LAN Design LAN Switches

LAN Design - Servers Workgroup Enterprise Provide file/print/application services to groups of users Placed in IDF close to users Enterprise Provide enterprise services such as DNS, email, applications Increasing trend to enterprise servers in organisations Should be placed in MDF

LAN Design - Availability Goal to maximise availability Throughput Response time Access to resources

Layer 1 Design Copper medium? – CAT5, CAT5e, CAT6 UTP/STP Fibre? Position of MDF/IDF to create appropriate catchment areas

Layer 2 Design Flow control, error detection & correction, reduce congestion Reduce collision domain size & effects of collisions Keep collision domains small – ideally fully switched full-duplex environment

Layer 3 Design Controls traffic flow between network segments Logical addressing scheme to separate different network/workgroup functions Broadcast control

Hierarchical Design Model Core layer – backbone – no packet manipulation Distribution layer – packet manipulation, interconnecting workgroups, Layer 3 switches, enterprise servers Access layer – closest to user/workgroup – hosts, switches, workgroup servers