Introduction
China Mining, a resources company, is expanding their operations into Australia. They require a head office to be set up in Sydney (Head Office), and offices to be set up in Darwin (Office A) and Perth (Office B) which will be directly connected to the head office.
You are requested to create a network design which will cater to the requirements listed below. A proof of concept (POC) exercise is required to demonstrate the functionality of your design. This POC will be conducted using Cisco Packet Tracer and the setup saved and submitted for design approval prior to rolling out the solution. The network design must take into account factors such as classless addressing and site route summarisation where possible.
Part 1
For each location a LAN must be set up. Different VLANs should be used to separate Engineering, Design and Finance departments at each site. All devices on these LANs must be able to communicate with each other as well as with devices located at the other sites.
Each employee has one computer connected to the network. The number of employees is as follows:
- Head office will have 53 employees in total, 8 Design Staff, 40 Engineering Staff and 5 Finance staff.
- Office A will have 23 employees in total, 4 Design staff, 18 Engineering Staff and 1 Finance staff.
- Office B will have 12 employees in total, 7 Design staff, 4 Engineering Staff and 1 Finance staff.
It is not expected that staffing levels will increase or shrink in the future.
In addition to LAN connectivity at each site, each site must be able to communicate with other sites via Serial point to point links in a hub and spoke topology, with Head Office being the hub and both Office A and Office B links terminating at the Head Office. Head office will provide the clocking rate on the Serial links for all other sites.
Serial point to point link details are as follows:
- Sydney to Darwin link speed = 2 Mbps
- Sydney to Perth link speed = 1 Mbps
Create an IP addressing plan that includes each of the three sites as well as the two WANlinks from the following network allocation: 172.16.0.0/24
The addressing plan must be created such that no addresses are wasted, i.e. the smallest subnets large enough for the given number of employees should be used at each site.
Part 2
Create the POC. The hardware list for POC is as follows: Head Office
- One 2811 Router with sufficient WIC-1T modules installed in the chassis to cater to all WAN connectivity requirements and sufficient NM-2FE2W modules installed to provide enough Fast Ethernet ports to cater to all network segments within a site;
- Three 2960-24TT switches;
- One test PC for each of the three departments.
Office A and Office B
- One 2811 Router with sufficient WIC-1T modules installed in the chassis to cater to all WAN connectivity requirements and sufficient NM-2FE2W modules installed to provide enough Fast Ethernet ports to cater to all network segments within a site;
- One 2960-24TT switch;
- One test PC for each of the three departments.
VLANs and inter-VLAN routing must be set up for each site. Furthermore, routing must be set up between the different sites to allow them to communicate with one another. Choose a suitable routing strategy and justify your choice.
Basic device configuration must be carried out on all routers and switches. This includes configuring host names as well as login passwords, enable passwords and enabling password login on all consoles and virtual terminals. Username and passwords must be documented.
On switches all unused ports should be shut down for security reasons. Unused ports are ports where there are no employee PCs connected, as we have more switch ports than employees.
Connectivity between all departments at all sites should be verified using common testing tools. The test plan and outcomes of the testing must be documented.
Deliverables
The deliverables consists of a PDF report and a Packet Tracer File. The PDF report must include:
- A cover page featuring the assignment title and the names and student numbers of all group members
- Executive summary – A single page summarising your document. This should not feature too much technical content but should enable someone who is unfamiliar with the project to gain a quick appreciation of what has been achieved. If there are any important assumptions or features these should be highlighted.
(Marks based on clarity and effective communication)
- Technical documentation – You need to communicate in the clearest possible manner, the IP addressing structure, VLAN setup, routing setup and other configuration (passwords!) that you have developed. You are given considerable flexibility and you should take care to put yourself in the reader’s position and produce a document that communicates efficiently. This will be a compromise between an exhaustive coverage of every tiny detail and an easily understood overview that lacks detail. (Marks based on technical correctness, good design and effective communication of the design)
4. Testing strategy – You must test your implementation and outline the procedures that you undertook as well as the testing outcomes. If any elements of your design do no work please discuss them here. Think about connectivity, routing and efficiency when testing your network. Please don’t provide screen shots of successful pings. (Marks based on thoroughness of testing approach and identification of errors)
Packet Tracer File:
- Within the Packet Tracer environment, implement the network in accordance with
the assignment requirements and equipment limitations.
- In the case of hosts, implement only one host per department per site, unless more are required for testing purposes.
- Name and document all devices as appropriate.
Plagiarism and Collusion
The University is very strict when it comes to issues of plagiarism (copying another student’s work) and collusion (two or more people working together on an assignment that is meant to be an individual’s work.
Teaching staff is required to report any suspected cases of plagiarism and collusion. The consequences of being found guilty of these misconducts can lead to a zero grade for the assignment, a fail grade in the unit, or even exclusion from the University.
Please don’t put yourself in this position. The assignment should not be too onerous for most students and the penalties for plagiarism and collusion far outweigh the few extra marks you might obtain by cheating.
- Within the Packet Tracer environment, implement the network in accordance with

