Executive Summary for Network Design Project

CphoeniX Inc.'s Network DesignOctober 25, 2009Executive SummaryCphoeniX INC is a small organization that specializes in aircraft maintenance. The company's headquarters are based in Illinois; and they have facilities located in four other states as well. Each facility or office then consist primarily of four departments; maintenance, accounting, receiving, and shipping. Due to the breakdown of each department, and the multiple facilities, constant sharing of data, programs and various applications will need to be accessible over a Local Area Network (LAN); as well as over a Wide Area Network (WAN), and via remote access. The goals of the network, both LAN and WAN, are to allow for a secure yet easily expandable network, that allows real-time data transfer.

When planning the LAN for CphoeniX INC, there were multiple considerations to take into account; the main concerns being the integrity and accessibility of the data over the network; as well as the ease of expanding the network. Along with these concerns, it has also been decided that each department needs to be able to share peripherals devices; such as scanners, copiers and printers. For this reasoning, the LAN in each of the facilities will use a star topology for its setup. CphoeniX Inc.'s star topology LAN will consist of Cat 5 e and 100Base-T cables. These cables will provide the necessary support for the network design allowing for speed and integrity. As well, this network layout will also allow for network expansion and management; and help support the future goals of the company.

As for the WAN that is to be used to connect the facilities to one another, there are a few key factors that need to be considered; the requirements of the WAN. These requirements include: being able to allow each facility to be able to connect, or rather be connected to the WAN to allow the accountants at headquarters access to all financial data. The WAN must allow for approximately 40 users at any given time on the WAN;

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