By Not Factoring Redundancy Into A Mission Critical Network, A Single Device Failure In Your Local Area Network Topology Will Cause Network Downtime
Building a network infrastructure in an organization should develop a local area network topology that delivers high speed access to the user desktop and allows for the natural evolution of bandwidth increases in the network. The need for more bandwidth at the desktop will require the eventual migration from 100 Mbps to 1,000 Mbps speed fully switched connections. Mostly the brand new desktops or laptops are equipped with minimum 100 Mbps, even Gigabit NIC has become the standards. While for new laptops, the Wi-Fi standards today would cover all the 802.11b/g/n, and even supports the dual-band feature both 2,4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. The need for speed increases in the LAN backbone may require the future deployment of gigabit and higher services using fiber optic. For more detail about LAN topology concept, check this.
Local area network topology for small sized workgroup network
The diagram is a simple peer to peer workgroup. For this type of local area network topology, both server and client links should use 100 Mbps minimum requirements. In a Small Office Home Office environment, the switch configuration is commonly replaced with a multi-function device including the router – firewall, switch, and wireless access point, such as Linksys WRT610 wireless router. The firewall function of WRT610N will be appropriate to protect your private network from the Internet. But to completely and proactively protect your network, you can trust the complete internet threats security to BitDefender version 2009. The new release from this award winning IT solution is internet security software 2010.
In the diagram at the right side, the network environment is a medium sized Switched local area network topology. Server link connection to the switch must be Gigabit link, and all the uplink Switch connection must be Gigabit as well. For the computer clients, the minimum link requirement should be 100 Mbps full-duplex. For the internet connection, you should follow firewall security guidelines to properly protect the network from any types of network threats, and the internet usage policy should also be regulated.
Local area network topology for medium sized environment
Gigabit over certified UTP is possible by using CAT5e structured network cabling. Gigabit over UTP copper does require considerable testing and careful evaluation (signal attenuation, dB loss, skew and crosstalk) of the cabling infrastructure. Thus it is recommended that the use of any critical gigabit connection in a local area network topology must be implemented using fiber optic.
If LAN high availability is a requirement then a redundant switched topology should be implemented to eliminate any single points of failure.
Careful design and planning of the local area network topology should include analysis of the bandwidth requirements to suit current and planned network applications. The need for speed to the desktop should use a fully switched 100/1000 Mbps LAN environment. Effective capacity planning will ensure the ability to scale backbone connections to newer technologies such as Gigabit Ethernet in the switched LAN. This may also include redundant LAN connections, the use of VLANs and high speed aggregated trunk links between switches.
In a large scale redundant local area network topology, implementing a suitable set of controls in the form of policies, procedures, organizational structures, systems and functions to ensure that the security objectives of the organization are met is a must. This is commonly in the form of information security management, including the deployment of network management software.
Large Scaled - redundant local area network topology
The recommended local area network topology requirements are:
- Fully switched 100/1,000 Mbps connections to the user desktop (PC).
- Server connections must be 1,000 Mbps or better to the switch.
- Servers must not exist on bottlenecked network segments.
- All switch uplinks should use full duplex connectivity at 1,000 Mbps or better.
- The network must be stable and offer correct DHCP support to computer clients.
- A scalable local area network topology must be adopted that suits the functional and bandwidth requirements of the site.
- A redundant local area network topology must be used if high availability (mission critical) requirements exist.
By not correctly deploying a scalable LAN switch infrastructure a number of performance bottleneck and stability problems may arise in the network. This will impact all users and limit network response times in the LAN. The use of high bandwidth based applications will be severely limited. By not factoring redundancy into a mission critical network, a single device failure will cause network downtime.
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