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Chapter 1

Planning a Network Topology

3. What negative result can occur when you connect an enterprise server to a hori-

zontal network?

The horizontal network on which the server is located can be overloaded with traffic from all the

other horizontal networks.

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Case Scenario Exercise

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1. Specify which floor of the building is best suited for each of the three departments

listed and give your reasons why.

The first floor is best suited to the outside sales department, because it provides individual

offices for the salespeople’s meetings, and because it is wired with Category 5 cable, providing

the potential for more bandwidth to support more elaborate applications required by the users.

The second floor is best suited to the inside sales call center, because it already has cubicles

in place that are wired with Category 3 UTP. This cable supports a 10Base-T network, which is

sufficient for the users’ needs. The third floor is best suited to the research and development

department, because the fiber-optic cable provides the combination of high bandwidth and

security that these users need.

2. Which of the three departments to be housed in the new building could best make

use of a wireless network medium? Why?

The outside sales department could best make use of a wireless network medium, because

the salespeople use portable computers. A wireless network would enable them to access net-

work resources from any location in their department.

3. Which of the three floors has the most secure cable installation at the present time?

Why?

The third floor is currently the most secure, because it uses fiber-optic cable, which cannot eas-

ily be tapped.

4. Assuming that you plan to use Ethernet throughout the building, which variant

would you use on each floor? Why?

The Category 5 UTP cable on the first floor supports 100Base-TX Fast Ethernet, which is the

current standard for horizontal Ethernet networks. The Category 3 UTP cable installed on the

second floor network can’t support Fast Ethernet, so you must use 10Base-T Ethernet. The

fiber-optic cable on the third floor supports 100Base-FX Fast Ethernet, providing sufficient

bandwidth for the R&D users.

5. Apart from the computers themselves, what connectivity components must Lit-

ware install on each of the three networks in the building to make it a functioning

Ethernet network?

Each network requires installation of a hub to make it a functioning Ethernet LAN.