Lesson two

Network design steps

 Lesson objective
Be familiar with the overall process of designing
a computer network
Top-Down Network Design Steps
Analyze
requirements

Monitor and Develop

optimize logical
network design
performance

Implement Develop
and test physical
network design
Test, optimize,
and document
design
 Network Design Steps
• Phase 1 – Analyze Requirements
– Analyze business goals and constraints
– Analyze technical goals and tradeoffs
– Characterize the existing network
– Characterize network traffic
 Network Design Steps
• Phase 2 – Logical Network Design
– Design a network topology
– Design models for addressing and naming
– Select switching and routing protocols
– Develop network security strategies
– Develop network management strategies
 Network Design Steps
• Phase 3 – Physical Network Design
– Select technologies and devices for campus
networks
– Select technologies and devices for enterprise
networks
 Network Design Steps
• Phase 4 – Testing, Optimizing, and Documenting the Network
Design
– Test the network design
– Optimize the network design
– Document the network design

– Results of Network Design Testing: from prototype or pilot systems

implemented

– Both pilot and prototype are used to "test and verify designs"
The Pilot Network tests and verifies a design before the network is
launched.
The Prototype Network tests and verifies a design or redesign in an
isolated network before inflicting it on the real network.
• 5. Implementation Plan: for installations,
outsourcing, informing users, training,
measuring design effectiveness, and
fallback and future plans.
• Project Schedule: at least dates and deliverables for
major milestones
• Project Budget: funds available for purchases,
maintenance, support, licenses, training, and
staffing
– Return on Investment: how quickly the design will pay for
itself
 Gathering and Listing Requirements
Requirements are gathered and developed with initial conditions
on the architecture and design, with input from users,
administration, and management
• Initial conditions are the basis for the start of the analysis
process.
• They help determine what you are designing toward, as well
as the reasons for the architecture and design.
• Initial conditions consist of the
(i) type of network project
(ii) the scope of the architecture and design
(iii)initial architecture/design goals, and
(iv)any outside forces acting on the network.
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 Type of Network Project

• New network
• Modification of an existing network

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 Analysis of network problems
• The network may not be functioning as
planned.

• Try to determine where the problems lie

• Is it in the architecture or in the design
• Determine where the implementation
varies from the architecture/design..

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 Network outsourcing
• Requirement analysis is helpful to allow for
outsourcing of resource operations,
administration, maintenance, and provisioning
(OAM&P) functions across multiple vendors.

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 Scope of Network Project
• Network size
• Number of sites
• Distance between sites

• Ask your customer to help you understand if

the design is for a single network segment, a
set of LANs, a set of WAN or remote-access
networks, or the whole enterprise network.
 Scope of Network Project
• Knowing the type and scope of the network project
will help you focus your efforts.
• Replacing an old network with an entirely new one
minimizes the number of constraints placed on the
architecture/design by the existing network
• This allows you to focus on achieving
architectural/design goals for the new network.
• When the project is a modification or an up
gradation there will be more constraints from the
existing network. The existing network will provide
information about the current behavior of the
network and what can be expected from the changes
to the network.
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 Scope of Network Project
• The existing network will constrain the
architecture and design from the perspective
of how to connect and interoperate with part
or all of the entire existing network.

• Thus, the performance and functions of the

existing network, along with the reasons for
making changes to the network, are important
initial conditions.
 Initial Architecture/Design Goals
▪ Upgrade technology
▪ Improve performance to part or all of network
▪ Support new users, applications, or devices
▪ Solve perceived (existing) problems within
system
▪ Increase security
▪ Support a new capability in system
Initial Architecture/Design Business
Goals
• Increase revenue and profit
• Improve corporate communications
• Shorten product-development cycles and
increase employee productivity
• Build partnerships with other companies
• Expand into worldwide markets
• Move to a global-network business model
• Modernize out-dated technologies
 Design Business Goals
• Reduce telecommunications and network
costs, including overhead associated with
separate networks for voice, data, and video
• Expand the data readily available to all
employees and field offices so they make
better business decisions
• Improve security and reliability of mission-
critical applications and data
• Offer better customer support
• Offer new customer services
 Constraints in network design
Common constrains(activity) on a network project
include

1. Funding limitations
2. Organizational rules and regulations
3. Time and schedule limitations
4. Technical constrains for existing users ,
applications, devices, networks and
management.

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 Network design constraints
• Existing components in the system will often act as constraints
in terms of the device’s performance – components ability to
process data from the network
• Users suffer from inertia, not wanting to change the ways in
which they do their work.
• Applications written to be used locally on a device or for a
particular network technology or protocol may have to be
modified to function on the new network.

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 Network design constraints
• Device interfaces and drivers may have to be changed
or upgraded.

• Existing networks will bring their performance

and functional limitations to the project.

• By knowing early in the process which parts of the

existing system will be incorporated into or supported in
the new network, you can determine which design
choices will work and, just as important, which will not
work.
 Working with Users
• For the end users, discussing your network plans
with them will help them understand what you are
trying to accomplish, building lines of personal
communication that will be useful when you are
installing, debugging, and operating the network
later.

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 Network requirement analysis
• What are requirements?

• Requirements are descriptions of the network

functions and performance needed in order for the
network to successfully support its users,
applications, and devices (and thus the success of
the network project).

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 Requirements Analysis
• There can be lots of requirements, from a
variety of sources, with varying degrees of
achievability.
– User Requirements
– Application Requirements
– Device Requirements
– Network Requirements
– Other Requirements

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 User Requirements
• User requirements are
often qualitative and
very high level
– What is ‘fast enough’
for download? System
response (RTT)?
– How good does video
need to be?
– What’s my budget?

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Requiremen
ts Become
More
Technical as
They Move
Closer to
Network
Devices

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• Timeliness - user be able to access, transfer, or modify information within a
tolerable time frame. End-to-end or round-trip delay can be a useful
measurement.
• Interactivity – is of the response times of the system and network when they are
required to actively interact with users.
• Reliability - consistently available service.
• Presentation quality - user’s perception of audio, video, and/or data displays
• Adaptability - ability of the system to adapt to users’ changing needs
• Security - guarantee the confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of a user’s
information and physical resources, as well as access to user and system resources.
• Affordability - purchases fit within a budget.
• Functionality - encompasses any functional requirement that the user has for the
system.
• Supportability - is a set of characteristics that describes how well the customer can
keep the network operating at designed performance, through the full range of
mission scenarios described by the customer during the requirements analysis
process.
• Future growth - is determining if and when users are planning to deploy and use
new applications and devices on the network.

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• User requirements are the least technical and
are also the most subjective. As shown in
Figure 2.3, requirements become more
technical as they move from users to the
network.

• All of these requirements are developed in

more detail as we proceed through the
application, device, and network components.

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 Application requirements
• The application component interfaces with
the user and device components and is a key
part of the requirements analysis.

• Application requirements are requirements

that are determined from application
information, experience, or testing, and
represent what is needed by applications to
successfully operate on the system.

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 Application Requirements
• What types of apps are we using?
– Mission-critical - have predictable, guaranteed, and/or
highperformance RMA requirements
– Rate-critical – have predictable,guaranteed,and/orhigh-
performance capacity requirements
– Real-time and/or interactive - have predictable,
guaranteed, and/or highperformance delay requirements

• How sensitive are apps to RMA (reliability, maintainability,

availability)?
• What capacity is needed?
• What delay time is acceptable?
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 Application Requirements
• What groups of apps are being used?
– Telemetry/command and control - remote devices
– Visualization and simulation
– Distributed computing
– Web development, access, and use
– Bulk data transport – FTP
– Teleservice – VOIP, teleconference
– Operations, admin, maintenance, and provisioning
(OAM&P) – DNS,SNMP
– Client-server – ERP

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 Application Requirements
• Where are the
apps located?
• Are some only
used in certain
locations?

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 Device requirements
• These are requirements of devices that the network will support,
particularly the types of devices, their performance characteristics, and
their location information.

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 Device Requirements
• What kinds of devices are on your network?
– Generic computing devices include normal PCs,
Macs, laptops, handheld computers, workstations
– Servers include all flavors of server – file, print,
app/computation, and backup
– Specialized devices include extreme servers
(supercomputers, massively parallel servers), data
collection systems (POS terminals), industry-
specific devices, networked devices (cameras,
tools), stoplights, ATMs, etc.

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 Device Requirements
• Specialized
devices are
often location-
specific

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 Device Requirements
• We want an understanding of the device’s
performance – its ability to process data from
the network
– Device I/O rates
– Delay time for performing a given app function

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 Device Requirements
• Performance results from many factors
– Storage performance, that is, flash, disk drive,
or tape performance
– Processor (CPU) performance
– Memory performance (access times)
– Bus performance (bus capacity)
– OS performance (effectiveness of the protocol
stack and APIs)
– Device driver performance

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 Device Requirements
• The device locations
are also critical
– Often generic
devices can be
grouped by their
quantity
– Servers and
specialized stuff are
shown individually

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Network requirements

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 Network Requirements
• Most network architectures/designs today need to
incorporate existing networks.
• Few networks today are built entirely from scratch. This
includes system upgrades, such as adding a new application to
the system, migrating to a new or different technology or
protocol, or upgrading the network infrastructure, and the
expansion or reduction of a system’s size or scope.
• Sometimes the network architecture and design must
accommodate any dependencies and constraints imposed by
the existing network.

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 Network Requirements
• Issues with network integration include
– Scaling dependencies – how will the size of the
existing network affect the new one?
• Will the existing network change structure, or just add
on a new wing?
– Location dependencies – interaction between old
and new networks could change the location of
key components
– Performance constraints – existing network could
limit performance of the new one

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 Network Requirements
– Network, system, and support service
dependencies
• Addressing, security, routing protocols and network
management can all be affected by the existing
network
– Interoperability dependencies
• Changes in technology or media at the interfaces
between networks need to be accounted for, as well as
QoS guarantees, if any
– Network obsolescence – do protocols or
technologies become obsolete during transition?

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 Network Requirements
• Network management and security issues
need to be addressed throughout
development
– How will the network be monitored for events?
– Monitoring for network performance?
• What is the hierarchy for management data flow?
– Network configuration?
– Troubleshoot support?

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 Network Requirements
• Security Effect/ Probability User Devices Servers Network Software Services Data

analysis can Unauthorized Access B/A B/B C/B A/B B/C A/B

include the Unauthorized Disclosure B/C B/B C/C A/B B/C A/B

severity Denial of Service B/B B/B B/B B/B B/B D/D

(effect) of an Theft A/D B/D B/D A/B C/C A/B

attack, and Corruption A/C B/C C/C A/B D/D A/B

its Viruses B/B B/B B/B B/B B/C D/D

probability of Physical Damage A/D B/C C/C D/D D/D D/D

occurrence Effect: Probability:

A: Destructive C: Disruptive A: Certain C: Likely

B: Disabling D: No Impact B: Unlikely D: Impossible

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 Requirements Management
• The requirements you develop need to be
tracked and managed, just like any system’s
requirements
– Identify requirements by some form of ID and
short name
– Need a tool to track requirements, their status,
changes, sources, etc.
• Map location of apps and devices of the
existing network
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