Advanced Network Design Assessment - Human factors in network analysis and design

Purpose of the assessment - This assignment is designed to assess students' knowledge and skills related to the following learning outcomes:

• Apply concepts and theories of human factors as related to network design and implementation;
• Evaluate performance metrics and dimensions according to specifications.

Assignment Description - In order to design a network, the first step is to collect network requirements. The network requirements are gathered from users and business requirements. The users form one of the important aspects of a successful network design. Your project is to design a network for a sports complex.

Part I: Develop a questionnaire to gather requirements from users, sports complex management, and staff. What kinds of questions would you ask to better understand their environment and each group of users?

Hint [Questions must also be aimed at identifying what applications, the users intend to use.]

Categorise applications identified by users and devise an assessment plan of the applications for network performance.

Part II: Design a network as shown below in Figure 1, and perform a performance test for each set of applications as shown in following Table 1 to validate them. For the network design in Figure 1, Application Sets 1, 2, 3 and 4 in table 1, are located in LAN A, B, C and D respectively.

Table 1: Application Performance Requirements

Demonstration: Students can demonstrate in a group of 2. Students should be ready with all setup and configurations before the start of the laboratory class. The tutor will ask 2-3 questions of each student to demonstrate any configuration of the setup. The demonstration from each student should not be more than 3 minutes in duration.