Network Analysis and Design

So as Pricilla Oppenheimer so wisely councils at the beginning of her book ôTop-Down Network Designö, ô the first step in top-down network design [is] analysing your customerÆs business goalsö (Oppenheimer 1). What this means is that people take precedence over technology until the logical and physical network designs are conceived. The implication of that statement is that when it comes to enterprise networks the needs of the business must be thoroughly understood, or even the best technology may be useless.

This project involves a fictitious company producing a variety of networking equipment and high-tech gadgets named Technical Products Galore (TPG). It has just acquired another company called RickÆs Place in Alexandria, Virginia, in addition to its far-flung existing locations in

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, software, and hardware be compatible throughout and within the companiesÆ locations, but the European operation may present special problems due to different standards, practices, technology, laws, culture, or language. In my discussions with the corporate players on this project I would also make a special effort to elicit their opinions on matters of vendors, protocols, or platforms, open versus proprietary concerns, distributed authority for network design and implementation, budget, and schedule, expertise of company personnel, staff education (extremely important for this particular project), as well as office politics. Finally I would elicit from company officials their views on availability, scalability, affordability, security, and manageability, as well as their required network performance level and the consequences of network failure. All this information relates directly to the central importance of conducting a performance requirement analysis using the top-down philosophy of network design, in contrast to the much more unreliable method of simply buying the latest off-the-shelf technology - uncustomized to the specific, documented needs of the business involved (which Oppenheimer refers to as the ôconnect-the-
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Wide Web, ISDN Internet, Cisco Systems, OneÆs Internet, Vice President, Goals Checklist, Network Designö, Analysis Design, Stone Age, Office Suite, network design, software hardware, hardware software, philosophy network design, connectivity via, technology isdn, voice data, top-down network, enterprise network, profits productivity, top-down network design, top-down philosophy network, customerÆs business,
Approximate Word count = 2041
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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