Computer Networking and Management Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Computer Networking and Management - Case Study Example figurations at the data center core switch enable functional areas within each department to operate as independent LANs regardless of their physical locations. Internet-enabled Client Applications The following typical applications are allowed by the security management team to access the Internet: 1. Web browsers (IE 7). 2. Email client (Outlook 2007). 3. Skype client; used for voice chat, instant messaging, video conferencing, and low-cost Internet telephony. These applications were found essential to facilitate immediate contact and collaboration across to other universities and research institutions. No other network applications are allowed access to the Internet. The above Internet clients operate at designated TCP ports, which are open but monitored and occasionally audited though the firewall, to ensure compliance with security and IT access policy set forth by the campus network management. Any other applications requiring access to university wide intranet resources achieve that through a web interface and therefore do not require having arbitrary ports open. Figure : screen shot of web browser, email client, and IM/IPT clients Servers Servers, central security appliances, and edge network appliances are all housed in a secure one-level data center, located within the same campus area. Servers are connected to the main access router via a 10Gbps optical Ethernet. Table 2 illustrates the server distribution, platforms, and functionality. Web server (Linux) 1 central server Hosts the intranet portals and internal applications Mail server (Exchange over Windows 2003) 1 central server Hosts all email accounts and archives Domain Controller (Windows 2003) 1 central server Manages DNS, DHCP, and Active Directory Antivirus server (Linux) 1 central server Manages... This document demonstrates the understanding of some major aspects of computer networking, over three distinct sections. Section 1 considered the internal network of the College of Engineering and presented detailed high level description of user, server, network, and security designs of the network and how it connects to the Internet and to the university core intranet. Section 2 examined the important topic of data encryption. Symmetric and asymmetric ciphers have been described and contrasted. Examples of each have been provided. Also, the use of encryption for message authentication in the form of digital signature and/or message authentication code was discussed and the two schemes were compared. Section 3 considered the topic of congestion control and avoidance for TCP/IP networks, which make the overall transport infrastructure of almost all today’s public and private data networks. Congestion control algorithms were discussed at a topical level and a comparative descri ption of three algorithms (Tahoe, Reno and Vegas) was provided. Section 3 concluded with describing the role of an HTTP proxy and the performance penalty it encounters due to the common use of database driven dynamic web content.