I. You have just begun working as a networking consultant for a company called Infomatics Inc. One of your first tasks is to help troubleshoot a small Ethernet network at a Life Insurance office within the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania called Penn Life Insurance Co. The backbone of this local network consists of five switches connected in a bus fashion. Four of these switches service workgroups of 48 workstations each. The last switch services two file servers and two shared printers. Because of continuous growth and in anticipation of a heavier workload, this organization recently upgraded its network from 10Base-T to 100Base-T. However, they have not seen any of the performance increases they expected. Write a detailed letter to the President of Penn Life Insurance Co. explaining in non-technical terms why they may not be seeing any performance improvements on their network (even after they upgraded their network speed by a factor of ten). Your letter should include an appendix (or attachment) where you will specify the network modifications necessary for a 100Base-T operating environment. These network modifications should be very detailed and are intended for the Network Administrator at Penn Life Insurance Co. The appendix to your letter (for the Network Administrator) should include: (1) A network diagram of the components in a star topology; (2) Details on the updated NICs for the 100 Base-T network; (3) Details on the updated data cables (10 Base-T typically runs on CAT-3 (telephone cable) and they need CAT-5 or better Ethernet cable); Details on the maximum number of connecting devices, as well as the maximum number of network segments in a 100base-T networking environment. The network managers at the Penn Life Insurance Co. followed your advice on reconfiguring the network, and as a result, the network is now running more smoothly. However, they have learned that their firm will be merging with another equally sized Life Insurance Company across town (but also in the city of Scranton). They now need a WAN to connect the two offices. They have also realized that their Internet and voice over IP connections are too slow. They have been using a Frame Relay data provider. They will need a faster transmission method with fairly good security and a guarantee of adequate throughput during the daytime hours but they are not willing to spend the extra money for an extremely fault tolerant network. Determining the right technology and equipment is crucial to developing a promising and scalable network. You will write a four page narrative where you will compare Frame Relay, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) technologies. You will examine their throughput, equipment, cost, and the like, to achieve the most desirable results. Then you will recommend the technology which can offer the best quality of service, meet their bandwidth requirements, and has the right scalability potential for the current and future needs of the Penn Life Insurance Co. II. Your employer, Wellgreen Health Products, is a large manufacturer and distributor of generic, over-the-counter healthcare products. Its corporate campus consists of three buildings within two blocks of each other in the city of Chicago. Each building houses approximately 200 employees, in the following departments: Administration, Accounting, Research, Legal, Quality Control, Order Fulfillment, and Production. In addition, Wellgreen Health Products owns a large distribution warehouse approximately ten miles away from the headquarters. Until now, its networks have relied entirely on wired connections. The company’s CIO (chief information officer) decided long ago that she would wait until wireless technology “settled down” before investing in it. Write a Proposal Letter to Wellgreen’s Chief Information Officer; include in your letter the four major points listed below: 1. Tell her about the new wireless standards (to convince her that now is the right time to adopt wireless technology). 2. Also, give her detailed examples showing that wireless networking could improve the company’s productivity. 3. Explain which employees could make best use of wireless connections and explain how.. 4. In what type of situations would all employees benefit from wireless networking? You have persuaded Wellgreen Health Products’s CIO that wireless networking would benefit many of the company’s employees. However, she requests that you plan the network carefully and begin with a pilot network before migrating hundreds of clients to use wireless technology. You decide to begin with a pilot network in the distribution facility. The distribution facility is 600 feet long by 210 feet wide. It houses 65 employees during each shift, all on the same floor. Prepare a two-page narrative describing the pilot wireless network. As part of this planning document, draw a network diagram, including the quantity and optimal placement of access points. You should also address: 1. What pitfalls, (some unique to this environment), will you need to be careful to avoid? 2. What wireless standard do you recommend for this pilot wireless network? And be sure to explain why you recommend your particular wireless network standard. The time has come for Wellgreen Health Products to expand. The board of directors has purchased another warehouse for a second distribution facility. This new warehouse is located in an industrial area, about eight miles from the company’s corporate office. Unfortunately, fiber-optic cable has not reached this area, and given the numerous obstacles to digging, it would be prohibitively expensive to install. Prepare a one-to-two page narrative describing the necessary upgrades to the pilot wireless network. Your narrative should include the following points: 1. The type of long-distance, high-throughput wireless technology that you recommend to connect the headquarters office with the new distribution center. 2. List the benefits and drawbacks of this type of wireless connection as compared to a T-1 over SONET connection. 3. Also provide a detailed list of equipment that each location would need to make your wireless solution work. Note: Each formal writing assignment should be double spaced and written using Arial or Times New Roman font type with a font size of 12 points. The document margins should be one-inch and the word count should be 1500 or higher.
