Analysis of several important factors in designing a local area network

However, if the network is not designed correctly, the design may become a nightmare. Let's take a look at some of the key issues to consider when designing a new local area network. When an enterprise's existing network infrastructure is outdated, or its port rates have fallen seriously behind, a new LAN needs to be designed as the enterprise builds a new work environment and designs an entirely new LAN. For a network engineer, this may be a dream come true. But if the network is designed incorrectly, the design may become a nightmare. Let's look at some of the key issues to consider when designing a new local area network. To Power over Ethernet (PoE) or not to Power over Ethernet (PoE) More and more businesses are adopting wireless LAN technology and IP telephony. When PoE is available, wireless LAN access points will be easy to install, and IP phones can take advantage of phones connected to the LAN and use the power from them. The days of traditional PBX systems are numbered; there are now a large and growing number of vendors moving toward IP PBX systems and handheld devices. Businesses may not be using wireless networks and may say absolutely no to IP telephony technology. But if engineers can now convince enterprises to buy PoE switches, they should be able to provide better service to them. Also, when the CIO decides to move to WLAN or IP telephony technology, the company does not have to replace these non-PoE switches. Need 10 Gigabit or 100 Gigabit? Today, 10 Gigabit Ethernet and higher speed Ethernet is beckoning to enterprises, but that doesn't mean they need to use such high-speed ports in all their LANs. It is often the case that enterprises buy the fastest equipment they think they really need, but their original 100Mbps network is only performing at 5%. While it is truly prudent to ensure that the core switches can support higher speeds, it is a waste of money to suggest that an enterprise needs 10 Gigabit switches everywhere when engineers tell them they do. On the issue of redundancy Network uptime is increasingly a matter of life and death for businesses. Designers should plan the network design to provide redundancy from both a physical and logical standpoint. For example, cable connections from the patch panel to the core switch can utilize dual fiber optic transmission. The rack-based core switch should be guaranteed to have dual CPU expansion cards. Enterprises should consider the redundancy of some components, such as gateways. However, if the enterprise does not properly configure components to provide redundancy for the Layer 3 IP default gateway, a failure would bring the enterprise network to a standstill and cause incalculable damage. Plan the complexity of the network to match the enterprise's IT technology Modern switches and routers have a vast array of features and functions. However, if the enterprise IT staff does not have a basic understanding of the features and functions implemented by the engineers, designing and deploying too many flashy things in the network will create many support problems in the future. Network engineers should think about the actual needs of the business without overcomplicating the network. Standards and Maintenance Issues When designing a corporate network, try to standardize the different types of equipment, rather than using different types of switches in each rack, even if all the equipment comes from the same manufacturer. Standardizing on different types of hardware can simplify the configuration and troubleshooting process. Network management tool issues Although network management tools may not be reflected in an enterprise's purchase order, they can be invaluable in providing *** network uptime. The software that regularly backs up all device configuration information to the network share is simple, but extremely useful. In addition, enterprises can consider the following scenario: There are two switches on the enterprise network that provide redundancy for the IP default gateway. If one of them fails, but you do not recognize it, because the network has redundancy. But when the other switch also fails, the enterprise will suffer a complete network shutdown. How do you solve this problem? Businesses can easily avoid such failures by using a simple tool to ping all network devices and report their status. There are many issues to consider when designing a network, such as end-user devices, network protocols, applications, bandwidth, throughput, topology type, flexibility, etc. Not all of these factors are discussed in this paper. This paper does not discuss all of these factors, but only discusses a number of issues from the perspective of enterprise needs and development, but hopefully these aspects provided can provide the right guidance for enterprises to design their networks, or can be used as a guide. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)