Unit:

Computer Networks
Assignment title:
Gotham City College: Hybrid Teaching
Spring – Winter 2023

Important notes
• Please refer to the Assignment Presentation Requirements for advice on how
to set out your assignment. These can be found on the NCC Education
website. Hover over ‘About Us’ on the main menu and then navigate to
‘Policies and Procedures’ then scroll to the ‘Student Support’ area.
• You must read the NCC Education document Academic Misconduct Policy
and ensure that you acknowledge all the sources that you use in your work.
These documents are available on the NCC Education website. Hover over
‘About Us’ on the main menu and then navigate to ‘Policies and Procedures’
then scroll to the ‘Student Support’ area.
• You must complete the Statement and Confirmation of Own Work. The form
is available on the NCC Education website. Hover over ‘About Us’ on the
main menu and then navigate to ‘Policies and Procedures’ then scroll to the
‘Student Support’ area.
• Please make a note of the recommended word count. You could lose marks
if you write 10% more or less than this.
• You must submit a paper copy and digital copy (on disk or similarly
acceptable medium). Media containing viruses, or media that cannot be run
directly, will result in a fail grade being awarded for this assessment.
• All electronic media will be checked for plagiarism.
Introduction
This assignment enables you to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of
computer networks. You are required to produce a document. You are advised to start work
on the assignment at an early stage during the unit.

Some aspects of this assignment will require you to research real components that are
currently available in the marketplace. Furthermore, you will also be asked to make
judgements about what is best for a particular scenario. Please note that there is not always
one right answer. However, you will need to justify your reasons for any choices you make
to get high marks.

You are NOT required to design a complete network. You are required to detail the specifics
covered by the task list shown below.

Scenario
Education providers reacting to the global pandemic are looking to utilise a new method of
hybrid delivery for teaching from September 2022.

Post 16 FE education providers are looking to implement this new hybrid model where
students can access Face to Face (F2F) lectures and remote sessions. A remote session
will be a live streamed lesson from the classroom with live demonstrations of activities from
the teacher recorded in 1080p quality for students to view live or to review as a recording
later.

As part of a summer internship programme Gotham City college, with support of its local
council, are inviting university students to pitch their own network design for a school to allow
effective hybrid delivery to be implemented for the next academic year. If you are
successfully chosen for the internship programme you will be involved in the implementation
of the network.

The council are looking to help university students gain meaningful work experience to help
with future employment and have offered to match funding for the project up to a maximum
of £10,000 via a single grant award.

The college has three floors:

• Floor 1 (ground floor) houses a reception area, lecture theatre, library, student social
space and canteen.

• Floor 2 contains 15 classrooms which house up to 20 Desktop PCs with ethernet

connections.

• Floor 3 is office space for staff / administration (HR, Finance) usage.

The requirements for the network are as follows:

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 • The network setup should allow good connections speeds for staff and students with
‘good speeds’ defined as above 10Mbs+ however some staff have already
questioned if this is adequate.

• The network will not experience heavy amounts of traffic with video steaming, basic
internet browsing making up most of the traffic. The biggest impact is seen when
students attempt to transfer large amounts of data to the local file share. Audits of
student file storage in the past has revealed prohibited content being stored resulting
in student account deletion. If possible, this unwelcomed use of file storage must be
prevented.

• The college will have up to 1,000 students enrolled and 100 staff members on
campus (it is not expected that all users will be active at the same time).

• All subnets should allow for 10% scalability to reduce issues with varied scale of users
for the next 12 months.

• Students and staff will expect access to use their own personal devices on the
network (BYOD). It can be assumed that this will include legacy devices with a limit
of supporting 802.11ac at a minimum.

• Each standard classroom will house 20 PCs with Ethernet based network connection,
a staff desk with a dock for a Surface Pro with Ethernet connection and a wi-fi direct
(Miracast) display.

• Each classroom must be isolated with no access to other devices in other classrooms
with the exception of network enabled printers set up around the campus.

• Where possible and budget allows, the network should futureproof to prevent further
investment in the immediate future (3 years).

• Each floor has a dedicated server room to enable localised resourcing and
troubleshooting.

These requirements are to be used with the tasks below.

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Aim
To demonstrate your understanding of computer networking in the real world. You are
required to produce a report, broken down into the following SIX (6) tasks:

Task 1 – Planning a Network – 20 Marks – 600 words

• Explain the term ‘Physical Topology’.
• Illustrate and justify which logical topology you would recommend being used in a
general classroom environment.
• Discuss why you would expect to see large amount of UDP traffic on a network
being used for VOIP and Video Conferencing and explain how you would monitor
this traffic using software.
• Suggest TWO (2) server roles that could be useful additions to this network. State
what protocols would be key to its operation.
(20 marks)

Task 2 – Wireless Networking – 20 marks – 600 words

• Explain the term ‘Mesh Network’.
• Select either WiFi5 (802.11ac) or WiFi6 (802.11ax) capable access points for use
in this scenario with justification for your selection.
• Discuss why you would conduct a site survey before installing any wireless access
points.
• Identify TWO (2) benefits of installing PoE enabled access points in an enterprise
style environment.
(20 marks)

Task 3 – Design the Network – 20 Marks – 600 words

Draw a logical network diagram to illustrate a typical network design for the college Floor 2
(classrooms) only. Within the design you MUST:

• Clearly label each component in your diagram.

• Allocate a suitable IPv4 based IP address scheme (IP Address & Subnet mask) to
provide 30 unique IP addresses for each classroom. Each classroom should be a
separate subnet. You must justify your scheme.
• Discuss the best choice of physical cabling to be used for cheap and reliable fast
network connections to manage high bandwidth demand and that are easy to
use/install.
• Clearly identify any security considerations put into place within the design of the
network.
• Clearly note any assumptions made by yourself in the network design.
(20 marks)

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Task 4 – Secure the Network – 10 Marks – 300 words
• Explain THREE (3) common network threats and identify an effective
countermeasure for each threat.
• Discuss FOUR (4) advantages or disadvantages of implementing a VPN for
external users (staff and students).
(10 marks)

Task 5 – Network Operating Systems – 10 Marks – 300 words

• Identify an Operating System (OS) that could be used to setup a server to offer file
sharing, DNS services and DHCP services. Provide THREE (3) positives or
negatives of using your identified OS.
• Research and explain the purpose of Cisco IOS and what devices it would typically
be installed on.
(10 marks)

Task 6 – Network Recommendation – 20 Marks – 600 words

Using information produced for tasks 1-5, make a recommendation by:

• Summarising how scalability for growth has been considered in your network
design produced in Task 3.
• Identifying THREE (3) key aspects of your design that will secure the network from
common threats.
• Providing THREE (3) recommendations that you would make to ensure the network
is future proofed for a minimum of 3 years.
• Discussing how you would add the ability to use IoT devices to the network and
what risks this would introduce. You should discuss at least THREE (3) risks.
(20 marks)

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Guidance

Consult with your tutor if you are uncertain about any aspect of this assignment.

Submission requirements

You must submit a word-processed report.

Your report should answer Tasks 1 to 6. The word count for your report is 3000 words.

Candidate checklist

Please use the following checklist to ensure that your work is ready for submission.

Have you read the NCC Education document Academic Misconduct

Policy and ensured that you have acknowledged all the sources that ❑
you have used in your work?
Have you completed the Statement and Confirmation of Own Work
form and attached it to your assignment? You must do this. ❑
Have you ensured that your work has not gone over or under the
recommended word count by more than 10%? ❑
Have you ensured that your work does not contain viruses and can
be run directly? ❑

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