Table of Contents
Module 1 - Identify Customer Needs
Section 1 - Characterize the Existing Network
Section Objectives
Upon completion of this section, you will be able to:
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Identify all the data you should gather to characterize the customer's
existing network.
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Document the customer's current applications, protocols, topology, and
number of users.
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Document the customer's business issues that are relevant to a network
design project.
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Assess the health of the customer's existing network and make conclusions
about the network's ability to support growth.
Time Required to Complete This Section
Approximately 4 hours
Completing This Section
Follow these steps to complete this section:
1. Study the reading assignment.
2. Click on any links that you see in the reading assignment and review
the information that appears.
3. Review any tables and job aids that appear in the reading assignment.
4. Review the case studies at the end of this section.
5. Complete the questions in each case study.
6. Review the answers provided by our internetworking experts.
Resources Required to Complete This Section
To complete this section, you will need:
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Access to Cisco's Web site and the World Wide Web
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A downloaded, printed copy of this section
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Paper and pencil
Reading Assignment
Characterizing the Network
To characterize a customer's network, you will:
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Identify any bottlenecks.
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Determine if the anticipated growth will cause problems.
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Recognize legacy systems that must be incorporated into the new design.
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Recognize business constraints and inputs to the new design. Business constraints
are business-related issues (not technical issues) that may place a limitation
on your network design.
Gathering Administrative Data
Administrative data will help you determine the company's business goals,
corporate structure, geographical structure, current and future staffing,
and policies and politics that may affect your internetwork design.
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Business Goals: Determine the company's major business goals for
the next year, and the next five years. This information is important to
help you design an internetwork that provides the scalability required.
Research your customer's industry and competition. With knowledge of your
customer's business, you can position Cisco technologies and products to
help strengthen the customer's status in the customer's own industry.
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Corporate Structure: The final internetwork design usually reflects
the corporate structure, so ask your client to help you understand the
corporate structure.
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Geographical Structure: Locate major user communities.
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Current and Future Staffing: Ask the following questions:
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How much in-house internetworking expertise is there?
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Does the company plan to expand staff as required to support the new internetwork
design?
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Who will help you design the internetwork?
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Will the new design cause changes in job functions or possibly eliminate
jobs?
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Policies and Politics: Past successes and failures may help you
determine problem areas for your internetwork design. Ask the following
questions:
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Has a new design been tried before and failed? Who owned that design?
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Are there people on the project who do not want to implement changes?
Gathering Technical Data
Technical data will help you understand the customer's current and planned
applications, as well as current protocols, internetworking devices, and
performance bottlenecks.
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Applications: Identify the customer's current applications and plans
for future applications.
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Information Flows: Analyze where information flows in the company.
If any business process reengineering has been done recently, the information
flows may already be documented. If not, it could take considerable time
to do the analysis.
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Shared Data: Determine where shared data resides and who uses it.
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Network Traffic and Access: Determine how much network traffic flows
from one network segment to another. Determine whether data outside the
company, such as the Internet, is accessed.
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Network Performance Characteristics: Make sure you understand the
performance characteristics of the existing network. Document any problems,
especially if they will still exist even after your new design is implemented.
If time permits, do a baseline analysis of the performance of the existing
internetwork. If the internetwork is too large for the baseline analysis
to be practical, analyze the backbones and critical network segments.
Tools to Characterize a Network
If you are unfamiliar with tools to help you characterize a customer's
network, click on the following links and do some reading. These are just
some of the many tools available.
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The Netsys Enterprise/Solver Performance Tools analyze interface statistics,
routing table sizes, IP/IPX accounting data, and enterprise RMON information
to provide an observed performance snapshot of the current network. You
can read more about Netsys tools in the Network Management section of Cisco's
Product Catalog.
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Cisco's NetFlow switching traffic management enables full-time monitoring
of network traffic and collection of detailed statistics. It also offers
advanced accounting and reporting capabilities through the NetFlow Data
Export function and applications from Cisco partners. It has advantages
over many tools because it does not require an extra protocol, such as
RMON.
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CiscoWorks, which is described in the Network Management section of your
"Small and Medium Business Solution Guide" (included in your CCDA kit),
is a set of SNMP-based tools for characterizing a customer's network, monitoring
the status of devices, maintaining configurations, and troubleshooting
problems.
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Protocol analyzers such as Network Associate's
Sniffer network analyzer capture and analyze network traffic, providing
both protocol analysis and statistics. Some analyzers, such as the Sniffer
network analyzer, include artificial intelligence expert capabilities to
simplify and enhance performance management.
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The Scion software package
was developed by Merit Network, Inc. as a freeware, turnkey Internet service
provider (ISP) network statistics package. It uses SNMP to collect network
management information from network routers, and employs a standards-based
client/server architecture to make the information available on the Web.
Steps in Characterizing a Network
This section provides a structured methodology that you can use to characterize
a customer's network. The procedures, charts, and checklists will help
you determine customer networking needs so you can design scalable solutions
that maximize customer satisfaction.
The next time you plan to investigate the state of a customer's network,
you can print this section to take with you to the customer's site.
Step 1: Characterize the Customer's Applications
Use the following table to characterize the customer's applications.
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In the "Name of Application" field, enter the name of each application
the customer runs over the network.
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In the "Type of Application" field, enter information that will help you
characterize the application, for example, database, multimedia, electronic
mail, manufacturing support system, and so on.
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In the "Number of Users" field, enter the number of users who access each
application.
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In the "Number of Hosts or Servers" field, enter the number of hosts or
servers that provide each application.
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In the "Comments" field, add any comments relevant to the network design.
For example, add any scalability concerns you have. Include any information
you have about corporate directions, such as plans to migrate from an application.
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Name of Application
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Type of Application
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Number of Users
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Number of Hosts or Servers
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Comments
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Step 2: Characterize the Network Protocols
Use the following table to characterize the customer's network protocols.
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In the "Name of Protocol" field, enter the name of each protocol on the
network.
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In the "Type of Protocol" field, enter some text that will help you identify
the protocol, for example, session-layer protocol, client/server, and so
on.
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In the "Number of Users" field, enter the number of users who use each
protocol.
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In the "Number of Hosts or Servers" field, enter the number of servers
that use each protocol.
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In the "Comments" field, enter any comments relevant to the network design.
For example, add any scalability concerns you have. Include any information
you have about corporate directions, such as plans to migrate from a protocol.
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Name of Protocol
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Type of Protocol
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Number of Users
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Number of Hosts or Servers
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Comments
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Step 3: Document the Customer's Current Network
Network Topology
On a separate piece of paper or in another application, draw a network
topology map (or obtain a drawing from the customer). Include the type
and speed of each major segment or link. Include the names and addresses
of major internetworking devices and servers.
Addressing Schemes
Document addressing schemes used in the current network design. Current
addressing might impact your ability to modify the network structure. For
example, current IP subnet masking might limit the number of nodes in a
LAN or virtual LAN (VLAN).
Concerns about the Network
In the space provided below, document any concerns you have about the current
topology and any additional information about the architecture of the internetwork
that might not be obvious from the topology drawing. Characterize the overall
network architecture to help you understand data-flow patterns.
Step 4: Identify Potential Bottlenecks
Use a Protocol Analyzer to Determine Local Traffic
To identify potential network bottlenecks, obtain a protocol analyzer and
determine how much of the network traffic on each major network segment
is NOT local.
Specify how much of the traffic travels to different network segments,
how much comes from different network segments, and how much just passes
through this network segment.
Characterizing Traffic That Is NOT Local
Use the following table to characterize how much of the traffic on each
network segment is NOT local. Source and destination refer to source and
destination network-layer addresses.
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In the "Both Source and Destination Are Local" field, enter the percentage
of traffic on that segment that applies.
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In the "Source Is Local, Destination Is Not Local" field, enter the percentage
of traffic on that segment that applies.
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In the "Source Is Not Local, Destination Is Local" field, enter the percentage
of traffic on that segment that applies.
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In the "Source Is Not Local, Destination Is Not Local" field, enter the
percentage of traffic on that segment that applies.
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Both Source and Destination Are Local
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Source Is Local, Destination Is Not Local
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Source Is Not Local, Destination Is Local
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Source Is Not Local, Destination Is Not Local
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Segment 1
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Segment 2
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Segment 3
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Segment 4
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Step 5: Identify Business Constraints and Inputs to Your Network Design
After talking to your customer, check off as many of the following items
as possible:
In the space following, document any concerns you have about the customer's
business constraints:
Step 6: Characterize the Existing Network Availability
Gather statistics on network downtime and the mean time between failure
(MTBF) for the internetwork. If some segments are known to be fragile,
document the MTBF separately for those segments. Try to get the customer
to express the cost of downtime by asking the following questions:
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What is the cost by department for a network outage (per hour)?
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What is the cost to the company or organization for a network outage (per
hour)?
Use the following table to help you determine the MTBF for each network
segement and the internetwork as a whole:
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In the "MTBF" field, enter the mean time between failures for each network
segment.
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In the "Date of Last Downtime" field, enter the date on which the last
downtime was experienced.
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In the "Duration of Last Downtime" field, enter how long the last downtime
lasted.
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In the "Cause of Last Downtime" field, enter the cause (if known) of the
last downtime on that segment.
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MTBF
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Date of Last Downtime
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Duration of Last Downtime
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Cause of Last Downtime
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Internetwork
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Segment 1
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Segment 2
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Segment 3
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Step 7: Characterize the Network Performance
In the following table, document the results of any response time/performance
measurements that you completed for each host on the network:
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Host A
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Host B
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Host C
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Host D
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Host A
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Host B
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Host C
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Host D
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Step 8: Characterize the Existing Network Reliability
Gather statistics about each major network segment using a monitoring
tool such as a protocol analyzer, network monitor, or network management
tool. If possible, monitor each segment for at least a day. At the end
of the day, record what the monitor has seen on each segment:
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Total megabytes (MB)
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Total number of frames
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Total number of CRC errors
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Total number of MAC-layer errors (collisions, Token Ring soft errors, FDDI
ring ops)
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Total number of broadcasts/multicast frames
Characterize the current network reliability by completing the following
table. To calculate the average network utilization, add each hourly average
and divide by the number of hourly averages. For the peak network utilization,
record the highest hourly average. (If you have more granular data than
hourly, record any short-term peaks.) For the average frame size, divide
the total number of MB transferred on the network by the total number of
frames.
The rate calculations are more complex. Your concern here is the number
of errors or broadcasts compared to the amount of normal traffic. To calculate
the CRC error rate, divide the total number of CRCs by the total amount
of MB. For the MAC-layer error rate, divide the total number of MAC-layer
errors by the total number of frames. For the broadcasts/multicasts rate,
divide the total number of broadcasts/multicasts by the total number of
frames.
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Average Network Utilization
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Peak Network Utilization
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Average Frame Size
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CRC Error Rate
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MAC-layer Error Rate
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Broadcasts/
Multicasts Rate
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Segment 1
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Segment 2
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Segment 3
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Segment 4
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Segment 5
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Step 9: Characterize Network Utilization
Configure the monitoring tool to output an average network utilization
statistic once each hour so you can determine when the peak usage hours
are. If the network is saturated (overutilized), look at network utilization
every minute. Especially on Ethernet, peaks over 40 percent that last more
than a minute cause noticeable performance degradation.
If time permits, characterize how much of the bandwidth on each segment
is used by different protocols by completing the following table. Many
network monitors let you specify the bandwidth used by protocols as relative
or absolute bandwidth.
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In the "Relative Network Utilization" field, enter the amount of bandwidth
used by each protocol in comparison to the total bandwidth used on this
segment.
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In the "Absolute Network Utilization" field, enter the amount of bandwidth
used by each protocol in comparison to the total capacity of the segment
(for example, in comparison to 10 Mbps on Ethernet).
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In the "Average Frame Size" field, enter the average frame size for each
protocol.
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In the "Broadasts/Multicasts Rate" field, enter the broadcast/multicasts
rate for each protocol.
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Relative Network Utilization
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Absolute Network Utilization
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Average Frame Size
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Broadcasts/
Multicasts Rate
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IP
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IPX
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AppleTalk
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NetBIOS
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Other
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For major protocols, you might want to configure your network monitor
to break the data down even further. For example, in an IP environment,
it is useful to know how much bandwidth is used by routing protocols, TCP-based
applications, and UDP-based applications.
Step 10: Characterize the Status of the Major Routers
Characterize the status of the major routers in the network by completing
the following chart. Plan to spend about a day studying the routers. The
following Cisco IOS software show commands will help you fill out
the chart:
Complete the following table every hour for each interface as follows:
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In the "Router Name" field, enter the name of each major router.
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To complete the remaining fields, add up the results from the show interfaces,
show processes, and show buffers commands. Then divide the
total by the number of samples to complete average values for the "5-Minute
CPU Utilization," "Output Queue Drops per Hour," "Input Queue Drops per
Hour," "Missed Packets per Hour," and "Ignored Packets per Hour" fields.
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In the "Comments" field, enter any comments that will help you characterize
the status of each router.
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Router Name
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5-Minute CPU Utilization
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Output Queue Drops per Hour
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Input Queue Drops per Hour
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Missed Packets per
Hour
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Ignored Packets per
Hour
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Comments
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Router 1
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Router 2
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Router 3
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Router 4
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Router 5
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Step 11: Characterize the Existing Network Management System and Tools
In the following space, list the type of platform and network management
tools in use. If available, gather recent examples of daily, weekly, and
monthly reports.
Step 12: Summarize the Health of the Existing Internetwork
Based on the data you have gathered from the customer's network, check
off any of the following items that are true. On a healthy network, you
should be able to check off all the items.
Note that these guidelines are just approximations. Exact thresholds
depend on the type of traffic, applications, internetworking devices, topology,
and criteria for accepting network performance. As every good engineer
knows, the answer to most questions about network performance (and most
questions in general) is "it depends."
NETWORK HEALTH CHECKLIST
In the following space, document any concerns you have about the health
of the existing network and its ability to support growth.
Case Studies
In this section, you will analyze the existing network and determine
customer requirements.
Read each case study and complete the questions that follow. Keep in
mind that there are potentially several correct answers to each question.
When you complete each question, you can refer to the solutions provided
by our internetworking experts. The case studies and solutions will help
prepare you for the Sylvan exam following the course.
In this section, you will review the following case studies:
1. CareTaker Publications, a publishing company
2. PH Network Services Corporation, a health care company
3. Pretty Paper Ltd., a European wall covering company
4. Jones, Jones, & Jones, an international law firm
Case Study: CareTaker Publications
Instructions
To help you evaluate whether you have mastered this section and are ready
to move on:
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Read the following case study information.
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Answer the questions that follow.
The Client
Mr. Smith of CareTaker publications is responsible for updating the network
to use new technologies. Though he has a broad understanding of the options
available to him, he needs your help to plan a good network design. Your
first task is to gather information about the existing network.
Company Background
CareTaker is a venerable publisher of citation reference material. Though
it operates as an independent business, CareTaker is owned by Holdings
International (HI). It has two locations across town from each other: a
main office facility and a warehouse/distribution facility. The decision
has been made to build a new CareTaker headquarters office several miles
away from the current main office facility.
Applications
Administration, production, and support of the company's products and services
are accomplished with LAN-based applications. Publication media consist
of both books and CD-ROM products. CareTaker's publication data is collected
and maintained on an IBM ES9000 system. The IBM system, TN3270 terminals,
and PCs are connected to a single Token Ring network.
CareTaker has standardized on Microsoft Office applications and Microsoft
Exchange for internal e-mail and, therefore, will use the SMTP Connector
for SMTP mail to HI and the Internet. Quark Express will be used for publishing
functions. A custom SQL Server application has been developed in-house
for both order processing, and shipping and receiving functions.
Departmental Servers
Each of five departments (Sales and Marketing, Production, Finance, Distribution,
and Human Resources) will have its own Windows NT file and print server,
which means adding three servers because Sales and Marketing, and Distribution
share one server and the remaining departments share a second server. The
IS staff is divided over where to locate the servers and wants a recommendation
on the physical location of the servers.
Clients and Terminals
The company now wants to convert the 73 TN3270 terminals to PCs or network
computers (NCs). In all, 113 PCs will be on the network over three floors.
97 PCs will access the ES9000 via Open Connect TN3270 emulation. Of the
97 PCs to have mainframe access, the 73 replacement terminals will generate
the most traffic. The warehouse has 10 terminals that will be replaced
with PCs or NCs.
Existing Network
The company has a leased line connection between the main offices and the
warehouse. A T1/E1 point-to-point circuit is maintained between CareTaker
and HI in New York. This circuit is a part of a much larger WAN owned and
maintained by HI. SNA is the only traffic on this line.
The new PCs and NCs will create a great deal of terminal emulation traffic
over the LAN. The Token Ring environment will be completely replaced with
Ethernet. Logistics issues require that the mainframe remain up until such
time as the entire staff is moved and is operational.
In conjunction with the network and system changes, HI will provide
parent-corporation-wide e-mail as well as Internet e-mail and access services.
Only 40 employees, based on name and position, will be allowed to have
browsing access to the Internet; all others will be restricted.
HI also will be responsible for the host-to-host communications between
CareTaker's ES9000 and HI's IBM mainframe. All of these services will be
provided to CareTaker by HI over the T1 line.
The new routed traffic will be shared with the SNA traffic using a load-sharing
CSU (CSU with built-in multiplexer) so that SNA traffic is not routed and
is maintained separate from the routed traffic. Only IP will be allowed
to be routed over the WAN. HI's Network Operations personnel will be responsible
for all WAN functions from CareTaker's FEP and router outward.
Goals for the New Network
The IS manager has asked for an internetwork design to connect all the
systems within the new facility, the warehouse, and HI's Cisco 7000 series
router located in another city. HI's Network Operations personnel will
be responsible for the configuration and connection to HI's router, but
CareTaker will be responsible for the router purchase on its end. The Network
Operations group has specified IGRP as the routing protocol used by the
corporate router.
Cabling Intermediate Distribution Facilities are located in the center
of each floor with a Main Distribution Facility located in the computer
room. The computer room is located on the first floor and takes up half
of that floor. The IS department is located in the remaining half of that
floor.
Mr. Smith hands you the following data gathered from his network:
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Monthly Report
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Site: Medford
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Date: September 30, 1997 |
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Administrator: Jane Stevens |
| Downtime |
September 2nd |
| Duration of downtime |
1/2 hour |
| Cause of downtime |
loose lobe cable |
| Average network utilization |
5 percent |
| Peak network utilization |
30 percent |
| Average frame size |
unknown |
| CRC error rate |
unknown |
| Soft errors |
Very few except during problem with loose cable and first
thing in the morning when stations boot |
| Broadcasts |
About 10 percent of the traffic |
| Comments |
We did not have time to gather all the required data this
month |
Now that you have read the description of the network at CareTaker Publications,
answer the following questions. Use the information contained in this section
to help you characterize the network at CareTaker Publications.
1. Has the customer provided you with all of
the data that you need to characterize the existing network?
What data do you still
need to gather from the customer?
2. What are the customer's current applications?
3. What are the customer's current protocols?
4. On a separate sheet of paper, draw a high-level
topology of the customer's current network.
5. Document the customer's business constraints.
6. Identify new applications or old applications
that will use the new networking structure.
Now that you have completed the exercise, click
here to view the solutions provided by our internetworking design experts.
If you want to view the case study and the solutions at the same time,
open a new browser window, so you can view two windows at the same time.
Case Study: PH Network Services Corporation
Instructions
To help you evaluate whether you have mastered this section and are ready
to move on:
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Read the following case study information.
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Answer the questions that follow.
The Client
Mr. Pero of PH Network is responsible for updating the network to use new
technologies.
Company Background
PH Network is a joint venture between the New Life hospital system and
750 physicians in the community served by New Life. The company was formed
to improve patient services by the hospital and physicians and to provide
leverage when negotiating with managed care health plan companies.
One problem area and cost for the doctors is the specialist referral
authorization system. The doctors must get authorized referrals for specialist
services for their patients before the managed care health plans will cover
the cost for the patient. PH Network has negotiated with a number of health
plans to take on the risk of these referrals in exchange for more of the
premium. PH has determined that this scenario will make economic sense
if it can implement an automated referral authorization system. Mr. Pero
has indicated that referrals are nearly always made during normal office
hours of 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Current Network
The company maintains a 56-kbps leased line connection to the hospital
facilities and dial up terminal connections to some of the larger doctor
offices for access to the hospital's patient records. Both direct terminal
access and Telnet access are available on the hospital hosts. There are
a total of 120 doctor offices and 4 hospitals. The actual PH Network staff
consists of 50 employees in a single office location. Because the number
of these referral transactions will average 20 per day, PH Network plans
to use ISDN to network to all the doctor offices, and a Frame Relay network
between the PH office and the four hospitals. The connection between doctor
offices and the PH referral system will be a "dial as needed" design. Each
doctor office will have a PC for this purpose.
Some of the larger offices already have small Ethernet LANs. However,
PH is very concerned that the doctors will simply stop using the system
if it is not available when needed, which would mean failure for the venture.
Goals for the New Network
PH also knows doctors do not like to spend non medical money. Therefore,
it wants a network with the best estimate of sufficient ISDN connections
to start and the ability to add new connections very rapidly. The software
is being developed for a Windows NT/SQL Server system with a Microsoft
Access front end using an ODBC interface to the SQL Server. The hospital
connection is critical, so PH would like to look at possible redundancy
or backup for this connection.
Now that you have read the description of the network at PH Network,
answer the following questions. Use the information contained in this section
to help you characterize the network at PH Network.
1. What are the customer's current applications?
2. Document the customer's business constraints.
3. Document any concerns you have about this scenario.
4. Identify new applications or old applications
that will use the new networking structure.
Now that you have completed the exercise, click
here to view the solutions provided by our internetworking design experts.
If you want to view the case study and the solutions at the same time,
open a new browser window, so you can view two windows at the same time.
Case Study: Pretty Paper Ltd.
Instructions
To help you evaluate whether you have mastered this section and are ready
to move on:
-
Read the following case study information.
-
Answer the questions that follow.
The Client
Mr. Mick of Pretty Paper Ltd. is responsible for updating the network to
use new technologies.
Company Background
Pretty Paper is a family-owned company that has grown over the last 50
years to be a major supplier of wall coverings throughout Europe. Until
now, it has been able to manage its business with a Prime computer system
located in its Paris headquarters offices and an X.25 switched network
between two manufacturing plants and five sales offices in three time zones.
However, the Prime system can no longer keep up with the demands of the
business.
Pretty Paper will be converting to client/server technology using Oracle-based
software. The capital for this conversion has been budgeted and the time
line has been established as a three-month project, after which the new
business system will operate in parallel with the Prime until all applications
are fully converted and verified. Management has stipulated that the new
system must reduce the current processing time by half.
Client Systems and Applications
There are 31 existing PCs, 21 Apple Macintosh computers, and 120 Prime
terminals at headquarters. The PCs, Macintosh computers, and a single Novell
NetWare file server are on an Ethernet network in the headquarters administrative
facilities. The headquarters campus consists of the administrative office
building, the main warehouse building (300 meters from the main building),
and the central production plant (200 meters from the main building).
In the sales offices, three to five Prime terminals will be replaced
with PCs. The two manufacturing plants have four Macintosh computers each.
Pretty Paper has standardized on Lotus SmartSuite for productivity applications.
Pattern designs for wall covering products will be accomplished on the
Macintosh computers, published with Quark Express, and given to the production
department to generate printing film.
Server Systems and Applications
The business software is Oracle-based and will run on an HP9000 server.
A NetWare file server will be added and all 120 Prime terminals will be
replaced with PCs.
Goals for the New Network
In the new environment, Frame Relay is planned as a replacement for the
X.25 network. Management wants pattern designs to be available over the
WAN for evaluation and sales presentations. It also wants final pattern
designs to be transmitted over the LAN directly to film equipment that
would then create film for printing. These files are approximately 100
KB in size; 20 to 25 patterns will be sent for processing each evening
in the last three hours of the day, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Also, 5 to10 patterns
will be transmitted to sales offices each day.
Pretty Paper would like a proposal for a turnkey LAN/WAN solution that
will be brought online in parallel with the Prime system until all conversions
have been made.
Now that you have read Mr. Mick's description of the network at Pretty
Paper, answer the following questions. Use the information contained in
this section to help you characterize the network at Pretty Paper Ltd.
1. What are the customer's current applications?
2. What are the customer's current protocols?
3. On a separate sheet of paper, draw a high-level
topology of the customer's current network.
4. Document the customer's business constraints.
5. Identify new applications or old applications
that will use the new networking structure.
Now that you have completed the exercise, click
here to view the solutions provided by our internetworking design experts.
If you want to view the case study and the solutions at the same time,
open a new browser window, so you can view two windows at the same time.
Case Study: Jones, Jones, & Jones
Instructions
To help you evaluate whether you have mastered this section and are ready
to move on:
-
Read the following case study information.
-
Answer the questions that follow.
The Client
Ms. Jones, senior partner of Jones, Jones & Jones, is responsible for
updating the network to use new technologies.
Company Background
The firm is a regional law firm with three offices in the United States
and two international offices. Each U.S. office has approximately 50 computer
users; the international offices have 10 users each. The firm is feeling
the pinch of competition with larger firms that have all the latest technology
available. The partners know protocol as something used at international
negotiations and they do not want to know any more about it. They need
their people to be able to share documents and work together as if they
were in the same office. Even though their competition has more advanced
technology, they cannot keep buying new hardware.
Need for Information
The firm also needs to reduce the cost of its reference library. It would
like to have CD-ROM libraries for research and reference publications.
The partners envision as many as four or five researchers using the CD-ROM
library at any given time. They also want a fax server for each office.
Most faxes received by the international offices are from the US, and the
managing partner wants to know if there is any way to receive those faxes
in the US and make them available to the Europe and Middle East offices
over the network. The partner believes there would be about 30 faxes a
day.
Jones, Jones, & Jones has built an international reputation in its
specialty of international oil and gas law. Throughout recent years, the
firm has discovered a significant interest in this information on this
area of law. Therefore, the partners have decided to sell this research
in the form of research papers to be offered on an Internet Web site. This
commercial site will use credit card transactions and FTP downloads of
the research papers.
Desktop Applications
The partners have been long-time WordPerfect users and intend to stay standardized
on the WordPerfect suite. Each office has an Ethernet LAN, but the offices
are not interconnected. The partners want the lawyers to be able to work
from home and on the road just as efficiently as if they were in the office.
The attorneys work at all times of the day, but the system is in heavy
word processing use from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m.
Goals for the Network
The managing partner is looking for a proposal for a network design that
can support the business as well as the firm's selection of Novell's GroupWise
product for document management and e-mail. Internet access will be required
for e-mail and research. The managing partner knows this upgrade will be
expensive, but she is looking for three-year cost savings. She also wants
the lowest three-year cost for the WAN solution. She does not care if the
solution is leased lines or interim connections, as long as the lawyers
never know the difference, that is, as long as information is always available
within a couple of minutes. However, she is convinced that point-to-point
leased lines will be necessary for the international connections.
The managing partner stated that she has an administrative assistant
that enjoys computers and is excited about learning new technology anytime
he gets a chance.
Now that you have read Ms. Jones's description of the network at Jones,
Jones, & Jones, answer the following questions. Use the information
contained in the case study to help you characterize the network at Jones,
Jones, & Jones.
1. What are the customer's current applications?
2. Document the customer's business constraints.
3. Document any concerns you have about the scenario.
4. Identify new applications or old applications
that will use the new networking structure.
Now that you have completed the exercise, click
here to view the solutions provided by our internetworking design experts.
If you want to view the case study and the solutions at the same time,
open a new browser window, so you can view two windows at the same time.
You have just finished Module 1, Section 1. Click
here to advance to Section 2.
Copyright Cisco Systems, Inc. -- Version 2.0 7/98