TechNova Pioneers

Welcome to Exemplar View, a comprehensive case study of network design and administration.

In today’s digital era, the backbone of any organisation’s infrastructure lies in its network architecture. As businesses strive for efficiency, scalability, and reliability, the design and administration of campus Local Area Network (LAN) networks have become pivotal. In this case, I go through small campus LAN design with the required network settings.

This single case illuminates the challenges, strategies, and innovations encountered in crafting robust network infrastructures to support the evolving needs of modern organisations.

TechNova Pionner's campus project

Project Scope

The company demonstrated unprecedented growth, and a brand new campus has been launched as an ambitious project.

The campus will be constructed with a modern, sophisticated network infrastructure from scratch. This new network installation is a proposal of NovaTech Pioneers, designed to underpin a wide array of activities, from cutting edge research to collaboration and partnership.

Project Requirements

This project required the installation of the following solutions:

LAN switching technologies:

A LAN setup for network segmentation and security is required. A Trunking protocol will be installed to facilitate an efficient switch connection. The LAN network will implement the Spanning Tree Protocol for network resilience and loop prevention.

Layer 3 Implementation:

IP addresses will be implemented for device communications and routing , ensuring that packets navigate the network efficiently. Both, static and dynamic routing protocols will be implemented

IP services:

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is to be used for dynamic host assignments. Network Address Translation (NAT) for secure Internet access will be configured. Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) must be added for router failover and high availability.

Network management:

Successfully installing Network Time Protocol (NTP) will synchronise network devices, which is essential for secure logging and event management. Syslog for reliable logging will be added to the system. Security will be a continuous focus, supporting safeguarding at each network layer.

Security:

Access-listing for restricted traffic is the key point for network security in this project. Configuring the SSH protocol for secure remote login is a mandatory standard.

Basic configuration:

The campus network devices must be configured in the basic manner described in Table 1.  

LAN Switching Configuration

The TechNova campus requires the following configuration of Ethernet Vlan,  shown in Table 2. Four Vlans are added to the campus topology: Vlan 10, Vlan 20, Vlan 30, and Vlan 40 (Figure 2). PC1 and PC2 stations are assigned to Vlan 10.

Access and Distribution Switches:

Interface GigabitEthernet 0/2 of Access Switch 1 must be prepared for future use. Therefore, it must be configured in Vlan 10 and phone Vlan 20.

The trunk protocol must be configured between the access and distribution layer switches. The access layer switches should use a dynamic method to negotiate the trunk link, whereas a static method should be used for the distribution layer switches. 

The links between the distribution layer switches have to be bundled with negotiation, but due to company policy, the proprietary protocol is not allowed to be used. 

Access Switch 1 should actively negotiate, while Distribution Switch 1 should only respond to requests.

Core Switches and Spanning Tree Protocol:

Links between core layer switches must be bundled, but they cannot be established using proprietary protocols. The network must be configured to use the fastest Spanning Tree Protocol option. A spanning tree (STP) should be calculated for each configured Vlan.

Distribution Switch 1 has to be the root bridge for all configured Vlans. In the event that Distribution Switch 1 fails,  Distribution Switch 2 should take over the network traffic. 

Because the hosts are modern computers with a boot time of only a few seconds, network traffic must be supplied immediately after physical connectivity is established. Therefore, the Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol setting will be configured on all switches.

Security requirements for the Ethernet connection at campus network:

If the host sends a BPDU message, the interface of the access switch must go down immediately. immediately closed interface, due to security issues, should recover automatically after 10 minutes.

Company policy dictates using customised timers for the Spanning Tree Protocol. Thus:

• Spanning tree protocol BPDU messages should be sent every three seconds.

• The ports state must be set in the transition mode after ten seconds when a new configuration of BPDU propagates through the network.

• A configuration BPDU message must expire after 15 seconds of idle state. 

It must be ensured that BPDU time settings, as described above, will be used when another switch becomes the root bridge.

IP Addressing:

The NovaTech campus network requires IPv4 and IPv6 internet protocol addresses.

IPv4 Protocol:

The campus network has to use a network address of 10.0.0.0 / 8.

Each device connected on the campus network requires a loopback interface with a 32/IP address.If required, Point-to-Point links must be configured with IP addresses. Link between Router 1 and ISP Router must be set to 172.16.1.0/30 subnet, where Router 1 is 172.16.1.1 and ISP Router 172.16.1.2.

It is important that the design space of IP addresses must be as efficient as possible, due to considering the future growth of network devices and Vlans. The number of devices per Vlan will not change in the future.

IPv6 Protocol:

IPV6 protocol will be incorporated into NovaTech campus using subnet 2001:db8::/32 prefix. When addresses scheme is created the following points must be taken in the account:

•     Vlans use a 64/prefix,

•     Loopback interfaces uses a 128/prefix,

•     Point-to-point links use a 127/prefix,

Routing Technology

IPv4 Routings:

Router 1 must be fully configured to achieve loopback 1.1.1.1 and any external public IP address. Novatech is not allowed to make any changes to the ISP Router. All configured LAN interfaces of Vlan, Point-to-Point and loopback must be achievable. 

The non-proprietary link-state routing protocol must be used for converging networks quickly. All devices on the network should be in a single area of OSPF protocol. 

Distribution switches should not have any unnecessary neighbour adjacencies . The core switches should not have a DR/BDR election on its bundled interfaces. 

The core layer switches neighbour adjacency requires fast convergence, where hello packet should be sent every 5 seconds and the neighbour adjacency should be declared down after nor received hello packets for 15 seconds.

LAB: TechNova Pioneers Campus Documentation

Setting host names for each device (switches and routers):

Router: R1 , Switches: Core1, Core-2, Distribution switches: D-Sw-1, D-Sw-2 and access layer switches: Access-1, Access-2.