Computer Network Design

CSC 4304

Course Objectives
 Develop a fundamental understanding of the network design
principles and performance metrics

 Become familiar with the mechanisms and protocols for reliable data
communication via a computer network

 Be able to evaluate the performance of various network

technologies and protocols

 Think as an engineer: What technologies should be employed to

build a network with particular specifications?

 Develop interest in performing research in the area of Computer

Networks 2

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Why Learn about Networking?
 Indispensable part of modern society
 Commercial – e-commerce, banking, inventorying,
telecommunications, archiving, health
 Social – critical infrastructure, homeland security, policing

 Human interaction/communication – email, chat,

videoconferencing, social networking, entertainment

 Appears in every facet of engineering

 Modern trend – Network every (electronic) device (computers,
phones, sensors, planes, cars, TVs, appliances, heart monitors,
…)
 Prolific field to pursue graduate studies
 Many problems remain unsolved

 Research funding is still strong 3

What is the Objective of

Networking?
 Communication between applications on
different computers
 Must understand application needs/demands
 Traffic data rate
 Traffic pattern (bursty or constant bit rate)
 Traffic target (multipoint or single destination,
mobile or fixed)
 Delay sensitivity
 Loss sensitivity

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 Definition of a Network
 A system that carries a commodity between 2 or
more entities
 Examples: Transportation network, electric grid,
postal, water, telephone
Computer network: A system that carries
information between 2 or more entities, in
the form of electric signals

Transportation vs. Computer Networks

 Transportation Network Computer Network
 Vehicles/People Packets/Payload
 Street address IP address
 Intersection Bridge/router
 Street, highway, path
Link/broadband/path
 Traffic jam Network congestion
 Stop and go traffic light Flow control
 Taking alternative path Alternative route
 Collision Collision of packets
 HOV lane Flow Priority
 Following a route to school Routing algorithm
 … … 6

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Types of networks
 Today when we speak of networks, we are
generally referring to three primary
categories:
 Local area networks (LANs)
 Metropolitan area networks (MANs)
 Wide area networks (WANs)
 The category of a network is determined by its size, its
ownership, the distance it covers and physical
architecture.

Network Design Objective

 Ultimately, our network design must answer
some pretty basic questions
 What stuff do we get for the network?
 How do we connect it all?
 How do we have to configure it to work right?
 Traditionally this meant mostly capacity
planning – having enough bandwidth to
keep data moving
 May be effective, but result in over engineering
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Network Design Objective
 And while some uses of the network will need
a lot of bandwidth (multimedia), we may also
need to address:
 Security
 Considering both internal and external threats
 Possible wireless connectivity
 Reliability and/or availability
 Like speed for a car, how much are you willing
to afford?

Network Design 9

Network Design
 The task of connecting nodes via links, so that
nodes can exchange information, reliably,
timely, efficiently, safely, privately, “greenly”,
and with low cost.
 Need to define the network architecture,
protocols, applications, interfaces, policies,
usages.
 Let’s start with the architecture
 Directly connected networks:.
 Circuit-switched networks:
 Packet-switched Networks” 10

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 Directly-Connected Networks
 Point-to-point links: Each node is directly
connected to all others via a link
 Multiple access: All nodes share the same
physical medium

point‐to‐point

multiple access
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Switched Networks
terminal/
 Circuit-Switched host
 A dedicated circuit is
established across a set of
links
 Example: Telephone
network switch

 Packet-Switched
 Data is split into blocks
called packets or messages.
 Store-and-forward strategy
 Switches: Store and forward 12
packets

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 Circuit-Switched Networks
 End-to-end permanent connection
 Dedicated path for communication
 No need for a destination address since a path is
already established
 Once communication is complete, connection is
ended and links are released.

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Network Design views

 Management view

 Technical view

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The Management View (1/3)
 A network is a utility
 Computers and their users are customers of the network
utility
 The network must accommodate the needs of
customers
 As computer usage increases so does the requirements of
the network utility
 Resources will be used to manage the network
 The Network Utility is NOT free!
 Someone must pay the cost of installing and maintaining
the network
 Manpower is required to support the network utility
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The Management View (2/3)

 Utilities don’t bring money into the organization
 Expense item to the Corporation
 Cannot justify Network based on “Productivity
Improvements”
 As a network designer, you need to explain to
management how the network design, even with the
high expense, can save money or improve the
company’s business
 If users cannot log on to your commerce site, they will try
your competitor, and you have lost sales
 If you cannot get the information your customers are
asking about due to a network that is down, they may go
to your competitor

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The Management View (3/3)
 You need to understand how the network assists the
company in making money and play on that strength
when you are developing the network design proposal

 Try to show a direct correlation between the network

design project and the company’s business
 “Because you want a faster network” is not good enough,
the question that management sends back is WHY DO I
NEED A FASTER ONE?

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The Technical View (1/2)

 A “Network” really can be thought of as three parts and they
all need to be considered when working on a network design
project:
 Connections
 Communications/Protocols
 Services

 Connections
 Provided by Hardware that ties things together
 Wire/Fiber/Wireless Transport Mechanisms
 Routers
 Switches/Hubs
 Computers

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The Technical View (2/2)
 Communications/Protocols
 Provided by Software
 A common language for 2 systems to communicate with each other
 TCP/IP (Internet/Windows NT)
 IPX / SPX (Novell Netware 4)
 AppleTalk
 Other Network OS
 Services
 The Heart of Networking
 Cooperation between 2 or more systems to perform some function -
Applications
 telnet
 FTP
 HTTP
 SMTP
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Traditional Network Design

 Based on a set of general rules
 “80/20”
 “Bridge when you can, route when you must”
 Can’t deal with scalability & complexity
 Focused on capacity planning
 Throw more bandwidth at the problem
 No consideration to delay optimization
 No guarantee of service quality
 Less importance given to network RMA (Reliability,
Maintainability, and Availability) compared to throughput

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Network Design: Achievable?

Response Time Cost

Reliability Business Growth

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Traditional Network Design

Methodology
 Many network design tools and methodologies in use
today resemble the “connect-the-dots” game

 These tools let you place internetworking devices on a

palette and connect them with LAN or WAN media

 Problem with this methodology:

 It skips the steps of analyzing a customer's requirements,
and selecting devices and media based on those
requirements

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 Network Requirements
●
Most businesses actually have only a few requirements for their
network (Scalability, Availability, Security, Manageability):
●
The network should stay up all the time, even in the event of failed
links, equipment failure, and overloaded conditions.
● The network should reliably deliver applications and provide
reasonable response times from any host to any host.
● The network should be secure. It should protect the data that is
transmitted over it, as well as data stored on the devices that connect
to it.
● The network should be easy to modify to adapt to network growth and
general business changes.
● Because failures occasionally occur, troubleshooting should be
easy. Finding and fixing a problem should not be too time- consuming.

Building a Good Network

 Good networks do not happen by accident. They are the

result of hard work by network designers and technicians,
who identify network requirements and select the best
solutions to meet the needs of a business.
 The steps required to design a good network are as follows:
 Step 1. Verify the business goals and technical
requirements.
 Step 2. Determine the features and functions required to
meet the needs identified in Step 1.
 Step 3. Perform a network-readiness assessment.
 Step 4. Create a solution and site acceptance test plan.
 Step 5. Create a project plan.
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Top-Down Network Design Methodology
(1/2)
 Good network design
 Recognizes that a customer’s requirements embody many
business and technical goals
 May specify a required level of network performance, i.e.,
service level
 When a customer expects a quick response to a network
design request
 A bottom-up (connect-the-dots) network design
methodology can be used, if the customer’s applications
and goals are well known

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Top-Down Network Design Methodology

(2/2)

 Network designers often think they understand a

customer’s applications and requirements.
 However, after the network installation, they may
discover that:
 They did not capture the customer's most important needs
 Unexpected scalability and performance problems appear
as the number of network users increases
 A top-down approach lets a network designer get “the big
picture” first and then spiral downward into detailed technical
requirements and specifications

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 Network design should be a complete process that
matches business needs to available technology to
deliver a system that will maximize an organization’s
success
 In the LAN area it is more than just buying a few
devices
 In the WAN area it is more than just calling the phone
company

 Don’t just start connecting the dots

 Analyze business and technical goals first
 Explore divisional and group structures to find out who the
network serves and where they reside
 Determine what applications will run on the network and
how those applications behave on a network
 Focus on Layer 7 and above first

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Structured Network Design Process
- A Systems Approach (1/2) -
 The system is designed in a top-down sequence
 Several techniques and models can be used to
characterize the existing system, new user requirements,
and a structure for the future system
 A focus is placed on understanding:
 Data flow, data types, and processes that access or
change the data
 The location and needs of user communities that access or
change data and processes
 For large network design projects, modularity is essential
 The design should be split functionally to make the project
more manageable
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 SDLC: Does it mean Synchronous Data Link Control or Systems

Development Life Cycle?
 The latter for the purposes of this class!
 Typical systems are developed and continue to exist over a period of
time, often called a systems development life cycle (SDLC)

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 Analyze
requirements

Monitor and Develop

optimize logical
network design
performance

Develop
Implemen
physical
t and test design
network
Test, optimize,
and document
design

 Phase 1 – Analyze Requirements

 Analyze business goals andconstraints
 Analyze technical goals and tradeoffs
 Characterize the existing network
 Characterize network traffic

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 Phase 2 – Logical Network Design
 Design a network topology
 Design models for addressing and naming
 Select switching and routing protocols
 Develop network security strategies
 Develop network management strategies

 Phase 3 – Physical Network Design

 Select technologies and devices for campus networks
 Select technologies and devices for enterprise networks

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 Phase 4 – Testing, Optimizing, and Documenting the
Network Design
 Test the network design
 Optimize the network design
 Document the network design

 Increase revenue
 Reduce operating costs
 Improve communications
 Shorten product development cycle
 Expand into worldwide markets
 Build partnerships with other companies
 Offer better customer support or new customer
services

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  Mobility
 Security
 Resiliency (fault tolerance)
 Business continuity after a disaster
 Network projects must be prioritized based on fiscal
goals
 Networks must offer the low delay required for real‐
time applications such as VoIP

 Small in scope?
 Allow sales people to access network via a VPN
 Large in scope?
 An entire redesign of an enterprise network
 Use the OSI model to clarify the scope
 New financial reporting application versus new routing
protocol versus new data link (wireless, for example)
 Does the scope fit the budget, capabilities of staff and
consultants, schedule?

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 Network Development Life
Cycle
Analysis

Management Design

Simulation/
Prototyping
Monitoring

Implementation

CSE-550-T072 Lecture Notes - 1 39

Network Design and

Implementation Cycle

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Network Design and Implementation
Cycle (1/3)

 Analyze requirements:
 Interviews with users and technical personnel
 Understand business and technical goals for a
new or enhanced system
 Characterize the existing network: logical and
physical topology, and network performance
 Analyze current and future network traffic,
including traffic flow and load, protocol behavior,
and QoS requirements

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Network Design and Implementation

Cycle (2/3)

 Develop the logical design:

 Deals with a logical topology for the new or
enhanced network
 Network layer addressing and naming
 Switching and routing protocols
 Security planning
 Network management design
 Initial investigation into which service providers
can meet WAN and remote access requirements

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Network Design and Implementation
Cycle (3/3)

 Develop the physical design:

 Specific technologies and products to realize the logical
design are selected
 The investigation into service providers must be completed
during this phase

 Test, optimize, and document the design:

 Write and implement a test plan
 Build a prototype or pilot
 Optimize the network design
 Document your work with a network design proposal
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Another Perspective
 Data collection
 Traffic
 Costs
 Constraints
 Design process
 Performance analysis
 Fine tuning
 A painstaking iterative process

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PDIOO Network Life Cycle (1/3)
(Cisco)
 Plan:
 Network requirements are identified in this phase
 Analysis of areas where the network will be installed
 Identification of users who will require network services
 Design:
 Accomplish the logical and physical design, according
to requirements gathered during the Plan phase
 Implement:
 Network is built according to the Design specifications
 Implementation also serves to verify the design

CSE-550-T072 Lecture Notes - 1 45

PDIOO Network Life Cycle (2/3)

(Cisco)
 Operate:
 Operation is the final test of the effectiveness of the design
 The network is monitored during this phase for performance
problems and any faults, to provide input into the Optimize
phase
 Optimize:
 Based on proactive network management which identifies and
resolves problems before network disruptions arise
 The optimize phase may lead to a network redesign
 if too many problems arise due to design errors, or
 as network performance degrades over time as actual use
and capabilities diverge
 Redesign may also be required when requirements change
significantly
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PDIOO Network Life Cycle (3/3)
(Cisco)

 Retire:
 When the network, or a part of the network, is out-of-date, it
may be taken out of production
 Although Retire is not incorporated into the name of the life
cycle (PDIOO), it is nonetheless an important phase

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Information Flows between Network

Analysis, Architecture, and Design

 Designing a network is
typically broken into three
sections:
 Determine requirements
 Define the overall
architecture
 Choose technology and
specific devices
(McCabe, 2003)

Network Design 48

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 Network design methodology
●
Large network design projects are normally divided into three
distinct steps:
● Step 1: Identify the network requirements.

●
Step 2: Characterize the existing network.

● Step 3: Design the network topology and solutions.

 Plan the implementation

 Build a pilot network
 Document the design
 Implement the design, and monitor its use

Identifying Network Requirements

● The network designer works closely with the customer to
document the goals of the project. Goals are usually separated
into two categories:
●
Business goals - Focus on how the network can make the
business more successful
●
Technical requirements - Focus on how the technology is
implemented within the network.

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 Characterizing the Existing
Network
● Information about the current network and
services is gathered
and analyzed.
●

It is necessary to compare the

functionality of the existing network with
●
the defined goals of the new project.
The designer determines whether any
existing equipment, infrastructure, and
protocols can be re-used, and what new
equipment and protocols are needed to
complete the design.

Designing the Network Topology

●
A common strategy for network design is to take a top-down
approach.
● In this approach, the network applications and service
requirements are identified, and then the network is designed to
support them.
● When the design is complete, a prototype or proof-of-concept
test is performed.
● This approach ensures that the new design functions as
expected before it is implemented.

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Two Main Principles
 For a network design to work well, we need
to balance between
 Hierarchy – how much network traffic flows
connect in tiers of organization
 Like tiers on an org chart, hierarchy provides
separation and structure for the network
 Interconnectivity – offsets hierarchy by allowing
connections between levels of the design, often
to improve performance between them

Network Design 53

Plan Ahead!
 The 80/20 rule applies here
 80% of the cost of a network is its operation
and support
 Only 20% is the cost of designing and
implementing it
 So plan for easy operation, maintenance,
and upgrade of the network

Network Design 54

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 Determining the Scope of the
Project
● While gathering requirements, the designer identifies the issues
that affect the entire network and those that affect only specific
portions.
● Failure to understand the impact of a particular requirement often
causes a project scope to expand beyond the original estimate.
● This oversight can greatly increase the cost and time required to
implement the new design.
● The new project can be:
● Impacting the Entire Network
● Impacting a Portion of the Network

Requirements
 We need to develop the low level design and
the higher level architecture, and understand
the environment in which they operate
 We also need to prove that the design we’ve
chosen is ‘just right’ (Southey, 1837)
 Is that $2 million network backbone really enough
to meet our needs?
 How do we know $500,000 wouldn’t have been
good enough?
Network Design 56

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Requirements
 Capacity refers to the ability to transfer data
 Bandwidth is the theoretical capacity of some part
of the network
 Throughput is the actual capacity, which is less
than the bandwidth, due to protocol overhead,
network delays, etc.
 Kind of like hard drive actual capacity is always less
than advertised, due to formatting

Network Design 57

Requirements Analysis
 Given these concepts, how do we describe
requirements for a network?
 Need a process to filter or classify
requirements
 Network requirements (often have high, medium,
low priorities)
 Future requirements (planned upgrades)
 Rejected requirements (remember for future ref.)
 Informational requirements (ideas, not required)
Network Design 58

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Requirements Analysis
 Requirements can come from many aspects
of the network system
 User Requirements
 Application Requirements
 Device Requirements
 Network Requirements
 Other Requirements

Network Design 59

User Requirements
 User requirements are
often qualitative and
very high level
 What is ‘fast enough’
for download? System
response (RTT)?
 How good does video
need to be?
 What’s my budget?

Network Design 60

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Application Requirements
 What types of apps are we using?
 Mission-critical
 Rate-critical
 Real-time and/or interactive
 How sensitive are apps to RMA (reliability,
maintainability, availability)?
 What capacity is needed?
 What delay time is acceptable?
Network Design 61

Device Requirements
 What kinds of devices are on your network?
 Generic computing devices include normal PCs,
Macs, laptops, handheld computers, workstations
 Servers include all flavors of server – file, print,
app/computation, and backup
 Specialized devices include extreme servers
(supercomputers, massively parallel servers),
data collection systems (POS terminals), industry-
specific devices, networked devices (cameras,
tools), stoplights, ATMs, etc.
Network Design 62

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Network Requirements
 Network requirements (sounds kinda
redundant) are the requirements for
interacting with the existing network(s) and
network management concerns
 Most networks have to integrate into an
existing network, and plan for the future
evolution of the network

Network Design 63

Network Requirements
 Issues with network integration include
 Scaling dependencies – how will the size of the
existing network affect the new one?
 Will the existing network change structure, or just add
on a new wing?
 Location dependencies – interaction between
old and new networks could change the location
of key components
 Performance constraints – existing network
could limit performance of the new one
Network Design 64

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Network Requirements
 Network, system, and support service
dependencies
 Addressing, security, routing protocols and network
management can all be affected by the existing
network
 Interoperability dependencies
 Changes in technology or media at the interfaces
between networks need to be accounted for, as well
as QoS guarantees, if any
 Network obsolescence – do protocols or
technologies become obsolete during transition?

Network Design 65

Network Requirements
 Network management and security issues
need to be addressed throughout
development
 How will the network be monitored for events?
 Monitoring for network performance?
 What is the hierarchy for management data flow?
 Network configuration?
 Troubleshoot support?

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Other Requirements
 Requirements can come from other outside
sources – your customer, legal requirements,
larger scale organization (enterprise)
requirements, etc.
 Additional requirements can include
 Operational suitability – how well can the
customer configure and monitor the system?
 Supportability – how well can the customer
maintain the system?
Network Design 67

Other Requirements
 Confidence – what is the data loss rate when the
system is running at its required throughput?
 Financial requirements can include not only
the initial system cost, but also ongoing
maintenance costs
 System architecture may be altered to remain
within cost constraints
 This is a good reason to present the customer with
design choices, so they see the impact of cost
versus performance
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Requirements Management
 The requirements you develop need to be
tracked and managed, just like any system’s
requirements
 Identify requirements by some form of ID and
short name
 Need a tool to track requirements, their status,
changes, sources, etc.
 Map location of apps and devices of the
existing network
Network Design 69

Network Architecture
 Now that we FINALLY have requirements
and flows defined, we can consider how all
this will affect the architecture of our network
 The architecture of a house needs many
views to understand not only the exterior
appearance, but also where the wires run,
where the pipes are, ductwork for heating
and cooling, etc.
 Similarly, we need several views of a network
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Network Architecture
 Avoid thinking of just the physical
components of a network (routers, hubs, etc.)
 Think of the functions it’s performing
(addressing, routing, security, network
management, performance) as an integral
part of the components
 E.g. routing or switching can be affected by
security
 So think of functional entities, not just HW
Network Design 71

Network Architecture
 Measure network success by how well user,
app, and device req’ts are met functionally
 Also connects easier to traffic flows
 And scales well to large networks
 Each function will be defined by a component
architecture; combine them to get the overall
reference architecture
 See house analogy a couple slides back

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Network Architecture
 The design of a network is more detailed,
technology- and location-specific description
than its architecture
 Component architectures describe the
hardware and software mechanisms needed
to make a type of function work
 Each component is sort of a subsystem; so we’ll
need to understand how they work together

Network Design 73

Network Functions
 The key functions are
 Addressing and routing
 Network management
 Performance
 Security
 Functions may also include storage and
infrastructure, but we’ll focus on other ones
 Making this work may require trade-offs!

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