Assessment 2 – Specificiation
Instructions – read everything on this page including the submission instructions.
Due: Friday 14th January, 2022, 5 00pm Marks: 60, Value: 20%
Assessment style guidance
When answering the assignment, layout your answers in a readable format and include all relevant working. If you make use of resources other than the lecture slides you are required to properly cite thee resources, as this is a networking unit you should use IEEE referencing style.
Note that failure to include citations is a form of plagiarism. Significant sanctions may apply to cases of plagiarism up to and including exclusion from further study towards your degree.
Your assignment will be submitted electronically via TurnItIn on the unit’s iLearn page. Ensure that you adhere to the following requirements:
The filename should be in the following format: (assuming your student ID is 44332211) 44332211_cp2250a2.pdf
Your submissions must be a single document in PDF format — do not submit a MS-Word file (or anything else other than PDF). Do not include a cover sheet of any kind.
Do not include the text of any of the questions in your submission.
Do not use double-spacing.
Use a sensible, clean font, 10-12 pt in size.
Hand-written or scanned submissions will not be accepted.
Your report should not exceed 10 pages (excluding any bibliography or table-of-contents).
How much you write for each question is up to you.
However each question has some guidance to the amount you should expect to write. Please be aware that this is purely indicative and should be treated as a guide only. The 10 page limit for the entire report is however a strict limit.
Failure to follow any of the above requirements will result in a loss of 10 marks for each infraction. Also note that citation of a non-reliable source may also incur a penalty (eg. Wikipedia).
Finally, please note that late submissions will not be accepted without an approved special consideration request.
The Scenario
A small Sydney CBD-based import/export business, Bancroft Systems, has recently expanded by buying a warehouse. The warehouse is located 15km from the CBD in the suburb of Botany, which is adjacent to both the international shipping port and the international airport. The company presently has 22 employees, however with the purchase of a dedicated warehouse they will recruit a further 11 staff for jobs at the warehouse location.
You have been hired as a consultant to re-design Bancroft Systems’ network as it will now span more than one location. The current network of the CBD location can be found in the associated PowerPoint file “Assessment 2 – Network Diagram” (we have chosen PowerPoint as it is readily available for students and is an adequate diagramming tool). As you are a consultant in this scenario you must answer the following questions in a report format as if you were writing a business proposal.
The Brief
Your consulting brief consists of four parts:
Question 1 [15 marks] — Wireless
The warehouse is to be networked, it is 100 meters by 40 meters with a 15 meter tall ceiling. The network will not be heavily used since there are only a few workers working in the warehouse during a shift, but the coverage needs to be complete as a worker may be on a forklift, ladder, or cherry picker, in any position within the building when they need to update the warehouseʼs stock database. The owners have explained that not much bandwidth is required (the workers are not meant to be streaming video, listening to audio, or playing interactive games on the network).
Choose an appropriate WiFi technology (ie. which 802.11 variant: a, b, g, n, ac, ax, or ad). Prepare a recommendation explaining how you would position multiple WiFi access points within the warehouse., and what band (2.4GHz, 5GHz, 60GHz) and channels you would have each instance operate on, to ensure complete coverage, appropriately low interference, and minimal total cost. Be sure to explain clearly the proposed position and channel for each router (after all, someone else will be installing them, not you). As always, justify your recommendation.
Costs (added 10/1/2022)
There is no need to look for exact pricing, rather, you should be looking at the relative cost (newer, high speed technologies are more expensive) and the total number of access points needed. (This change was to clarify a question from one of you regarding costs, if you’ve already written a response to this question you can safely ignore this added information)
Question 2 [15 marks] — Security
Given that the company now has two geographically separate sites, the companyʼs management team would like to bolster their overall security posture. Provide an itemised description of changes or additions to the network that would improve the security posture of the company. For each proposed change or addition, describe what benefits, and detriments, would the change have on the performance, operation, and security of the network. Options that you may consider include, but are not limited to, Firewalls, NAT, IDS/IPS, authentication, services, WiFi placement (within the CBD office), additional servers, or consolidated servers.
Remember that your role is as a consultant, and that you have been hired by the company to perform a security analysis. Your report should include not only existing controls, but also controls for those risks you have identified that currently have no mitigation. This means that you are making a proposal, of what you think that your client should do. Of course, your client can choose not to implement your proposed changes but that isn’t really the point here. What you need to do is simply identify what the risks are and the most appropriate controls to mitigate those risks.
Question 3 [15 marks] — WAN
There are a number of network connectivity options available to enable network traffic to flow between the two sites. Create two different proposals for connecting the two company networks. Your report should include a comparison of the two approaches showing how each compares in terms of security, performance, operational expenditure (running costs), and capital expenditure (initial purchase price).
The provider (added 10/1/2022)
You are only able to obtain WAN services from a single telecommunications provider which offers the following services:
| Satellite (High capex, low opex, medium bandwidth, high latency) Fibre based MPLS (Low capex, high opex, high bandwidth, low latency) Provider based VPN service (Low capex, low opex, medium bandwidth, variable latency) Line of sight microwave (High capex, low opex, medium bandwidth, low latency) “> |
These services provide different latencies and speeds. The cost of these services is separated into CapEx (capital expenditure — the initial, one-off cost of deploying the service), and OpEx (operational expenditure — the ongoing, month-by-month, running costs of the service). (This change was to clarify a question from one of you regarding costs, if you’ve already written a response to this question you can safely ignore this added information)
Question 4 [15 marks] — Network Diagram
Create a new diagram showing the logical topology of the combined network that includes all the changes from the previous three questions. As question 3 asks you to create two different proposals you will need to diagram both proposals. If you are able to document both proposals in a single diagram in such a way that it is clear that you are offering two alternatives you may do so. If you prefer, you can create two separate diagrams. You are welcome to use any diagramming tool (including PowerPoint) as long as the diagram is clear.
Submission Instructions
Submit one PDF only for your entire submission. Any diagrams in your report must be created using appropriate software — hand drawn and scanned diagrams will not be accepted. Please ensure that your submission is a single PDF file, do not submit your diagram(s) separately, rather you must embed your diagram(s) into your report and submit only a single PDF. The submission box is on the iLearn page under ‘Asessments Sectionʼ. Submissions are analysed by TurnItIn. This cross checks for online papers and other student papers for any plagiarism (copying). In short –DONʼT COPY– or get others to do your assignment, we are pretty good at catching people out and the consequences can be severe. Do not trust anyone who will take money to do assignments. They can take money from several students, return the same assignment, and you get caught. They donʼt care about you, but we do!
For all questions in this assignment not only content but also presentation will affect your mark. You will lose marks if there are problems with the presentation, particularly with clarity. This means that your answers to each question should be a coherent statement and that the spelling and grammar of your submission will be taken into account in assessing its presentation. For full marks, your answers should be well argued, clear, and coherent. The questions will be marked individually, the marks totalled, and a final grade assigned that is no more than indicated by the total marks, and no more than allowed by the standards specified above and in the unit outline.
Get expert help for COMP2250 Data Communications and many more. 24X7 help, plag free solution. Order online now!
