NetPro Certification Courseware for NetPro Certified Network Engineer – N.C.N.

NETWORKS

What is a network?

A network is a group of computers connected together by cables or some other

medium, but the networking process is anything but simple. When computers are
able to communicate, they can work together in a variety of ways: by sharing their
resources with each other, by distributing the workload of a particular task, or by
exchanging messages. This book examines in detail how computers on a network
communicate, what functions they perform, and how to go about building, operating,
and maintaining them.

The original paradigm for collaborative computing was to have a single large
computer connected to series of terminals, each of which would service a different
user. This is called time-sharing, because the computer divides its processor clock
cycles among the terminals. Time-sharing is the basis for mainframe computing. In
this arrangement, the terminals are simply communication devices; they accept input
from users through a keyboard and send it to the computer. When the computer
returns a result, the terminal displays it on a screen or prints it out on paper. This type
of terminal is sometimes called a dumb terminal, because it doesn’t perform any
calculations of its own. The communications between the terminals and the computer
are relatively simple on this type of network. Each terminal can only communicate
with one device, the computer. Terminals never communicate with each other.

Design Objectives

Before commencing any network design project, it is important to clarify what

constitutes a satisfactory network design. What are the goals of the network designer?
What are they trying to achieve? A starting blueprint is required that outlines the
performance parameters against which the quality of the network design and
operation can be measured. When developing a network specification, the first issue
is to identify the parameters that are to be specified. These parameters are extremely
important. They provide a level of focus for the design engineer at the outset of the
project and at all times during the design process.
 NetPro Certification Courseware for NetPro Certified Network Engineer – N.C.N.E

Performance

The parameters against which the performance of the network will be judged must be
first ascertained. The performance parameters are:

Application response time: The application drivers the design. There is no point in
having a fast response time across the network if users of the network applications do
not experience this response. The response time is particularly relevant for delay-
sensitive or real-time applications like multimedia and Voice over IP (VoIP). Many
traditional legacy applications such as a Systems Network Architecture (SNA) or
LAT are also very time-sensitive.

Application co-existence: the IP network is becoming a heterogeneous melting pot for

a multitude of applications that are becoming increasingly diverse of nature.
Traditional data applications that are sensitive to packet loss are being integrated on
the same network as delay-sensitive and real-time applications such as voice, video,
and multimedia. This possesses additional challenges for the design engineer. Not
only must multiple applications be supported one the same network, but also ones that
have significantly different characteristics and requirements. All networks must be
designed to adequately meet the requirements in terms of delay and packet loss for
each application. This leads into the area of Quality of Service (QoS).

Availability: The availability requirements of network applications dictate the

application downtime that can be tolerated. This downtime can occur due to a failure
on the application itself or a failure on the network. The network and applications
should be designed in order to minimize this downtime. Even with a resilient design,
downtime can occur on the application while either the network or application is
availing of a backup path or device. This is termed the convergence time and can
result in the loss of sessions with time-sensitive applications.

Redundancy and Resilience

The need for network resilience is driven by the application availability requirements.
After ascertaining the availability requirements of each application, a plan must be put
in place to ensure that this availability can be provided. A resilient design must
provide full resilience along the client-to-server data path. This entails achieving the
following;

Resilient network access for the client.

Backup links in the data path from client to server

Backup network devices in the path from client to server

Resilient network access for the servers

Resilience in the application
 NetPro Certification Courseware for NetPro Certified Network Engineer – N.C.N.E

Most network designs are characterized by a tradeoff between cost and availability.
Providing a truly resilient design for all aspects of the network in many cases will
cause the network budget to be exceeded. It is then a question of prioritizing and
defining the exact level of resilienc3e that will be provided for each application and
on each part of the network.

It is also important to define what you mean by resilience. The classic example is the
question of resilience in the local loop. There is not much point in having one leased
line as backup for another if they are both in the same local loop cable to the central
office.

Another issue is how resilience against degraded service or congestion is incorporated

into the network. This again relates to the application availability requirements and
the sensitivity to delay and packet loss.

The speed of convergence is another key issue that determines whether the fail over to
backup paths or devices results in any lost sessions. The specification for convergence
speed could, for example, determine the choice of IP routing protocol.

Accommodating Growth and Change

The fundamental platform of the network should be designed once. This design must
incorporate scalability to cater for growth in applications, users, or the number of sites
on the network. The network should only be redesigned if an event fundamentally
changes the character of the network, such as a new application that is radically more
bandwidth-intensive than any existing application.

Network design should be able to incorporate likely future changes, without requiring
a significant or radical redesign. Growth in the number of users and the
implementation of new applications should be provided for. Although accurate
estimates on growth or change in these areas might not be realistic, it is important to
gain at least a qualitative estimate.

Management and Manageability

Network management should be incorporated into the design. It is not sufficient to

treat it as an afterthought. Support is usually the second greatest single cost of
ownership on a network. It can be minimized through well-planned network
management.
 NetPro Certification Courseware for NetPro Certified Network Engineer – N.C.N.E

Each of the traditional elements of network management should be considered as part

of the initial design process:

Fault management: The way in which faults will be dealt with in order to
minimize downtime should be decided at the design stage.

Configuration management: A secure and efficient policy for altering

configurations and performing changes on the network should be decided prior
to rollout.

Accounting: The importance of accounting should be clarified at the outset.

Some networking devices support their own accounting features and if
accounting is a priority, then this may influence the choice of devices and
technology.

Performance management: On any medium to large network, the performance

parameters should be monitored on a proactive basis.

Security: Security risks and vulnerabilities must be addressed at the network

design stage. The tools and procedures used to secure a network are also
integral to its design.

Disaster Recovery

A disaster recovery plan should be developed in conjunction with any significant

network design or redesign. The complete and outright failure of all core resources is
an example of a disaster scenario.

If disaster recovery is not incorporated into the original design, then it may turn out
that the eventual disaster recovery solution is excessively expensive to implement or
has a very limited scope of recovery.

Cost

No matter what anybody says, cost is always a fundamental driving force behind
network design. It is important to accurately quantify the cost associated with each
element of the network design prior to advancing too far with any design proposal.
The following are some of the major cost contributors to a corporate network:

WAN: The cost of the wide area technology and bandwidth is usually the
greatest single contributor to the cost of the network.
 NetPro Certification Courseware for NetPro Certified Network Engineer – N.C.N.E

Support: Support is usually the second greatest cost component to owning a

network. The problem with support cost is that, unlike the WAN cost, it is
notoriously difficult to quantify. Stringent management information systems
are required to quantify support costs and indeed if they are not measured,
then they can easily spiral out of control.

Investment protection: When products such as networking devices near the
end of their life cycle, do all devices need to be completely replaced? It is
important to quantify the level of investment protection offered by vendors
when devices require an upgrade or replacement

Network Applications

The applications drive entire design requirement. Designing from the top down is the
cliché frequently associated with this principle.

The network design engineer should understand the behavior, characteristics, and
requirements of the applications to a reasonable level of detail. The physical and
logical location of all servers as well as the distribution of clients should be
documented. This is important in order to predict client-to-server traffic flows.

WAN traffic can be dramatically reduced in a Windows NT environment by placing a

local backup domain controller (BDC) at certain strategic sites. The use of local
acknowledgement for Logical Link Control (LLC), proxy explorers, and RIF caching
can improve performance in an SNA over environment.

Networking Protocols

It is important to clearly understand which protocols are used by each application and
how these protocols operate. By understanding these technologies, the perceived
network requirements can be reduced and performance can be improved.

The Cost of Downtime

The cost of an hour’s downtime can vary from zero to hundreds of thousands of
dollars depending on the nature of the corporation’s business. It is critical that all
personnel associated with the design and support of your network has a clear picture
of the cost of network downtime.

The classic tradeoff between cost and availability when performing network design
underscores the importance of quantifying the cost of downtime. Without an estimate
of the cost of downtime, such a tradeoff analysis cannot be accurately performed.
 NetPro Certification Courseware for NetPro Certified Network Engineer – N.C.N.E

Achieving the Design Goal

The following figure displays a network design flowchart that provides an

approximate guideline that could be used to approach the basic steps to be followed
during the design process:

1. Determine the performance parameters that best specify each of the design
goals such as the application response time, the packet loss percentage,
latency, and application availability.
2. Identify any design constraints. The most obvious constraint is budget. Other
constraints may include the implementation timescale, the support of legacy
equipment, and the incorporation of specialized departments that require
unique network specification and policy.
 NetPro Certification Courseware for NetPro Certified Network Engineer – N.C.N.E

3. After considering the constraints, set targets for the relevant network
performance parameters.
4. Commence a high-level design. This is intended to resolve major issues such
as the choice of WAN technology, the degree to which routing is used instead
of switching , and so on.
5. Then, this high-level design should be compared to the constraints. If the
constraints are not met, an iterative step backwards is required. In the event of
the constraints being met, the design process can proceed.
6. A specific network design plan can now begin to be formulated. This
addresses all technical details and alternatives for the design.
7. Each major aspect of the technical solution should be lab tested. The
application response and availability characteristics should also be tested in a
lab. This facilitates an iterative refinement of the technical solution.
8. The design is complete when the technical design is fully refined. In some
cases, the final lab tests may indicate that the fundamental performance targets
or constraints are unrealistic and may have to be revised and compromised. It
is, however, an aspiration to tentatively finalize these parameters at the high-
level design stage.

A well-designed network is characterized by predictability in performance, resilience,

and scalability. Once the design is severely compromised, it ceases to exist and
predictability is lost. Thus, you can design a network once or design it a hundred
times.

Fundamental Design Principles

Sometimes when lost in the details of a design project, the design engineers should
refocus on some of these principles:

Understand the environment, including all of the design objectives. You must
first be clear on what has to be achieved before attempting to achieve it.

The application drives the design requirements. The network is the structure
that facilitates the application. Without understanding the application
characteristics and its requirements, the network cannot be designed.

Experience is required, both theoretical and practical. Network design requires
extensive practical experience combined with a theoretical understanding of
the technologies and how they relate to one another.
NetPro Certification Courseware for NetPro Certified Network Engineer – N.C.N.E

Don’t trust network design models. The design of large or complex networks
cannot be reliably modeled such modeling is only appropriate for high-level
design. When resolving specific technical details, a lab is required.

Design is done in the lab rather than on the whiteboard. For the same reason
that network-modeling techniques should be distrusted, a lab is the single most
important design tool. Given the complexity of the more advanced
internetwork designs, a design is not valid until it has been verified in the lab.

Network design usually involves a number of tradeoffs. Cost versus
performance and availability is usually the fundamental design tradeoff.

Don’t underestimate support cost. This is the single biggest cost after the
WAN costs. Its significance is often minimized because it can be more
difficult to quantify. The support cost can be minimized through good design.
Do not underestimate the cost of maintaining competent support personnel.

Don’t try to mirror the corporate structure. The network design and topology
can often mirror the corporate structure of the organization. Although
attempting to mirror this structure is not to be discouraged necessarily, the
network designer should certainly never become enslaved by it.

Vendor independence. Avoid proprietary solutions as far as possible and as far
as is prudent. A design should not tie an organization to a single vendor when
there are other viable alternatives. There are also situations where a vendor
represents a virtual monopoly in terms of providing the only viable solution.

Don’t introduce complexity without a clear benefit. This principle is true of
both network design and device configuration. Additional complexity is likely
to increase the support cost and may make the network more difficult to
manage. Increased complexity is only justifiable if the outcome is a resulting
benefit or requirement.

Design every network on its own merits. Do not work to a set of rigid and
possibly over-generalized design rules. Consider every network on its own
merits.

Take the direct route unless… Traffic should always take the shortest path
between source and destination where possible. What exactly constitutes the
shortest path depends on the technology employed.

Avoid the bleeding edge. Only use mature and well-tested software and
hardware for all devices on the network. Any violation of this principle
requires a business justification case risk assessment.

Do not compromise the fundamental design plan. The design may have to
show some degree of flexibility and evolve with the network. This relates to
the requirement for a scalable design. For example, if you are implementing a
three-layered WAN hierarchy, do not compromise this by adding another
layer. This could happen if new small routers are added below the access layer
or are alternatively directly connecting to the backbone.
 NetPro Certification Courseware for NetPro Certified Network Engineer – N.C.N.E

This comprises and invalidates the original design by either adding another
layer or by mixing and matching layers. In such a case, the original design is
no longer relevant. No changes should be made to the original design without
the endorsement of the engineers who formulated that design.

Predictability is the hallmark of a good design. Predictability in performance,
resilience, and scalability is a characteristic of a well-designed network.

Design it once or design it a hundred times! If a network is not designed
properly at the outset or if that design is compromised, then everyday tasks
such as troubleshooting and adding new devices to the network become design
projects in themselves. This is because without a valid design that has been
followed, basic network changes do not form a part of any plan. Thus, they
must be treated as isolated projects. The effect of any changes on the network
must always be independently assessed if the design plan has been deviated
from. This is what is called “designing a network a hundred times”

Don’t design by committee or by dictator. No one person, no matter how
skilled or experienced, should be the single and absolute authority in designing
the network. Designing a network involves balancing priorities, performing
tradeoffs, and addressing a broad range of technical issues at both a general
and detailed level. It is essential for anyone to engage in a regular discourse
with colleagues in order to keep all of these technical and non-technical issues
in appropriate perspective. A fresh perspective is always needed, as well as
people with a different focus. Networks should be designed by a small number
of competent engineers, not be committees.

Categories of Networks

Networks can be described by category. Valid network categories include

Data
Voice
Video
Multimedia
Internet
Intranet
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Data Networks

At this time data networks are generally referred to by the protocols they use. For the
most part the dominant protocols in the marketplace today are

SNA
TCP/IP
Netware
AppleTalk
Windows Networking

These protocols and others (which are generally called lower layer protocols)
comprise the backbone for moving “stuff” through a network. Technically, specific
components within each of these network protocols move data and “stuff” through
networks. This moving of “stuff” refers to routing. However, data and “stuff” are also
moved at a more fundamental level within networks; that level uses data link
protocols.

Voice Networks

Voice networks have been around for some time. Their purpose and operation are
different from those of most data networks. Voice networks can be considered
analogous to the foundation of a house. Because voice networks are basically the
backbone on which data networks are built, a word is in order about voice networks.
A voice network is actually nothing more than a telephone infrastructure, such as
lines, switching sub-stations, satellites, software and the like. For the most part, voice
networks that were in place ten years ago are the same ones in place today. It is all-
binary. In the world of communications, multimedia, voice, data, and just about any
thing else you can name, everything is digital-a mere one or zero.

Voice networks (thought of as those to which telephone and other devices connect are
becoming digitally oriented. They are not completely digital, as some think. This
might seem strange, but remember technology did not begin with digital operation; it
was analogue. Most telephone networks have roots in analog technology. This is
significant, because most devices in the world of technology today are digital.

In some cases, modems connect computers to voice networks. Modems modulate and
demodulate signals to accommodate digital devices and the analog connection end of
the vehicle. Thus analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog signal conversion is
accomplished. Not all communication between computers need be converted to
analog signals for transmission. This depends on the network that transports data from
the origin to the destination and devices on the ends.
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Video Networks

Video networks are interesting. Operation of these networks differs from that of voice
or data networks; however, both voice and data might be part of a video network.

Video is becoming an increasing proportion of company network traffic. Some

companies have dedicated video networks, but at this time most do not. The current
and foreseen trend is movement toward a synthesis of message mediums. The point is
that the technology exists today for a single device to support data, voice, and video.
Orienting customers to these ideas is currently referred to as multimedia.

Multimedia Networks

Upgrading networks at fundamental levels is required for adequate multimedia

implementation in today’s market place. Because most networks have evolved rather
than being planned, this is the order of the day. The consequences are financial – PCs,
memory, disk drivers, interface cards, and the connecting medium cause instances
where it is cheaper to create a new network with new equipment.
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Multimedia networks require more technology than data oriented networks. In

contrast to multimedia networks require a monitor, input device, processor storage,
and a link between devices. Multimedia networks require the same components as
data networks, but in some cases different viewing input storage, transmission media,
and other devices are required. At an application level, this means new applications
or in some cases upgrades of previous versions.

INTERNET

The Internet has gone from basic obscurity in the marketplace to the hottest topic
around the country in less than ten years. Ten years ago relatively few people were
working with the Internet. Today, practically every form of media outlet has daily
remarks concerning aspects of it. A dominant question is "what" or "where" is the
Internet? The Internet us a collection of entities around the world. Specifically, in
America, these entities include educational institutions, commercial companies,
governmental organizations, research facilities, and service providers such as America
Online, and others to name a few.

The Internet does have fundamental pieces operating at the very core of it. For
example, the Domain Name System is the heart and soul of it. Yes, there are routers,
bridges, gateways, and network-related devices; and to a real degree, the pieces come
together and thus the Internet exists.

Some say a service provider is merely that; a service provider. However there is a
point where the service provider is a part of the Internet itself. A lot of service
providers provide there own version of magazines, some news, file transfer
capabilities, e-mail, and some core functions such as TELNET, FTP, GOPHER, and
so forth.

The World Wide Web is part of the Internet; however it is not the Internet. The fact of
the matter is that the Web is simply a collection of individual computers that run Web
server software. All these individual Web sites make up the Web collectively. Some
Web locations have the ability to listen to audio, watch video and do other tricks. The
bulk of the Internet today is simply a presentation of data in electronic form.

How one uses the Internet is a topic to consider. For example, a user can access the
Internet by way of common service providers today. The service provider actually
determines the abilities and limitations users have with Internet interaction. Some
service providers limit the scope of user functions so that remote logins may not be
performed. However, some service providers offer this ability. Prior to service
providers today, most access was achieved by an indirect connection through an entity
such as a university, organization, or other entity with an address assigned to it not all
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service providers provide the same services or abilities. Rather, they differ in the
speeds by which access

Commercialization of the Internet will probably continue for many years to come. In
fact, the Internet can be obtained, timelines, and so forth. This is not a negative
statement toward any service provider, it is a simple reality in the world of the
Internet, Remember, the Internet, to a great degree, was not planned - it just
happened.

INTRANETS

First, there was the Internet; next came intranets. A pressing question still lurks on the
intellectual horizon is "What is an intranet?" our standard reply is, "Whoever you ask
will most likely have an answer which might not concur with the next person you
ask." to be simple; an intranet is any network an entity has that supports its purposes.

The notion of the term intranet is rooted in the Internet; Intranets are generally
internal with regard to the services they provide. However the scope of the services
might geographically cover a large expense.

The idea of having an internal network for most companies is as common as having a
computer in the company itself. The smallest of companies is moving towards having
internal networks installed, even if that is nothing but computers connected through a
hub to share files and a printer.

Network categories generally reflect the type of network service provided. The
exception is the Internet. will become the commercial exchange medium for not only
buying and selling but also communications. The nature of it makes for an attractive
tool to use. The Internet itself really consists of multiple types of networks within it.
Part of the Internet includes NASA, DoD, America Online, and other service
providers.