Introduction
Our proposal combines 100Base-FX fiber optic cable, 100Base-TX gigabit ethernet and 10Base-T ethernet providing both the necessary bandwidth but also keeping the cost reasonable for a network installation of this magnitude. Fiber will act as the main backbone to most of the buildings and distribution facilities. Gigabit cable will be run from the switches to servers. The buildings themselves will be wired with Category 5e UTP cable to provide connectivity to all of the administrative and student computers.
Advantages
- High Bandwidth: Our installation provides the highest bandwidth in key areas, making this network fast.
- Expense: Even with the fiber runs, this installation is still inexpensive and affordable.
- Scalability: This network, with the use of high bandwidth media, will easily be scalable and adaptable for any changes made within the next 10 years.
- Running gigbait ethernet to the servers will provide maximum bandwidth and also keep the cost down.
- Wiring the buildings with Cat5e UTP will be inexpensive and provide more than enough bandwidth for each host, especially in our mostly switched environment.
Disadvantages
- Equipment: With the layout we chose, it requires a lot of switches.
- Life-Span: The life span of copper isn't as long as that of fiber. The backbones will far outlast the buildings' wiring.
- Collisions: Although we've kept collision domains to a minimum, in order to keep costs down, labs will use hubs. Labs will be more likely to suffer from collisions than any other areas of the buildings.
|