Structured-Cabling,Data Cabling

Network Design Principles – Part 2

30 Sep 2018

Reliable & Manageable Scaling


Structured-Cabling,Data CablingScalability is a crucial characteristic that must be considered by network designers.


In addition, a network should also be reliable and manageable, which promote stability.  A network may be capable of expanding to several thousand routers. However, if there is a failure of some sort that causes instability due to greater processing and CPU usage required to compensate, the design won’t be successful.


A scalable network that is a challenge to manage or troubleshoot is also unacceptable.


Network problems that arise would take an excessive amount of time to address and repair, negatively impacting an organization’s business goals of the organization.


Thus, a scalable design must provide a manageable and reliable network.


Combining scalability, reliability, and manageability as the qualities of a network is a challenge. As a network expands, it becomes more complex, making management, maintenance, and repair more difficult.



Fault Isolation & Simplicity


Providing fault isolation boundaries creates fail-stop behavior for the wanted fault model. Fail-stop prevents faulty behavior from propagating past a fault isolation boundary. Effective network design must prevent a failure in one domain from spreading to other domains within a network. This is essential for the avoidance of unneeded processing and delays throughout the whole network because of a device or link failure. In addition, this will result in a converging network that has more stability, reliability, and speed.


The above concept also promotes simplicity as a network architecture characteristic, which decreases complexity in operations. Typically, fault isolation stops the propagation of network fault information across several domains or network areas. This will lead to greater network stability and the minimization of recovery time after failures.


The negative consequences due to a failure of a link or network node may spread to all devices across a network, resulting in a large volume of unneeded processing. A properly designed network using the Fault Domains Principle with its logical separation will limit the negative impact to within one fault domain.



Progressive Office Cabling


Founded in 1986, Progressive Office’s success has been a direct result of years of commitment to seeking solutions on behalf of our clients in the Washington, D.C. and New York City areas. Efficiently working together, Progressive teams get cabling installed and operating as fast as possible while minimizing disruption and downtime. Call our toll free number (800) 614-4560 today.

Office Cabling ,Network Cabling

Planning – Network Design Requirements

5 Aug 2018

Office Cabling ,Network CablingAfter receiving the requirements for a network, it is common for designers to prioritize their implementation and integrate them into the format of the design. Occasionally, they initially rely on best practices, instead of focusing on planning. This is unfortunate because the planning process often leads to discovering multiple viable design solutions.


Designers should first make business-centric decisions determining either the solution or design that supports the company’s objectives or strategy. Although it is advisable to follow best practices for network design, reliance on them is more typical on occasions when a network is being designed from the ground up, which is usually not the case for large service providers and enterprises.


Let’s consider optimizing office buildings as a comparison. The standard procedure for civil engineers and architects is to perform an evaluation of a building by identifying existing problems, understanding the organization’s goals, and gathering business requirements. Afterwards, they begin optimizing the office building’s existing features. As examples, this may involve replacing the elevators or expanding the lobby.


The above is similar to the procedure for revamping network design. There will always be faulty designs that were poorly planned. Sometimes they are unable to scale, or adopt emerging technologies, or adapt to changing business conditions. Thus, designers must first make a comprehensive study of the existing business problems, IT requirements, and network design. Next, they should develop solutions that will optimize the present architecture. This may entail redesigning several components of the network. It can also require the addition of a new data center.


In order to choose the correct design choices and technologies, network designers must gather the necessary information that will allow them to make a sound analysis during the planning stage. This also lets them correctly determine the new requirements that will support the company’s business goals. At this point, network designers typically utilize the decision tree and the decision matrix for easing and simplifying the process.



Progressive Office Cabling


Founded in 1986, Progressive Office’s success has been a direct result of years of commitment to seeking solutions on behalf of our clients in the Washington, D.C. and New York City areas. Efficiently working together, Progressive teams get cabling installed and operating as fast as possible while minimizing disruption and downtime. Call our toll free number (800) 614-4560 today.

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Technical & Application Requirements of Network Design – Part 2

30 Jun 2018

Office Cabling Network CablingAs discussed in Part 1, contemporary network design requires meeting the technical and application requirements of ever expanding and evolving IT and business demands.


Part 2 will continue discussing Application Requirements.



Importance of User Expectation


Networks or IT technologies that are unable to achieve a satisfactory level user expectation or QoE (quality of experience) will be considered to have failed meeting an important business goal. As a result, they will be considered a cost, rather than tools that allow a business to succeed.


A network’s design must take into account how a satisfactory level of user experience will be attained. From the point of view of a user, QoE when utilizing services and applications will determine their level of satisfaction.


The deployment of services and applications before taking into account their features and network requirements will result in a failure to achieve business goals.


To illustrate, a financial services company that wants to provide a video communication application to their customer service representatives, but fails to secure enough bandwidth, will likely frustrate their reps and displease their customers when calls are dropped or interrupted because of excessive latency. Thus, their corporate goal of differentiating themselves from their competitors will be a failure until they meet the network requirements of the application.



Evaluation of Application Requirements


Network designers should keep in mind their responses to the key questions below for the evaluation of application requirements:

  • What are the application’s features and characteristics?

  • What is the length of time the application needs to reset its session or state after losing connectivity?

  • What is the amount of network traffic that is required by the application?

  • How important is the application to the organization and what is the service level it will require to function properly?

  • For its compliance with industry regulations and company security polices, will the application have separation requirements?


Progressive Office Cabling


Founded in 1986, Progressive Office’s success has been a direct result of years of commitment to seeking solutions on behalf of our clients in the Washington, D.C. and New York City areas. Efficiently working together, Progressive teams get cabling installed and operating as fast as possible while minimizing disruption and downtime. Call our toll free number (800) 614-4560 today.