Top-Down Network

Design

Chapter Three

Characterizing the Existing Internetwork

1
 Where Are We?
• Characterize the exiting internetwork in
terms of:
– Network infrastructure ( logical & physical )
– Addressing and naming
– Wiring and media
– Architectural and environmental constraints
– Health

2
 Information to Collect
• A network map is the first thing to work on
• This map should include
– Geographic locations
– WAN connections between sites
• Labeled with type/speed/protocols/media/service provider
– Buildings and floors where equipment will be
– Connections between buildings and floors
• Labeled with type/speed/protocols/media
– Location of connection points like routers and
switches
– Internet connections
– Remote access points

3
 Characterize internetwork
infrastructure
Logical structure:
• modularity
• hierarchy
• Topology
(Using tools for developing network maps:
HP open view, IBMTivoli, Whatsup Gold
, Microsoft Visio and others..)
Physical structure
4
 Get a Network Map
Site A Site B
Fast Ethernet Fast Ethernet
50 users 30 users
Frame Relay Frame Relay
CIR = 56 Kbps CIR = 56 Kbps
DLCI = 5 DLCI = 4

Gigabit Company
HQ
Ethernet 16 Mbps
Cite C Token Ring
Fast Ethernet
75 users

FEP
(Front End
Processor)
Network map for an
electronics manufacturing company IBM
Mainframe
T1

Web/FTP server
Site D
Ethernet T1 Internet
20 users
committed information rate (CIR) 5
data link connection identifier (DLCI)
 CIR & DLCI
• Committed Information Rate
CIR is the guaranteed bandwidth or data transfer rate
that a network service provider promises to provide for a
particular connection or service.
• Data Link Connection Identifier
DLCI is like a tag on data frames in Frame Relay
networks. It tells the network where to send the data by
identifying the specific virtual channel it belongs to
among many channels sharing the same physical
connection.

6
 Characterize Addressing and
Naming
• IP addressing for major devices, client
networks, server networks, and so on
• Any addressing oddities, such as
discontiguous subnets?
• Any strategies for addressing and
naming?
– For example, sites may be named using
airport codes
• San Francisco = SFO, Oakland = OAK
7
 Discontiguous Subnets

Area 0
Network
192.168.49.0

Router A Router B

Area 1 Area 2
Subnets 10.108.16.0 - Subnets 10.108.32.0 -
10.108.31.0 10.108.47.0

Discontiguous subnet is a subnet that is divided. E.g.

Subnet 108 of network 10 is separated by network 192.
8
 Characterize the Wiring and
Media
• Single-mode fiber
• Multi-mode fiber
• Shielded twisted pair (STP) copper
• Unshielded-twisted-pair (UTP) copper
• Coaxial cable
• Microwave (wireless)
• Laser (wireless)
• Radio (wireless)
• Infra-red (wireless) 9
 Campus Network Wiring
Horizontal Work-Area
Wiring Wiring

Wallplate
Telecommunications
Wiring Closet

wire length:
Less 100m
Vertical
Wiring
(Building
Backbone)

Main Cross-Connect Room Intermediate Cross-Connect Room

(or Main Distribution Frame) (or Intermediate Distribution Frame)

Campus
Building A - Headquarters Backbone Building B

10
 Architectural & Environmental
Constraints
• Make sure the following are sufficient:
– Air conditioning
– Heating
– Ventilation
– Power
– Protection from electromagnetic
interference
– Doors that can lock

11
 Architectural Constraints
• Make sure there’s space for:
– Cabling conduits

– Patch panels

– Equipment racks

– Work areas for technicians installing and

troubleshooting equipment
12
Issues for Wireless Installations
• Reflection

• Absorption

• Refraction

• Diffraction

13
 Wireless Site Survey
• Determine optimal locations for access points (APs)
based on coverage requirements.
• Evaluate signal propagation characteristics within
the deployment area to identify potential areas of
signal attenuation, reflection, or interference.
• Measure signal strength levels to ensure adequate
coverage
• Assess the accuracy and quality of the wireless
signal to ensure reliable connectivity and
performance.
14
Check the Health of the Existing
Internetwork
• Performance
• Availability
• Bandwidth utilization
• Accuracy
• Efficiency
• Response time
• Status of major routers, switches, and
firewalls 15
 Develop baseline of network
performance
• Multiple days required to get accurate
analysis
• Avoid periods with large traffic- end of
financial year, Xmas time, . . Etc
– Latency increases in these times
• Do not have time to spend days on
analysis
– Other commitments

16
 Network availability checking
• Gather any statistics that the customer has
on the MTBF and MTTR for the
internetwork as a whole as well as major
network segments
• Compare your stats with MTBF and MTRR
goals
– Customer expectations on MTBF and MTRR

17
 Characterize Availability

Date and Duration of Cause of Last

MTBF MTTR Last Major Major
Downtime Downtime

Enterprise

Segment 1 4000hr 2hr Nov,06-1hr power outage

Segment 2

Segment n

18
 MTBF & MTTR
• MTBF ==> Mean Time Between Failures
• MTTR ==> Mean Time To Recovery

• Availability can be expressed as a mean

time between failure (MTBF) and mean
time to repair (MTTR)

Availability = MTBF/(MTBF + MTTR)

19
 Network Utilization in Minute
Intervals
Network Utilization
In minute intervals
16:40:00

16:43:00

16:46:00

16:49:00

16:52:00
Time

16:55:00 Series1

16:58:00

17:01:00

17:04:00

17:07:00

17:10:00
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Utilization

Network utilization is a measurement of how much BW is in use

during a specific time interval. 20
 Network Utilization in Hour
Intervals
Network Utilization
In hour intervals
13:00:00

14:00:00
Time

15:00:00 Series1

16:00:00

17:00:00

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5

Utilization

21
• Changing time intervals to long periods
can be misleading and would give the
wrong results.

Can you see that from previous two

diagrams ?

22
Measuring bandwidth utilization
Place a protocol analyzer or remote
monitoring ( RMON ) probe on each major
network segment and fill out a chart.
If the analyzer supports relative and
absolute percentages, specify the
bandwidth used by protocols as relative
and absolute.

23
 Bandwidth Utilization by
Protocol
Relative Absolute Multicast
Broadcast
Network Network Rate
Rate
Utilization Utilization

Protocol 1 50% 70%

Protocol 2

Protocol 3

Protocol n

Relative usage: how much BW is used by the protocol in comparison to the total BW currently in use on the segment.
Absolute usage: how much BW is used by protocol in comparison to the total capacity of the segment (100Mbps Fast
Ethernet)
24
 Broadcast Vs Multicast
• Broadcast
A transmission to multiple, unspecified
recipients. On Ethernet, a broadcast packet is a
special type of multicast packet which all nodes
on the network are always willing to receive.
• Multicast addressing
Ethernet addressing scheme used to send
packets to devices of a certain type or for
broadcasting to all nodes. The least significant
bit of the most significant byte of a multi-cast
address is one. 25
 Analyzing network efficiency
• Bandwidth utilization is optimized for
efficiency
– Applications and protocols configured to send
large amount of data per frame  minimizing
number of frames and round-trip delays
required per transaction
– Receiver configured with large receive
window allowing to accept multiple frames
before sending acknowledgment

26
 Network Efficiency:
Characterize Packet Sizes

Protocol analyzer to examine the current

frame sizes on the network
27
 Analyzing Response Time
• Many methods can be used to measure
time delay, most common is by sending
ping
• Send ping packets and measure the
round-trip time ( RTT ) to send a request
and receive a response.

28
 Characterize Response Time
Response time measurements

Node A Node B Node C Node D

X
Node A 80ms 90ms 70ms

X
Node B

Node C X

Node D X

Ping packet: measure the round trip time

29
Check the Status of Major Routers,
Switches, and Firewalls
Check includes: how busy, packets it has processed,
dropped packets, buffers size & queues
• show buffers ( infos on buffer size )
• show environment ( temperature/voltages..)
• show interfaces ( stats for network interface card )
• show memory ( system memory )
• show processes (CPU utilization for last 5s)
• show running-config (Stored router configuration)
• show version ( software version and features ) 30
 Tools for characterizing the
existing internetwork
• Protocol analyzers
• Multi Router Traffic Grapher (MRTG)
• Remote monitoring (RMON) probes
• Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP)
• Cisco IOS NetFlow technology
• CiscoWorks
• Cisco IOS Service Assurance Agent (SAA)
• Cisco Internetwork Performance Monitor
(IPM) 31
 Network Health Checklist
•The network topology and physical infrastructure are well documented.
•Network addresses and names are assigned in a structured manner and are well documented.
•Network wiring is installed in a structured manner and is well labeled.
•Network wiring has been tested and certified.
•Network wiring between telecommunications closets and end stations is no more than 100 meters.
•Network availability meets current customer goals.
•Network security meets current customer goals.
•No LAN or WAN segments are becoming saturated. (70 percent average network utilization in a 10-
minute window.)
•On Ethernet half-duplex segments, less than 0.1 percent of frames are collisions. There are no late
collisions.
•There are no collisions on Ethernet full-duplex links.
•Broadcast traffic is less than 20 percent of all traffic on each network segment. (Some networks are
more sensitive to
•broadcast traffic and should use a 10 percent threshold.)
•Wherever possible and appropriate, for the data-link layer in use. frame sizes have been optimized
to be as large as possible
•No routers are overutilized. (Five-minute CPU utilization is under 75 percent.)
•On an average, routers are not dropping more than 1 percent of packets. (For networks that are
intentionally oversubscribed to
• keep costs low, a higher threshold can be used.)
•Up-to-date router, switch, and other device configurations have been collected, archived, and
analyzed as part of the design study.
•The response time between clients and hosts is generally less than 100 milliseconds (1/10 of a 32
second).
 Summary

• Characterize the exiting internetwork

before designing enhancements
• Helps you verify that a customer’s design
goals are realistic
• Helps you locate where new equipment
will go
• Helps you cover yourself if the new
network has problems due to unresolved
problems in the old network
33
 Review Questions
• What factors will help you decide if the existing
internetwork is in good enough shape to support
new enhancements?
• When considering protocol behavior, what is the
difference between relative network utilization
and absolute network utilization?
• Why should you characterize the logical
structure of an internetwork and not just the
physical structure?
• What architectural and environmental factors
should you consider for a new wireless
installation? 34