Table of Contents
Module 1 - Identify Customer Needs
Section 1 - Characterize the Existing Network
CareTaker Publications: Solution
1. Has the customer provided you with all the
data that you need to characterize the existing network?
What data do you still need
to gather from the customer?
-
Mr. Smith has provided you with a lot of data that will help you characterize
the current internetwork at CareTaker Publications. The monthly report
from the site is not very helpful because you need to design an Ethernet
LAN to replace the Token Ring when the move is made to the new building.
More information on MTBF and downtime might prove to be helpful. Although
no redundancy has been requested, MTBF and downtime information might help
you justify some redundancy in your design.
-
If possible, you should try to gather more information about the corporate
network. For example, collecting some performance information about the
Cisco 7000 series router might help in the event there are problems when
the new T1/E1 connection is activated. Because the Cisco 7000 series router
is not connected to the CareTaker T1/E1 connection, no bandwidth or error
reports will be available for the Cisco 7000 series router. The only traffic
currently on the T1/E1 is non routed SNA. You will need information about
what portion of the T1/E1 the SNA traffic is utilizing. Also, understand
that you will not be responsible for or involved with any SNA on this project.
2. What are the customer’s current applications?
-
Open Connect TN3270 terminal emulation
-
Microsoft Office productivity
-
Quark Express desktop publishing
-
Custom order processing based on SQL Server
-
Custom shipping and receiving based on SQL Server
3. What are the customer’s current protocols?
4. Draw a high-level topology of the customer’s
current network.
5. Document the customer’s business constraints.
-
New facilities are being built.
-
The two facilities are across town from each other.
-
The parent company is responsible for the WAN and SNA.
-
TN3270 is used (there will be no SNA traffic on the LAN or warehouse link).
-
There is limited Internet access, probably filtered at the router.
-
The Windows NT file servers will require NetBIOS.
6. Identify new applications or old applications
that will use the new networking structure.
|
Name and Type of Application
|
Protocols
|
# of Users
|
# of Hosts or Servers
|
Peak Usage Hours
|
| Open Connect TN3270 with Token Ring attached terminals
and cluster controllers |
TCP/IP
TN3270 |
97 |
1 |
unknown |
| Microsoft Exchange e-mail |
TCP/IP |
113 |
1 |
unknown |
| Internet access |
TCP/IP |
40 |
1 |
unknown |
| Department file servers |
IP |
113 |
5 |
business hours |
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