LAN Topology Design and Cabling Specifications

Best Betts Gaming Company is opening a new local Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV. They have purchased an existing hotel with approximately five-hundred guest rooms. They also own another casino outside of Pahrump, NV. Their main purpose is to setup telecommunications within three departments for customer service inside and outside the hotel. The three departments are PBX, room reservations and the front desk. There is a limited budget. The staff in all three departments would total 25 employees. Due to the type of business the hours of operation will be 24 hours and workstations will need to be shared by staff from shift to shift. The company will provide IT staff for emergencies and maintenance of telecommunications equipment, interfacing and computer software.

In determining the proper network design we will need to choose the proper network topology by considering the type of equipment needed, equipment capabilities, future growth within the network and how the network will be managed. The four basic topologies are Bus, Star, Ring and Mesh, (CIS370 Understanding Network Architecture, 2013).

Expectations for the Local Area Network (LAN) is to supply proper cabling to support current technology in order to perform various functions such as video conferencing, IT development and VoIP, etc.. The network infrastructure would have to include various servers such as file, backup, development, peer to peer client/servers. In addition to the servers the infrastructure would need desktop clients for workstations and code storage. Additional codes would need to be created under code development as well as internal domains for existing and future employees.

Local Area Network (LAN) Topologies
Money, length of cable needed, future growth, and cable type are all considerations when choosing a LAN Topology, Winkelman, R. (2013). The Best Betts Company is on a limited budget. Looking for the least expensive way to install a network would need to be considered. Shorter cable length would be considered since the three offices of the company are close together. The linear bus network would be considered best for money and length of cable since it is the least expensive to install and uses shorter lengths of cable. The disadvantages of the linear bus network would be that it has limited growth capabilities, problems within the system can cause the whole system to go down, or take a longer period of time to find and repair the problem, therefore, leading to higher cost in maintenance. Star network topology could also be considered for the future growth and cable type. In Star topology expansion of the network is done easily through adding concentrators and common cabling most used is unshielded twisted- pair (UTP) or shielded twisted-pair (STP) wiring.

Star topology is also easily installed and maintained. Some disadvantages of the Star topology is that it requires more cable, if the switch fails all connections are lost, and it is more expensive than the linear bus topologies due to the hub cost, (Winkelman, R., 2013). Ring network topology is setup to connect computers in a circle through a single cable. There are no terminated ends therefore the signal goes through each computer in a loop. We do not advise using this type of topology for the current design. A Mesh network topology provides reliability and redundancy through configuration of the network. Each computer through separate cabling connects to every other computer so that if one cable fails another will take over. The Mesh network is expensive to install due to much more cabling needed, (CIS370 Understanding Network Architecture, 2013). Based on the type of network and cabling needed for the design we have taken into consideration Bus and Star topologies. Therefore, we believe that using Ethernet Star network advantages out-weigh the disadvantages and would be best used in the design.

Cabling Specifications
In determining the cable specifications for the design and what is best when using the Ethernet Star topology we decided to use Category 5, shielded twisted-pair (STP) 10Base T(10Mbps, baseband, over twisted pair) cable. 10Base T in most cases use UTI however STI can be substituted since it does not change the parameters of the 10Base T. Using STP cabling will help to reduce interference within the lines. STP, 10Base T specifications is considered the most popular LAN cabling with a maximum segment length of 100(328 feet) meters and minimum cable length between computers is 8 feet, (CIS370 Understanding Network Architecture, 2013). In addition to the cabling specifications we suggest a server-based network due to future growth, confidential information, and centralized security. Since the wiring closet will be centrally located within the room reservation department with front desk and PBX on each side then cabling length would not exceed 100 meters for all work stations. As a backup in the event cable is to short hubs can be installed and extend cabling.

There will be 7 workstations in room reservations, 5 workstations at the front desk, and 3 workstations in PBX. There will be a total of fifteen workstations. Each workstation will need to have RJ-45 jack and connectors. There will be 4 segments. Segment 1 will connect to main switch room and to a WAP (Wireless Access Point) for wireless devices and printers. Segment 2 will connect to main switch room and to 7 work stations in room reservations and 5 workstations at the front desk. Segment 3 will connect to main switch room and to 3 workstations in PBX. Segment 4 will be used for additional backup servers and IT development, etc. See below for cabling checklist: * 1 – Cat 5 cable – from switch (main) room to firewall * 4 – Cat. 5 cables – from main switch room to 4 separate segment switches * 1 – Cat 5 cables – from segment 1 switch to WAN

* 12 – Cat 5 cables – from segment 2 switch to each workstation jacks * 3 – Cat 5 cables – from segment 3 switch to each workstation jacks * 10 – Cat 5 – cabling from segment 4 switch to main switch room * 15 – Cat 5 – patch cables from RJ-45 jack to computer workstations * 40 – RJ-45 connectors – one for each end of the cables * 15 – Cat 5 cables – patch cables from server room to additional switches. * 15 – RJ-45 female connector wall plates for each workstation

References

CIS370 Understanding Network Architecture. (2013). Lesson 3: Ethernet. Retrieved from http://pluto.ksi.edu/~cyh/cis370/ebook/ch03d.htm Winkelman, Director, D. (2013). Topology. Retrieved from http://fcit.usf.edu/network/chap5/chap5.htm#StarNetwork