2.0 NETWORK TOPOLOGY
2.1 NETWORK WITHIN A BULDING
A new three level building will be built to accommodate three computer labs for Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology. It will be a separate building from the existing one. Each level will accommodate one lab. 50 personal computers (PCs) and a shared printer will be located in each lab. All three labs will be linked to each other and also to a server room located at the second level of building. Additionally, each lab will be equipped with wireless access points.
Figure 2.11 A hybrid topology: a star backbone with two bus networks in a single computer lab
Figure 2.11 above shows the network topology in a single lab. In ...view middle of the document...
This is why a shared printer is connected to the switch instead of connecting to a single PC because each PC only needs to send the data to the central switch, and the switch will queue up those data for the printer to receive its job sequentially.
Star topology is considered because it costs less expensive than the other topologies. Star is easy to install and reconfigure or addition and deletion due to each link involves only one connection between a device and the switch. In addition, its robustness enables itself to easy fault identification and fault isolation, as a broken link does not affect the other active link.
Bus topology is used to connect between 50 PCs and switch. Bus topology is a multipoint configuration. A long main cable from the star topology acts as the backbone in the bus, and the PCs are connected to the bus cable by drop lines and taps. Due to the limitation of the number of taps, 50 PCs are divided into half to two backbones (one backbone is linked to 25 PCs) to maintain the performance of signal travelling. Bus topology is more suitable to connect the PCs because it is easy to install and less cabling is used.
The wireless access point, also known as a wireless router, functions as a sending and receiving of wireless radio signals including the Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi). It can be used to support public Internet hotspots whereby can be connected by mobile devices such as smartphone, laptop and tablet. Most of the wireless routers claim to support up to 255 connected devices. It is theoretically possible by connecting 225 mobile devices to a single Wi-Fi access point in the same time, but it is not recommended. By connecting such a huge amount of devices into the same hotspot, the performance within the network will be very poor. Instead, install multiple access points to distribute the network load and to cover the “dead spots” in the lab. Hence, any number of devices can be supported effectively. That is why each lab is equipped with a wireless access point instead of installing only single access point in the entire building as shown in the Figure 2.12.
Figure 2.12 The overall computer connection for the new building
Figure 2.12 shows the overview of all computer connection for the new building. Each level consists of one computer lab as discussed in the previous section. All three computer labs are connected to the server room and linked to each other.
As shown in the Figure 2.12, start topology is fully applied on the network of the server room. Switch 2 acts as a central controller to the Switch 3 at level 3, Switch 4 at level 2, Switch 5 at level 1 and to the different server located within the server room. Each stated devices has a dedicated
point-to-point link to the switch. The server room functions as a data center that provides services to the other computer programs and serves for the data backup purpose. Therefore, server room is located at level 2 of the new building because the top floor and...
