- - - - Part 3 Network Design - - - -

Network topology of Fantastic Gaming Café:

Design requirements & specification:

For our gaming café network, we decided to apply safe redundancy solution which is Hot Standby Routing Protocol (HSRP) that can provide layer 3 redundancy in the network by providing immediate or link-specific failover and a recovery mechanism. Therefore, we utilize two router and two layer 3 switches in our network plan. The router is used for connecting the Internet, while the layer 3 switch can helps in routing efficiency as it speeds up packets forwarding between VLANs and to the router without the need to send every packet up to the router.

Next, we also implement the OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) protocol into routers and multilayer switch for ensure data takes the most efficient route through the network. The process of OSPF can be concluded like router discover its neighbors, then exchange link / path cost information, build a database, calculate the shortest path, and update the routing table.

Besides, the inter-VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) and DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) perform in this network. VLANs segment network traffic logically, isolating different types of traffic even if they share the same physical infrastructure. It brings network become scalable by enabling easy addition and also enhanced the security by separate sensitive traffic. In our case, we use 4 VLAN to separate the 4 different subnet of wireless guest subnet, gaming pc subnet, printing subnet, and administration subnet. By applying the DHCP on end devices, the IP address can be automatically assign to them from IP range that we classified. Last but not least, VPNs and firewalls will be built on some routers and switches to protect our network as well.

Description of software to construct network diagram:

draw.io is a cross-platform graph drawing software developed in HTML5 and JavaScript. Its interface can be used to create diagrams such as flowcharts, UML diagrams, network diagrams.

why we choose the draw.io as our network diagram software ?

• Compared to other software, it provides various types of network device shapes to use.
• Free to use.
• Supports multiple storage platforms such as Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, GitHub, etc. 
• Recommended by education institution.

Steps in creating network diagram with draw.io:

1. Launch the draw.io website or application software.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Click "Create New Diagram" and choose network diagram template to start design.
   
   
   
   
3. Design the diagram by adding the required shape from left-side shape panel to the workplace.
   

   

   
   
4. Connect the device shape with line.
   

   

   
   
   
5. Export the network diagram when finished.