Health Systems, Inc.

also wants you to create a design document about how to build remote access to
their organization. For this assignment, you will explain how to design the LAN at a secondary branch
site and discuss how it will interconnect through a WAN to the main Health Systems hospital site.

For the two LANs, one at the main hospital site and the second LAN at the branch site you need to write
about the following. You will also describe your design of the WAN technologies connecting the two
LANs.

1. Describe the WAN technology used and the bandwidth offered.

WAN is WIDE AREA NETWORK and they use various links such as private lines, multiprotocol, Switching,
VPNs, Cellular, and the internet to connect smaller metro areas or even entire networks. In a business
environment, the purposes are endless and can include connecting remote workers with the main
headquarters in order to access corporate resources. Since in this example we require a private network
we are going to use T3 Lines which offer transmission speeds of up to 45mbps.

2. Describe the location of the router and switches.

As for our switching, we will use Packet Switching. When packets are sent between networks this
method is responsible for using the best path allowing for more reliable picketing. Within Packet
Switching we have 2 methods that we will rely on:

Virtual-circuit packet switching: A logical connection is established between the source and the
destination device. This logical connection is established when the sending device initiates a
conversation with the receiving device. The logical communication path between the two devices can
remain active for as long as the two devices are available or can be used to send packets once. After the
sending process has been completed, the line can be closed.

Datagram packet switching: Unlike virtual-circuit packet switching, datagram packet switching does not
establish a logical connection between the sending and transmitting devices. The packets in datagram
packet switching are independently sent, meaning that they can take different paths through the
network to reach their intended destination. To do this, each packet must be individually addressed to
determine its source and destination. This method ensures that packets take the easiest possible routes
to their destination and avoid high-traffic areas. Datagram packet switching is mainly used on the
Internet.

Switching Pros Cons Key Features

Method

Packet Packets can be routed Packets can become lost The two types of packet switching
Switching around network While taking alternative Are datagram and virtual circuit.
Congestion. Packet Routes to the destination. Datagram packets are
 Switching Pros Cons Key Features
Method

Switching makes Messages are divided into Independently sent and can take
Efficient use of network Packets that contain source Different paths throughout the
Bandwidth. And destination information. Network. Virtual circuit uses a logical
Connection between the source and
Destination device.

Circuit Offers a dedicated Dedicated channels can Offers the capability of storing
Switching Transmission channel Cause delays because a Messages temporarily to reduce
That is reserved until it Channel is unavailable until Network congestion
Is disconnected. One side disconnects. Uses
A dedicated physical link
Between the sending and
Receiving devices.

3. Describe the routing protocol used on your LAN and on the WAN.

On a WAN X.25 uses PSEs for hardware that drops traffic onto connecting websites in average sized
packets, delivered in order, and error free correction. Frame relay is a successor to X.25. Frame Relay
places data into different-sized frames and leaves error correction and retransmission of missing
packets up to the endpoints. These differences speed up the overall data rate. In addition, Frame Relay
relies less on dedicated connections to create meshed networks, meaning fewer physical circuits, hence
saving companies money. Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is similar to frame relay with one big
difference being that data is broken into standard-sized packets called cells. Cells make it possible to
blend different classes of traffic onto a single physical circuit and more readily guarantee qualities of
service. The downside of ATM is that because it uses relatively small cells, the headers eat up a
relatively large percentage of the contents of each cell. Therefore, ATM’s overall use of bandwidth is
less efficient than that of frame relay.

4. Provide reasoning for choosing the switching and routing, WAN transmission, and topology.

When a WAN service provider receives data from a client at a site, it has to forward the data to the
remote site for final delivery to the recipient. In most cases, the remote site may be connected to the
same ISP as the originating site. In other cases, the remote site may be connected to a different ISP, and
the originating ISP must pass the data to the connecting ISP.

Long-range communications are usually those connections between ISPs, or between branch offices in
very large companies.

Service provider networks are complex. They consist mostly of high-bandwidth fiber-optic media, using
either the Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET) or Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) standard.
These standards define how to transfer multiple data, voice, and video traffic over optical fiber using
lasers or light-emitting diodes (LEDs) over great distances.
5. Apply the concepts from the unit's assigned hands-on virtual labs.

WAN Speed Supported Switching Key Characteristics

Technology Media Method Used

ISDN BRI: 64Kbps to Copper/fiber- Can be used for ISDN can be used to transmit
128Kbps PRI: optic circuitswitching or all types of traffic, including
64Kbps to packet-switching voice, video, and data. BRI
1.5Mbps connections uses 2B+D channels; PRI uses
23B+D channels. B channels
are 64Kbps. ISDN uses the
public network and requires
dialin access.

T-carrier (T1, T1: 1.544Mbps Copper/fiber- Circuit switching T-carrier is used to create
T3) optic pointto- point network
T3: 44.736Mbps
connections for private
networks.

ATM 1.544Mbps to Copper/fiber- Cell switching ATM uses fixed cells that are 53
622Mbps optic bytes long.

X.25 56Kbps/64Kbps Copper/fiber- Packet switching X.25 is limited to 56Kbps. X.25

optic provides packet-switching
network over standard lines.

Frame Relay 56Kbps to Copper/fiber- PVCs and SVCs Frame Relay is a packet-

WAN Speed Supported Switching Key Characteristics

Technology Media Method Used

1.544Mbps optic oriented protocol, and it uses

variablelength packets.

SONET/OCx 51.8Mbps to Fiber-optic N/A SONET defines synchronous

2.4Gbps