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CSC00240: Advanced Medicos Limited (AML) - Data Communications and Networks Assessment Answer
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Subject Code: CSC00240
Internal Code: E_AI_DIID_CAF
At the moment they have very basic switched network having no wireless support. Workstations, printers, etc are all having wired network and no support for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). Server farm in located in Building B, has shown in the above table. A & B do not have any direct connection and use their respective web portals to connect. Edge router is located at A.
Data Communications and Networks Assessment Answer
TASK:Part A. Analysis of User Requirements
Background:
Advanced Medicos Limited (AML) is digital health company selling their healthcare products like system (hardware) providing various health services. AML intends to offer web-enabled health services apart from their traditinal system so the new customer need to buy their system. Those who buy their system do not need internet connectivity, but, the new one need and so AML wants to upgrade their network. This is the reason that they have hired us, as network specialist, where their main object is also to replace their old network. Their management has specified that they have been looking for “software development company of the future, using the latest technologies with a network which can accommodate the load now and for another five years and leaves room for further expansion”. It can also be worth noting that AML has head offices at 2 adjacent three-story buildings (Buildings A & B). A & B are within 20 meters which houses around 200 employees.Current Network Infrastructure
AML has 4 Departments with current network infrastructure as follows:| Building A | Numbers |
| Software Development Workstations | 70 |
| printers | 10 |
| Production Workstations | 5 |
| printers | 2 |
| Building B | Numbers |
| Department Hosts (server farm) | 4 |
| Marketing Workstations | 10 |
| printers | 4 |
| Administration Workstations | 5 |
| printers | 2 |
| Total Workstations | 90 |
| Total Printers | 18 |
| Total Hosts | 4 |
Requirements
AML is a futuristic company with aspirations to change work culture to provide flexibility like work from home for software development team. The software team requires 65 Laptops/MacBook Pro which can be used from home. Production support team which will normally work from office would require 60 machines to control 3D printers. Admin department requires additional 8 workstations & 2 printers. AML requires the connectivity for BYOD without compromising cyber security. Connectivity through WAN is required foris branch office located at a different city, 100 Kms away. New branch has has 2 departments: software development - 25 hosts (servers) and marketing (6 servers). AML’s Objects and Goals AML.s current objectives are to offer a modern network to the company emplyees which has better accessibility, like access from himes, without compromising cyber security. It also needs to support for online services and ensure that the company also enjoys the video-conferencing facilities amongs head office and its branch. AML assumes that its proposed network would deliver its objectives and business as well as technical goals. Wireless technlogy needs to be implemented without compromising secutiry at any cost. Its data and information has to be protected during its process of expanstion. In short, the company wants best technology available in the network domain. The network must be Scalable and support at least 5 years future requireemtns and expansion. The infrastruture needs to be highly avaialble with wireless access to all associated with the company, includeing external persons. The emplyees whould enjoy remote access without and degrades in the performance, which needs to continue to be high. The network resources must be relaible as well as secure.Part B: Description & Analysis of Current Setup (based on assumptions)
Description
After carefully considering the requirements and challenges presented by the new requiremetns and branch office purchased by AML, our team of network and security engineers have prapared the following network design for the business. The goal of the designed is to provide miximum performance, avilability, speed and over all, maximun security to serve your groing orgaization’s needs (Gundersen,et.al, 2019). The selected network topology for AML is a star Topology. In the star topology, as Wallace described, “Devices have an independent connection back to a central device. A cable brake only impacts the device connected via broken cable and noy the entire topology” (Wallace, 2012). The third floor will host 30% of AML personnel, which includes seventeen work stations with printers, two network copiers that will allow scanning and printing capibilities, and conference room with video conferencing. In addition, it will house a local file server, a database server, proxy server, a firewall and a network management station. Remaining workstations will be evenly dispersed depending on the space on the other 2 floors. The remaining floors will host the remining personnel, including thirty work stations with voip phones, two printers as well, and small meeting room with voip phone. In order to provide wireless coverage for employees, all floors will have wireless access points that will be connected to switch located on the corresponding floor. Due to the building infrastructure, all the cables need to be run over the celling. The cable of choice for the network is unshielded twisted pair (UTP) plenum category 5e (CAT5e). As describe by Wallace, plenum cable does not emit poisonous gas through the building’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, as other UTP cables (Wallace, 2012). The cable will be run from each station on the floor over the celling and will be connected to a switch. The connection from the third floor will be run down to the second floor, through the elevator, and will connect to the router/firewall and then to the service provider. On the first floor, we will use a switch as well to connect all work station, phones, network printers and conference room to the network. This switch will also connect to the router/firewall. In order to create a demilitarize zone for the local servers, there will be a second switch on this floor that will handle all the traffic for the local servers and will connect to the router/firewall as well. The router will provide the connection to the wireless access points to be installed in each floor.Analysis
The utilization of a star network topology and the use of switches for each floor facilitate troubleshooting and repairing broken wires. Additionally, it distributes traffic among three different switches and in the event of a switch failure; it would only affect the subnet connected to the device and not the entire network. The same scenario is not true when it comes to the router/firewall device, since it’s the back bone of our network and a single point of failure, the team as a secondary router on site and already configured to take over in case the active router fails. As in every organization, AML primary security concerns have to do with data confidentiality, integrity, and availability. To address the issue of data confidentiality, the network will include a domain (AML) and all stations, and the user will be part of the domain. Through the use of active directory (AD), users will be granted access to the organization resources, based on their function and roles in the organization. Each use will be given a network account that will allow them access to the necessary means to perform their job. For instance, only human and resource employees and identified supervisors will have access to the HR files and employees performance information. The wireless configuration will allow employees to connect to AML-Employee Wi-Fi using two levels of security; MAC filtering and user authentication. Only devices, which physical address has been authorized will have access to the secured employee wireless network. In order to prevent employees from the 4th floor to see the wireless network and attempt to connect to it, AML SSID will not be broadcast at all. The wireless configuration is part of AML base image, for laptops, and can be setup on AML provide mobile devices with a script. There is also a secured AML_Guest Wi-Fi for employees’ personal devices and guests. The wireless configuration is WPA2 and uses advance encryption standard (AES). The access key to the guest wireless will be reset on a weekly basis and user is able to retrieve the updated password from AML intranet site. As far as teleworking and remote access, AML virtual private network will allow users to connected remotely and still have protected connection. The IPsec tunnel configured for the organization offers encryption, data checksum, and user authentication. In order to address the data integrity concerns, the team has configured a stateful firewall. The decision to use a stateful firewall versus a packet-filtering firewall is because according to HP, “Stateful access control devices inspect deep within the packet stream for potential attacks. They identify and keep track of network conversations (connections) and can associate packets with conversations they have previously allowed based on rules” (HP, 2014). In addition to secure network, all systems will be patch properly and on a regular basis. There monitoring of software installation and version will also allow further protections and keep infections and attacks risks down. There are also data checksum controls that identify data interception and modification. To mitigate the availability concern, AML has been configured with cloud backup solution. Cloud backup allows complete and incremental backups, where a full backup is followed by the incremental backup that only capture data that has been changed. Every subsequent backup is just a “delta” of the previous backup, which enables faster backup and restore operations and reduces the storage amount required (Laffoon, 2014).This Networking Assessment has been solved by our Networking experts at onlineassignmentbank. Our Assignment Writing Experts are efficient to provide a fresh solution to this question. We are serving more than 10000+ Students in Australia, UK & US by helping them to score HD in their academics. Our Experts are well trained to follow all marking rubrics & referencing style.