Designing a WAN (wide area network)

PLEASE, PAY ATTENTION TO INSTRUCTIONS. DO NOT MISS ANY STEP OR QUESTIONS.

MUST BE DONE IN VISIO OR DRAW.IO

Your team is tasked with designing a WAN for an electronic parts manufacturer with headquarters in Smithsburg, MD. There are four regional offices in Boonsboro, MD; Rockville, MD; Waynesboro, PA; and Harpers Ferry, WV. Orders are submitted to the server at headquarters, thus the connection between each office and headquarters must be available at all times.

1. Using Visio, draw the WAN, indicating the 5 locations (“up to the building”—not the LAN within); follow the specific instructions outlined in the introductory paragraph and include:

2. Each regional office is responsible for obtaining a T1 leased line, allowing Internet access and private connections (Intranets) to the other offices and headquarters. What equipment will be necessary at each location for the WAN to work? (up to the point where the WAN connection to each office’s LAN) . In a textbox label #2 list the equipment that you will need for each location.

3. Copy your drawing to a new space on your Visio “page”. Identify the critical weakness—the single point of failure—in the design (for example: circle and label). If that endpoint suffers a catastrophic failure, what are the consequences? Answer this question in a textbox next to where you indicated the single point of failure. Label this new drawing with an appropriate title.

4. Copy your original drawing to another new space on your Visio “page”. Suppose the company’s owners decide to add more T1s to implement a solution to the critical weakness. Label this drawing with the solution to the problem and add the new lines. Modify your copy showing the changes necessary to prevent critical weaknesses that you have identified. You might want to use a change in color to indicate those changes. . Label this new drawing with an appropriate title.

5. Since this is a small company, let’s say that they decides that after 6 months they cannot continue to pay for the modifications you made in step 4—they determine that they must remove 3 connections (ones that you drew in either Step 1 or in Step 4). How do you decide which connections to eliminate and which to keep? In other words what information do you need to know about each regional office to determine whether it merits a redundant connection (at least three pieces of information)? List your answers in a text box on the drawing—labeled properly. And indicate which connections would be affected.