Design & Analysis of Enterprise Network

Technical Report

Design & Analysis of Enterprise Network – DEE711

 

 

Introduction

Here I write a report about understanding and use of different type of network equipments. I also explain which instrument operates in which layer and how it works. Then write some information about network boot up process with the Cisco Express Forwarding. Cisco network vs. Juniper comparison is also written and their advantages and disadvantages. At last put some details of maintenance methodologies and some tools for network troubleshooting.

 

Demonstration of understanding and use of current network equipment

• There are seven layers on OSI reference model. They are as follows:
• Application, Layer, Session, Transport, Network, Data link and Physical

 

      Physical layer

• Hubs, cables and repeaters are operated in physical layer
• Hubs are used to connect local area network and it has many ports.
• Cables are mainly used to join two different machines. There is different type of cables like optical fiber, coaxial and twisted pair table.
• If any transmission is lost in analog and digital signals we can use repeaters to again produce it.
• Here digital repeaters reproduce signals where as analog repeaters just expand it.

 

      Data link Layer

• Bridges modem and network interface card are operated in this layer.
• Bridge is mainly used to connect two different types of networks which have same protocol and give them communication.
• To change the analog signals into digital signals which are coming from device and to convert digital signals into analog form we use a modem.

               Network Layer

• We can create routing table in network layer.
• Routers and Brouters are operated in network layer.
• If we want to send some data or information to their Internet Protocol address, we can do that with a router.
• By connecting WANs and LANs a router updates routing table.

 

 

 

     Networking device boot up process

 

• To check if hardware is working, the Boot ROM performs a test known as Power on Self Test which is also called POST.
• In this process if any error occurs, then it reports to Console.
• It finds and processes a Cisco IOS image, so in the beginning it searches for an image in flash.
• Then if image is there, it tries to process from TFTP server.
• After that if it could not find any image then Boot process that IOS image or ROM monitors Mode.
• After finding an IOS image, it is processed into Random Access Memory.
• Then again the configuration register value is checked by the IOS which are available in NVRAM.

      Cisco Express Forwarding

“When Cisco Express Forwarding is enabled on a router, the Route Processor (RP) performs the express forwarding.

To find out if Cisco Express Forwarding is enabled on your platform, enter the

show ip cef command. If Cisco Express Forwarding is enabled, you receive output that looks like this:

Router# show ip cef

Prefix              Next Hop            Interface

[…]

10.2.61.8/24        192.168.100.1       FastEthernet1/0/0

                    192.168.101.1       FastEthernet6/1

[…]

If Cisco Express Forwarding is not enabled on your platform, the output for the show ip cef command looks like this:

Router# show ip cef

%CEF not running

Distributed Cisco Express Forwarding is enabled by default on the Catalyst 6500 series switch, the Cisco 7500 series router, and the Cisco 12000 Series Internet Router. When distributed Cisco Express Forwarding is enabled on your platform, the line cards perform the express forwarding.

If Cisco Express Forwarding is not enabled on your platform, use the ip cef command to enable (central) Cisco Express Forwarding or the ip cef distributed command to enable distributed Cisco Express Forwarding.”  (Cisco, 2018)

Comparison of Cisco equipment and networks with another vendor

No.	Cisco	Juniper
1	Cisco has many engineers who are certified and they have also online resources which can help them to solve hardware problems.	Juniper does not have more router share market so it has not that much service providers.
2	Nexus 9000 Series and Catalyst 2960-X/XR Series are two main switches of Cisco. It is created for bigger data centers and also it is one of the most popular switches.	QFX Series and Ex Series are two main switches of Juniper, also there are other switches like QFX5200 which can be useful for other organizations.
3	Cisco has a high range of 1 rack unit and also can be usable for 100G. Example is ASR 9000 Series.	With the higher speed Juniper has devices like MX2008, MX2010 and MX2020 which have more port for configurations.
4	In Cisco, for configuration we put line cards into cisco routers.	In Juniper, for configuration it has multi-layered system with MPC and MIC.
5	Cisco has its CPAK optical receiver but not much channel setup and uses more electricity	Juniper has optical receiver with CFP and QSFP28. It is not big and also uses low electricity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Explanation of common network troubleshooting practices and tools

Maintenance Methodologies

Change Control

• Many tools like SolarWinds NCM and Cisco Prime Infrastructure store configurations automatically.
• When we close config mode it generate the Cisco syslog message.
• Also we can check for educational and process improvement.

Change Preparation

• There are many large websites using tabs in one XLS to gather all the data and information together.
• We can also do it by robust testing plan.
• Sometimes we forget some things. Here for downlinks we add VLAN but do  not for other trunks between switches.
• It can take long time for troubleshooting.
• VIRL model can help to find routing issues.

Tools for Network Troubleshooting

Ping: -This is one type of command which can help to see the right connection between two networks or two hosts. Also it gives all the information of packet loss of data which we send to the other host and time.

Tracert: – It shows the connection between two hosts if they are connected or not and also shows hops details. So it is the same tool as ping which confirms the connection and shows it is working or not.

Ipconfig: – This command is used to check that we have right configuration or not. It shows all our IP addresses and subnets for all networks in our computer.

Netstat: – This command shows how many active connections we have on our network. We have several commands like netstat –a, netstat –n and netstat –o.

Conclusion

In this report I understood to use of different types network devices like router, switch, hub, repeater, bridge and modem. I also got knowledge of many troubleshooting tools like Ipconfig, ping, tracert and Netstat. With the use of these commands we can check the correct connection between two networks and devices. Then I also understood about methodologies like Change Control and Change Preparation.

 

 

 

REFERENCE

• Cisco. (2018, January 25).
• Cisco. (2019). Cisco Express Forwarding Configuration Guide. Retrieved from Cisco: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/ios-xml/ios/ipswitch_cef/configuration/15-mt/isw-cef-15-mt-book/isw-cef-overview.html
• GreekforGreeks. (2019). Network Layers with equipments. Retrieved from Greek for Greeks: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/devices-used-in-each-layr-of-tcp-ip-model/
• Systems, B. (2019). Cisco Vs Juniper. Retrieved from BrightStarSystems: https://brightstarsystems.com/comparing-cisco-vs-juniper-routers/
• Tetz, E. (2019). Cisco Networking Boot Process. Retrieved from Dummies: https://www.dummies.com/programming/networking/cisco/cisco-networking-boot-process-overview/
• Welcher, P. (2018, June 28). Network Maintenance Best Practices. Retrieved from Network Computing: https://www.networkcomputing.com/networking/network-maintenance-best-practices
• Zomaya, D. (2019, March 1). 11 Best Network Troubleshooting Tools for Network Administrators. Retrieved from Comparitech: https://www.comparitech.com/net-admin/network-troubleshooting-tools/