Chapter 3:

Network Design Principles

Outline

▪ Design goals
▪ Design choices
▪ Design approaches
▪ The design process
▪ Capacity planning
 Design Goals

▪ Good designs should:

o Deliver services requested by users
o Deliver acceptable throughput and response times
o Be within budget and maximize cost efficiencies
o Be reliable
o Be expandable without major redesign
o Be manageable by maintenance and support staff
o Be well documented
 Fundamental Design Goals
▪ These requirements translate into four fundamental network
design goals:
 Scalability: Scalable network designs can grow to include new
user groups and remote sites and can support new applications
without impacting the level of service delivered to existing
users.

 Availability: A network designed for availability is one that

delivers consistent, reliable performance, 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week.
o In addition, the failure of a single link or piece of equipment
should not significantly impact network performance.
 Cont..

 Security: Security is a feature that must be designed into the

network, not added on after the network is complete.
o Planning the location of security devices, filters, and firewall
features is critical to safeguarding network resources.

 Manageability: No matter how good the initial network design is,

the available network staff must be able to manage and support
the network.
o A network that is too complex or difficult to maintain cannot
function effectively and efficiently.
 Why Modern Design?

a) There is rise in technology

b) Traditional network boundaries have been removed
c) Complexities of network
d) Reduce the time to develop and market products

▪ Network design are affected by both business and technology

drivers.
o Business drivers: return on investment, regulation,
competitiveness
o Technology drivers: removal of borders, virtualization, growth
of application
 The steps required to Design a Good Network

▪ Step 1. Verify the business goals and technical requirements

▪ Step 2. Determine the features and functions required to

meet the needs identified in Step 1

▪ Step 3. Perform a network-readiness assessment

▪ Step 4. Create a solution and site acceptance test plan

▪ Step 5. Create a project plan

 Design Choices

▪ Factors to consider:
o Balance of distribution
o Level of transparency
o Security
o Connectivity technology
 Network Design Approaches

▪ Top-Down Approach: a network designer looks at a project

starting with the general applications required.

 Advantages: Begins with a focus on an organization’s specific

goals and requirements for network applications and
services, while allowing potential future needs to be
considered and accounted for.

 Disadvantages: Requires thorough initial needs analysis in

order to determine specific requirements, and ensure that all
possible applications and services have been considered.
 Cont..

▪ Bottom- up approach: tends to start lower in the OSI model,

worrying about issues like specific technologies, protocols,
network media, and so forth.

 Advantages: Generally a faster approach based on past

projects and implementations that works within an existing
environment.

 Disadvantages: The approach may not take all necessary

applications and services into consideration, leading to a
design that ultimately may not meet the needs of an
organization, and may need to be redesigned in the future
 Hierarchical Network Design

▪ In networking, a hierarchical design is used to group devices

into multiple networks.

▪ The networks are organized in a layered approach.

▪ The hierarchical design model has three basic layers:

 Core layer: Connects distribution layer devices

 Distribution layer: Interconnects the smaller local networks

 Access layer: Provides connectivity for network hosts and end

devices
Hierarchical Network Design
Multi-Building Enterprise Network Design
 Flat Network Design

▪ The topology of a flat network is not segmented or separated

into different broadcast areas by using routers

▪ Layer 2 devices in a flat network provide little opportunity to

control broadcasts or to filter undesirable

▪ To reduce cost, maintenance and administration

▪ Reduce the number of routers and switches on a computer

network traffic.

▪ As more devices and applications are added to a flat network,

response times degrade until the network becomes unusable.
 Cont..

▪ Drawbacks of Flat Network design

 Poor security

 No redundancy

 Scalability and speed

Flat Network Design
 Structured Engineering Principles

▪ Regardless of network size or requirements, a critical factor for

the successful implementation of any network design is to
follow good structured engineering principles.

▪ These principles includes:

o Hierarchy
o Modularity
o Resilience
o Flexibility
 Cont..

▪ Hierarchy: A hierarchical network model is a useful high-level

tool for designing a reliable network infrastructure.
o It breaks the complex problem of network design into smaller and
more manageable areas.

▪ Modularity:
o Separating the various functions that exist on a network into
modules.
o Cisco has identified several modules, including the enterprise
campus, services block, data center, and Internet edge.
 Cont..

▪ Resiliency: The network must remain available for use under

both normal and abnormal conditions.
o Normal conditions include normal or expected traffic flows and
traffic patterns, as well as scheduled events such as maintenance
windows.
o Abnormal conditions include hardware or software failures,
extreme traffic loads, unusual traffic patterns, denial-of-service
(DoS) events, whether intentional or unintentional, and other
unplanned events.
 Cont..

▪ Flexibility:
o The ability to modify portions of the network, add new
services, or increase capacity without going through a
major forklift upgrade (i.e., replacing major hardware
devices).
o To meet these fundamental design goals, a network must be
built on a hierarchical network architecture that allows for
both flexibility and growth.
 Network Design Stages / Methodology

▪ Agree and analyze requirements

▪ Characterize the existing network and sites
▪ Designing the requirements
 Assessing requirements
 Information gathering
 Site constraints
 Planning
 Design specification
 Implementation
 1. Identify the Network Requirements
▪ Engage end users to identify network applications and services.

▪ Define and translate requirements into:

o Business goal: Focus on how the network can make the business
more successful
o Technical goals: Focus on how the technology is implemented
within the network

▪ Phasing the requirements

o Right level of detail at each design stage
 2. Characterize the Existing Network

▪ Gather information about existing network and service

▪ Perform a network audit
▪ Use traffic analysis
▪ Identify major traffic sources and stores
o Characterizing types of traffic flows for network application
o Characterizing traffic behavior
o Characterizing quality of service requirement
 3. Designing the Requirements

▪ The network applications and service requirements are

identified, and then the network is designed to support them.
▪ When the design is complete, a prototype or proof-of-concept
test is performed.
▪ This approach ensures that the new design functions as
expected before it is implemented.
▪ Prioritise with a hierarchical system such as:
o [M] – Mandatory
o [H] – Highly desirable
o [D] – Desirable
o [N] - Not
 4. Assessing Requirements

▪ Consider all aspects, for instance;

▪ Support & maintenance,
▪ Depreciation,
▪ Commissioning costs,
▪ Project management fees,
▪ H/W & S/W upgrade costs,
▪ Consultancy charges – over the lifetime of the network
 5. Information Gathering
▪ Need to find details of user behavior, application use and
location information for example:
o User: location, numbers, services used, typical access
o Sites: number, location, constraints on traffic (security, political
or cost)
o Servers and services: location, level of distribution
o WAN/backbone predicted link traffic
o Protocol support: bridged, routed or switched – Gateways needed?
o Legacy support: equipment, protocols or services
o Specific availability needs? 24-hour/backup links etc.
o Five-year plan – changes to population or business requirements
o Budgetary constraints
o Greenfield or existing site

▪ Information is refined and leads to a requirements database

and capacity plan
 6. Site Constraints
▪ Greenfield
o Greenfield sites have no legacy constraints
o It is difficult to determine the real network loads and stresses
o Needs more detail of application use and underlying protocols
o Could use simulation to predict performance

▪ Existing site
o Limited access
o Access to live network could be restricted
o Bottlenecks more obvious
o Can use traffic/network analysis tools
 7. Planning

▪ Uses information on
o Hosts, users, services, and their inter-networking needs

▪ Iterative process of
o Conceptual design
o Analysis
o Refinement

▪ Involving
o Brainstorming, design reviews, modeling tools

▪ Leading to final draft design

 8. Design Specification

▪ Detailed document of the design

o Acts as a benchmark for design changes
o Final design choices and changes need justification and
documenting
o Should include change history to aid maintenance
o Used for the implementation
 9. Implementation

▪ Needs a project plan to include:

o Phased introduction of new technology
o Educating the users (what to expect)
o Pilot installation (test for possible problems)
o Acceptance testing (to prove performance meets requirements)
o Deployment (provide support on going live and provide fall-back
position)
 Connectivity Options
▪ Technology choices
 LANs (Ethernet, Token ring, ATM)
 MANs (FDDI, ATM, SONET/SDH)
 WANS (Frame relay, ATM, ISDN, X.25, PDCs, Satellite)
 Wireless (802.11, Bluetooth, GPRS, GSM)
 Dial-up lines
 Serial links
 Digital subscriber line (DSL)
 Cellular
 Satellite
 Connectivity Option Determinants
▪ Packet, cell or circuit switching
▪ Wired or wireless
▪ Distance
▪ Performance
▪ Bandwidth
▪ Quality of Service
▪ Availability
 Capacity Planning - Outline
▪ Concerned with
 User response times
 Application behavior and performance characteristics

 Network utilization

▪ Needed to
 Minimise downtime
 Maximise service to customers

 Minimise costs of procurement and maintenance

 Avoid unscheduled maintenance or re-design

 Avoid costly upgrades and bad publicity

 Summary
▪ Good design
 Is an iterative process of continuous refinement
 Is logical and consistent
 Should deliver acceptable performance and cost metrics (trade-
off)
 Is more than choosing the technology!