Top Floor Network Setup: A Look at Physical & Logical Topologies

Question 1: Network TopologyFiji Pharmaceuticals Ltd has its top floor network extended by a Hub that has 16 ports that are 10Base-T. The 16 staff computers on this floor are each connected by Cat 5 cable to the hub, and they use their PCs a lot.

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Identify and describe the characteristics of the physical and logical topologies of the network on this floor

The main structure of the connections would depend on the number of floors; since the connection in question is on the top floor, which is extended to 16 ports that are 10 Base-T, there must be servers, and edge, and firewalls routers as the end devices. This physical and logical connection is called the star-network topology. The type of topology overcomes the problems related to problems of mimicking mesh topology and avoiding the redundant pathways so that whenever the floor has a problem, the IT department can handle the issue. See the figure below; the last floor can have an extended hub serving all other computers in all the departments.

Fig.1: Diagram from Network Diagram Software

(5 marks)

Suppose staff on the floor have been experiencing long delays on this network. The IT team came and replaced the hub with a switch with the same number of ports, speed, and capacity, and it improved the performance. Explain, with valid reasons, how the improvement in performance could have been achieved. [Hint: topology and collision domains]

When the extended hub in the floor fails, all the connected devices also fail as the attached nodes. The performance depends on the hub capacity. All the devices are connected to a specific hub. The main hub translates the IP address of packets across the local network an internet boundaries, which means that the speed and the capacity of the network across all the devices are equal.

(4 marks)

Questions 2: LAN/WAN

A local university with the network shown in the next page has three switches (S1, S2, S3) to which PCs are connected via the port numbers shown. The PC IP addresses and MAC addresses are also shown.

Draw the switch tables for S1 and S2

Switch MAC address table

Switch Mac Address PC IP address TYPE Port

S1 190.168.10 A5-C3-B2-45-03-A1 Dynamic CPU

S2 190.168.40 A5-C3-B2-45-03-A1 Static CPU

(4 marks)

Explain what will happen and the reason why if S1 receives a frame with MAC address A5-C3-33-45-3C-F3 on interface 4?

On interface four, when interface 4 receives a Mac address, which is A5-C3-33-45-3C-F3, it will always identify the network device on the local scale representing the physical address. The switch forwards the frame from the internet(PC)/local network to the A5-C3-33-45-3C-F3

Assume that S2 is a brand new switch that is just installed, and its forwarding table is empty. Now D is the first PC that sends a frame to E. Describe the steps that S2 will take to forward the frame to E and draw its forwarding table after this.

Being new, you have to contact A5-c3-b25-4-0B-AB5.

Determine the most likely WAN network connection for R2 to connect to the internet and explain the reason for your answer. Feel to draw valid assumptions.

S1 is the most suitable WAN connection for R2. This is because it does not have much traffic.

Question 3: IP Address and Routing

Suppose Vinod Patel has the addresses below. For each address, identify its type, its layer in the OSI model, and how it is issued.

www.vinodpatel.com.fj195.100.10.0 router transmitting port IP address

Network layer 3 of the OSI model.

45-56-67-A3-34-F6-MAC address of transmitting router.

Network layer 3 of the OSI model.

(3 marks)

For each address in the table below, write their class, number of networks, and number of hosts.

(4 marks)

IP Address Class Number of Networks Number of Hosts

117.128.10.1 A 117 128.10.1

195.100.10.1 C 195 100.10.1

192.200.100.1 C 192 200.100.1

128.128.100.1 B 128 128.100.1

A new university, to be established in Tonga for students in the Pacific, is issued the IP address 132.100.0.0

It will have the following departments:

Faculty of Engineering - 1500 students, 80 staff, 1 building

Faculty of Arts - 2500 students, 120 staff, 1 building

Faculty of Law - 480 students, 30 staff, 1 building

Library - 150 PCs for students and 10 staff, 1 building

Admin/Finance - 35 staffs, 1 building

The above departments are connected to a router R2, which is then connected to R1, the gateway router to the internet. Develop the subnets for the network and draw its network diagram.

IP Address Networks Number of Networks Number of Hosts

132.100.11.1 1500 11 100.11.1

132.100.10.1 480 30 100.10.1

132.100.12.1 150 12 200.100.1

132.100.10.1 35 1 128.100.1

(12 marks)

A staff comes into her office in the morning and connects her laptop to the network. She wants to download content from a web server on the internet.

Assuming that the laptop hasn't got an IP address yet, describe the step-by-step process of how an IP address is assigned by the office network to the laptop.

The administrator password of the new router is changed. This is done from the systems tab, which is on the interface. The next step involves the user being assigned security access using WPS(wi-fi protected setup) through which the system switches to n automatic security authentication to assign a unique network address to the laptop. (4 marks)

Now that the laptop's IP address is assigned, it is able to communicate on the internet. Describe the steps taken for the laptop to access the content from the webserver www.facebook.com [Hint: address translation]

The IP address of the computer will then be translated to the www.facebook.com through the network address translation (NAT) internet IPv6.