ICT 3040Y Group Network Assignment Semester 2 Academic Year 2020-2021

ATTEMPT ALL QUESTIONS. NOTE THAT THE TOTAL MARKS WILL BE MARGINALIZED TO 30.

QUESTION 1 [30 MARKS]

Your team has been assigned to design a Local Area Network (LAN) for a business company,
known as Network Consultants Ltd (for short, NCL). The LAN in NCL will be a purely IP LAN
using solely Ethernet cabling (transmission media) and networking equipment/devices. The
Director of NCL has tabled the following requirements to your team. All these requirements
should imperatively be met.

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE NCL LAN

(a) There will be two small networks (subnets/network segments) in the LAN – Network X
and Network Y. Only Ethernet cabling (transmission media) will be used within these
networks to connect one network to the other or to connect to any networking
device(s).
(b) Network X will use a shared (common) medium and fifteen (15) nodes (personal
computers, laptops) will be connected to it. In Network X, clerks perform elementary
Word Processing and document-editing tasks on their respective nodes. They also
create PowerPoint presentations. The processed Word documents and PowerPoint
presentations are all forwarded and stored on a Learning Content Management System
(LCMS) Server X (LCMS Server X) for further processing. Public IP addresses within the
range 50.100.150.1 - 50.100.150.15 are used in Network X. Subnet mask is default.
(c) In Network Y, each node has its own individual transmission medium and hence, takes
advantage of its own entire bandwidth. All transmissions go through a central
networking device. In Network Y, twenty (20) nodes (personal computers and laptops)
are connected. In Network Y, each node processes huge video and audio files which are
then transferred to a LAN Server (LAN Server Y) for further processing. Public IP
addresses within the range 200.100.50.1 - 200.100.50.20 are used in Network Y. Subnet
mask is default.
(d) A Shared Network Printer having Public IP address 150.175.200.225 used by ALL
employees in Networks X and Y should also be deployed. Its subnet mask is default. You
need to decide as to where to install this network printer so that it offers optimal
performance and does not create any unnecessary load on any network segment.
(e) The LAN of NCL also has a DNS Server, A Mail Server and a Web Server. Their IP address
are 20.30.40.50, 60.70.80.90 and 100.110.120.130 respectively. Subnet mask is default.
(f) ALL the Servers as well as the Shared Network Printer should be installed in such a way
as to prevent unwanted packets submerging the different segments of the LAN and
inducing congestion in them.
(g) The LAN of NCL has a connection to the Internet. You are NOT required to state or work
out the WAN technology (ADSL etc) that can be used for Internet connectivity! You
simply need to show that there is a connection to the Internet using any transmission
media and/or deice(s). Include a simple picture of the Internet cloud.
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Question 1 [30 marks]
Show the COMPLETE Physical Network Layout (diagram) on a SINGLE DIAGRAM. CONSIDER
THE FOLLOWING IN YOUR DIAGRAM!!!
(a) Clearly draw Networks X and Y as well as the nodes/devices etc. connected to them).
Write the topology that has been used somewhere inside each drawing.
(b) Identity and write the name of the type of transmission media (cables) used in
Networks X and Y; the transmission media used to connect the Servers (LCMS Server
X/LAN Server Y/the DNS Server/the Mail Server/the Web Server); the transmission
media used to connect the Shared Network Printer and the nodes to the networking
equipment etc.
(c) Identity and write the name of ALL networking equipment/intermediate device(s) used
(d) Clearly show the location of ALL the Servers (LCMS Server X/LAN Server Y/DNS Server/
Mail Server/Web Server) and the Shared Network Printer
(e) Show your link to the Internet (WWW) (how you would connect the NCL LAN to the
Internet using appropriate devices etc. You are NOT required to state or work out the
WAN technology (ADSL etc) that can be used for Internet connectivity!
[6+6+6+8+4 marks]

Note 1: you need NOT draw ALL the nodes (computers) in Networks X and Y. Draw three nodes
(any combination of laptops/personal computers) for each Network separated by dots to
illustrate the last node as exemplified in Figure 1. Label the node name (Node 1, Node 2….Node
15 for Network X) and (Node 1, Node 2….Node 20 for Network Y) and write their associated IP
address below them (from the ranges given above). For all Servers, write the type of the server
followed by the word Server and their IP address below each of them as shown in Figure 1.
For example, LCMS Server X, LAN Server Y, DNS Server, Mail Server and Web Server. For the
Shared Network Printer, write Shared Network Printer followed by its IP address below it. Write
the transmission medium name at the right or left of the cable. If the same transmission
medium is used for all the connections in a Network, write for only one (not for all of the
connections!). For any internetworking equipment/device used, write its name to the left or to
the right of it. Examples are provided in Figure 1 below.

Note 2: Networks X and Y both have access to the Internet (WWW) but are NOT
interconnected (they are separate networks). Their access to the Internet is deployed using a
line (WAN technology) that connects the entire NCL LAN to the Internet (WWW). Nonetheless,
if access to the Internet is down on account of some local problems (broken cable/equipment
malfunction etc) in Network X, then Network Y should still operate and have access to the
Internet (and vice-versa).

Note 3: Endeavour to propose a simple and yet effective design with a minimum number of
networking equipment (hence, less cost).

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An example of a basic Network Layout is illustrated in Figure 1. As shown in Figure 1, the name
of the networking equipment used SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN your network layout (diagram).

Figure 1

QUESTION 2 [30 MARKS]

(a) A company has enrolled 500 workers. The workers work on a shift system as follows:
from midnight to noon, 250 employees work and from noon to midnight the remaining
set of 250 employees takes over. The company has 500 stations and the employees can
work on any of them. However, the company is subject to serious financial constraints
and cannot afford to unnecessary expenses on network resources, which the manager
says, should be used optimally. The stations have no IP addresses and should
automatically be assigned one for the employees to gain access to the Internet cloud.
Propose, with detailed and valid reasons, a simple scheme that would make the above
possible.
[3 marks]

(b) What is the trade-off made when using Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSATs) compared
to satellites?
[3 marks]
(c) Network N is a very low-bandwidth network. It has been designed to use solely
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) as the transport layer protocol. Discuss the
implications of several stations initiating countless multicast transmissions in Network
N.
[4 marks]

(d) Assume that there are two areas within Autonomous System 1, namely, Area 1 and Area
2, as illustrated in Figure 2.

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 Figure 2
Area 2 is used for military purposes and hence, should be highly secured. Within
Autonomous System 1, the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routing protocol is used. The
Area Border Routers of Area 1 and Area 2 are Area Border Router 1 and Area Border
Router 2 respectively. Hackers in Area 1 are trying to break into Area 2. Explain what can
be done by the Area Border Router 2 to prevent Area Border Router 1 from sending
insecure traffic to Area 2. You are not allowed to treat security protocols or
mechanisms/hacking policies and firewalls in your answer.
[4 marks]

(e) In what ways are TCP and the choke packets algorithm/technique similar in dealing with
congestion?
[4 marks]

(f) In an attempt to achieve good Quality of Service (QoS), buffering is used. State TWO
tradeoffs that are made when using buffering for video streaming.
[4 marks]

(g) (i) How are signals/channels separated in Frequency Division multiplexing?

(ii) How are signals/channels separated in Time Division multiplexing?
[2+2 marks]
(h) What are the implications of sending packets with very short transmission delay in a
network that is purely connectionless and uses UDP as protocol?
[2+2 marks]

***** END OF ASSIGNMENT *****