Designing a network

Description: Networks are fundamental to every aspect of our society. Designing a network
that is both adequate to current and future needs is important. In this assignment, you are
asked to design a network according to a business specification.
Business Structure:
The business in this scenario is concerned with online retailing. It is composed of the following divisions.
a) Online content developers (25 staff)
b) Marketing Department (10 staff)
c) Transport and Distribution Department (50 staff)
d) Management (15 staff)
e) IT staff (10 staff)
f) Admin (5 staff)
The premises are located in the CBD across three floors of a rented office tower. The IT staff and online
content developers are located in adjacent offices on the top floor. Management and Marketing are on the
second floor, whilst Transport and Distribution are located on the ground floor, along with the admin staff.
Separately, the warehouse for the business contains 30 of the 50 Transport and Distribution staff and is
located in the outer suburbs.
The requirement is to build an efficient network to meet the needs of the business and for its future growth.
The IT specifications for each department are these:
a) Online content developers – 15 workstations + access to company
product databases
b) Marketing Department – 8 workstations + access to company
marketing databases
c) Transport and Distribution Department – 30 workstations (10 in CBD & 20 in warehouse) + access
to company warehouse databases + 10 wireless units
d) Management – 10 workstations + access to company
business intelligence databases
e) IT staff – 8 workstations + access to all company
IT assets including web servers
f) Admin – 4 workstations + access to all company
databases via software to generate reports
As each department has fewer office workstations compared with staff, a requirement for
offsite access is mandatory. For the warehouse, wireless network connectivity for mobile
tracking is required.
Your task: Using the information provided about the business, design a network layout to
maximise efficiency and to allow both offsite access to the business resources by employees
and the general public for e-commerce. You will generate a network layout using a tool such
as ‘Packet Tracer’. It is important to give labels to your interfaces, both name and IP, one
such example of labelling is displayed in the following diagram.