Comp247 Data Communications For Public Assessment Answers

Describe the Data Communications For Public Relations Company. 

Answer:

Introduction

A Small to Medium sized company has opened a start-up business at Glebe in New South Wales (Bocken et al. 2014). The company is Public Relations Company. Now the company wishes to implement networking system for their company (Spicer 2013). I was requested to design the network for the company. Hence, it was very necessary to implement the network structure efficiently which can benefit the company to take their services online. In addition to this the company would also require in interconnected Local Area Network so that the staffs of the company can communicate with each other efficiently (Olufunmilola 2014). In addition to this the network should be designed in such way so that the basic needs of the company are met and also the requirements as a start-up company are met. In addition to this it is also to be seen that the Public Relations business of the company can be conducted successfully.

This report provides description about the networking model that would be implemented for the company to operate successfully.

The report contains the requirements of the network model, the assumptions about the company and the building and the existing network model in the office. The report also contains the network design and a proper justification of the design. Some recommendation to the company about their networking system is also provided to the company.

Networking Background

Networking is very important for any organization. For any kind of business in world today, setting up an appropriate network layout for the office is very essential. It is very important for performing the communication actions and the transferring data from within the and outside organization. There are two types of network model (Hutcheon and Bailek 2013):

• The OSI model
• The TCP/IP model

The two major stakeholders in a networking procedure are:

• Servers
• Clients

 In addition to this there are various kind of network topologies (Espina et al. 2014):

• Bus topology: In this kind of system all the client are connected in a straight line one after the other. In this topology all the machine receives the information that is sent via the bus.
• Ring topology: In the ring topology the last system is connected to the first system, just as in a bus topology, but here the data can be transferred in both the directions.
• Star Topology: In the star topology the clients are connected to a central server. In this situation only the server can connect with all the clients, but intercommunication among the clients are not possible in this topology.
• Mesh Topology: In a Mesh topology all the systems are connected to each other directly. But implementation of this type of topology become very difficult.

Requirements:

The requirements of the network infrastructure topology for the company was provided by Rebeca, the owner of the company (Kuzlu and Pipattanasomporn 2013). The following requirements were provided by Rebeca:

• Firstly, the total strength of the company was 50. Among these staffs 20 staffs worked on laptops, 20 of them worked on desktops and 10 others worked on their own device. In addition to this there were 5 spare desktops. The office building was a 3 storied one and had printer on each of the floor. The building had three board rooms which consisted of a projector and a 75” OLED TV in each of the room and a server room that was located on the ground floor.
• Secondly, two of the company’s senior staffs were to be provided with physical data points so that they could transmit large data files across the network.
• Thirdly, the staffs were to be allowed remote access to the network and the security concerns were also to be met.
• Lastly, it was to be seen that all the staffs would have access to all the printers.

Assumptions

Before starting the designing process of the network topology, some assumptions are to be taken.

It was assumed that there are no existing network structure of the company as it is a start-up company. In addition to this it was also assumed that, the office building of the company was also a new one so there would be no type of existing network structures to work with. Hence, the designing of the network has to be started from scratch.

It was also assumed that, the company would be obtaining the broadband for the internet connectivity of the office from an Internet Service provider.

In addition to this, room for only the 50 staffs have been made in the network. The staffs have been divided into three user groups. The first group or the desktop user group consists of 20 staffs who use the desktop. The second group or the laptop user group consists of 20 staffs who work on laptops. The third group or the group that brings their own device. They consists of 10 staffs who could use either a desktop or laptop. Although, the BYDs are generally Laptop users but, in the network design it is assumed that they are mostly the desktop users. So that, no difficulty is faced later on.

Some assumptions regarding the building structure of the office are also made. It is assumed that each of floors of the three storied building consists of a board room. And the ground floor has an additional room which can be used as the server room. It is also assume that the OLED that are installed in the board room are Wi-Fi enabled.

As the company is a start-up, so it is assumed that the company would be recruiting more staffs. Hence, it is also kept in mind that there has to be provision for more people in the network.

Another very important assumption is made that only the senior authorities and the administrator would have the access to the server room.

In addition to these it is also assumed that the additional desktops are not connected to the network although they can be connected to the network if required. But, for the moment they are kept separately in the storage area of the office. 

Justification

The network topology is designed according to the requirements of the owner of the company. The topology would meet all the criteria and fulfill all the requirements.

Firstly, the router that connects the internet to network is protected with the firewall. This would protect the network from unauthorized access. And also protect data that flows through the network. In addition to this efficient anti- viruses, so that it protects the whole network from being affected by any kind of viruses or external malwares. Hence, this resolves all the security issue of the network.

Secondly, for each of the floors a switch is installed so that, the whole network is interconnected. The switches are connected to the main server. Therefore, all the users are interconnected among themselves. In addition to this the SMTP, HTTP and the FTP protocols are implanted in the server. This would allow the users to communicate among themselves. In addition to this, the users would also be able to transfer data and files among them very efficiently. The connection of the printers in each of the floors are done to the switches. In addition to this, all the switches are connected to the desktop user groups and the BYD user groups. So that the users can have access to the network from any floor. So, all the users would have access to the all the printers. This would also enable the senior officers to send the files to the desired locations. This would provide them physical data points on all the floors of the building.

In each of the floors a Wi-Fi router is also installed. The routers are connected to the switches which are again connected to the main server that is located on the ground floor. This would enable the Laptop user group to have access to the internet as well as the network on the whole. Since the Wi-Fi routers are connected to the switches which in return are connected to the printers. Therefore the laptop user group would also be able to have access to the printers.

Additionally the switches are also connected to the board rooms. So the OLEDs and the projectors could also be connected to the network. Therefore, this would enhance the performance to the board room meetings.

In addition to this, provisions for adding some users are also kept, in all the user groups. According to the provided network structure, 10-15 users can easily be added to each of the user groups.

Hence, all the requirements of the owner are met by this design. The network provides remote access to each of the users. In addition to this the network is extremely secure and is protected from unauthorized access and external intrusions. The network is also protected from the various kinds of viruses and malware attacks. The network design has be done in such way so that both the LAN and WAN facilities could be incorporated into the system. In this network all the users can easily communicate with each other and exchange files among themselves without the fear of intrusion by any external agent. Therefore now the senior staffs can easily transmit the files across the network. The network model that is provided is both easy for implementation and very cost effective.

Recommendations

The following recommendations are provided for increase the effectively of the organization:

• It is recommended that, the company should increase the bandwidth in case there are additional users in the network.
• In addition to this it would be helpful for the company if the desktops could be replaced by the laptops. This would allow wireless access of the network from every point within the office. This would in return reduce the complexity of the system and also reduce the cost of the company in the long run.
• In addition to this the server room should only be accessed by the senior staffs. The access to the server room should be restricted.
• In addition to this, the company should also develop an efficient portal for the staffs to communicate among themselves. This portal would allow the staffs to exchange files over the network.
• In addition to this the firewall settings should not be tampered and alternations are only to be made with the consent of the network engineer.
• In addition to this, the administrator should use proper authentication method so that, the user has to go through proper authentication process for getting access to the network.
• Additionally, the network should be maintained properly and thorough checkups of the network should be done in appropriate routine.
• The security of the network should be checked by implementing mock hacking methods. The entry point to the network for external agents should be properly identified and rectified with an immediate effect. For, the network to be fully functional and work properly the following recommendations should be paid a serious attention.

Conclusion

For conclusion, it can be said that, the company is looking to start up. And hence they would require to implement a networking model immediately for better functioning of their business. The report provides the network layer that is suitable for the company, and also the required justification and some useful recommendation for maintaining and upgrading the network system in the future. The network structure would enable the company to perform an effective internal as well as external communication. It would allow the staffs to communicate in between them and exchange data among them as well. The network would also allow the users to access the network and its component from remote locations. In addition to this the network also provides safety in and also provides data security from external agents. It would also, prevent the data from getting lost or being stolen. In addition to this it would also provide the company security from unauthorized access. Hence, this networking model would increase the overall business efficiency of the company. In addition to this, the company needs to perform proper maintenance and up gradation techniques to continue the effective performance of the network model of the company. 

References

Bocken, N.M.P., Farracho, M., Bosworth, R. and Kemp, R., 2014. The front-end of eco-innovation for eco-innovative small and medium sized companies. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 31, pp.43-57.

Butler, D.E. and Johnson, E.D., Voodoosoft Holdings, Llc, 2015. Computer program, method, and system for preventing execution of viruses and malware. U.S. Patent Application 14/921,705.

Deng, Y., Lin, H., Phadke, A.G., Shukla, S. and Thorp, J.S., 2013. Networking technologies for wide-area measurement applications. Smart Grid Communications and Networking, pp.205-233.

Espina, J., Falck, T., Panousopoulou, A., Schmitt, L., Mülhens, O. and Yang, G.Z., 2014. Network topologies, communication protocols, and standards. In Body sensor networks (pp. 189-236). Springer London.

Fogués, R.L., Such, J.M., Espinosa, A. and Garcia-Fornes, A., 2014. BFF: A tool for eliciting tie strength and user communities in social networking services. Information Systems Frontiers, 16(2), pp.225-237.

Hutcheon, N. and Bialek, J.W., 2013, June. Updated and validated power flow model of the main continental european transmission network. In PowerTech (POWERTECH), 2013 IEEE Grenoble (pp. 1-5). IEEE.

Jaehyuk, J.A.N.G. and Jeong, K., Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., 2015. Method and apparatus of configuring downlink timing and transmitting random access response in mobile communication system using carrier aggregation. U.S. Patent 8,964,793.

Kijun, K.I.M., Kim, H., Seo, H. and Lee, D., Lg Electronics Inc., 2015. Method and apparatus for providing channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration information in a wireless communication system supporting multiple antennas. U.S. Patent 8,989,114.

Kuzlu, M. and Pipattanasomporn, M., 2013, February. Assessment of communication technologies and network requirements for different smart grid applications. In Innovative Smart Grid Technologies (ISGT), 2013 IEEE PES (pp. 1-6). IEEE.

Nabeel, M. and Bertino, E., 2014. Privacy preserving delegated access control in public clouds. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 26(9), pp.2268-2280.

Nix, W., Andrews, C., Huber, G.D. and Lo, Y.C., Dell Products LP, 2016. Secure and rapid networking configuration of information handling systems and peripherals. U.S. Patent 9,455,965.

Olufunmilola, A.O.O., Das, S., Bongyong, S.O.N.G., Lee, Y.S., Stone, M. and Soliman, S.S., Qualcomm Incorporated, 2014. Methods and apparatus for cooperating between wireless wide area network radios and wireless local area network radios. U.S. Patent Application 14/149,544.

Rappaport, T.S., MacCartney, G.R., Samimi, M.K. and Sun, S., 2015. Wideband millimeter-wave propagation measurements and channel models for future wireless communication system design. IEEE Transactions on Communications, 63(9), pp.3029-3056.

Spicer, C., 2013. Organizational public relations: A political perspective. Routledge.

Tingfang, J.I., Chen, W. and Lin, D., Qualcomm Incorporated, 2015. Method and apparatus for relay backhaul design in a wireless communication system. U.S. Patent 9,210,622.

Yang, K. and Jia, X., 2014. DAC-MACS: Effective data access control for multi-authority cloud storage systems. In Security for Cloud Storage Systems (pp. 59-83). Springer New York.