scope:

Introduction to Network Design

Overview

This manual provides an overview of concepts and technologies considered to be fundamental to organizational network design.

The contents of this manual are grouped into six chapters, as follows:

• This chapter describes network design and the evolution of organizational networks.

• Chapter 2: Network Architecture, describes the fundamentals of network architecture, including networking hardware, software, and applications.

• Chapter 3: Network Connectivity, describes the fundamentals of cabling systems, telecommunications circuits, and wireless networking.

• Chapter 4: Network Communications, describes the fundamentals of Ethernet and Internet protocol (IP) communications.

• Chapter 5: Network Administration, describes the fundamentals of network management, security, and storage.

The material in Chapters 1 through 5 is intended to serve as a primer or a reference source for Chapter 6: Network Design, which provides examples of organizational network design of increasing geographic scale, as follows:

• Section 1: Departmental Network Design describes networks with a maximum span of a single floor (e.g., a workgroup within a building).

• Section 2: Backbone Network Design describes networks with a maximum span of one or more multi-floor buildings on a single campus.

• Section 3: Wide Area Network Design describes networks used to link two or more sites over extended distances (e.g., in different cities).

The focus of Section 4 is remote access, which enables mobile users to connect to any type of organizational network using telecommunications circuits.

Appendix A: Legacy Technologies provides an overview of network technologies used in the past but no longer considered for deployment within most organizations. Appendix B: Numbering Conversions provides a reference for numeric conversions.