Unit 1 - Individual Project Due On 03292014a

Unit1 - Individual Project Due on 03292014a Company Wants To

The company aims to establish four offices globally, connected via the Internet, with routing information shared among all sites to facilitate employee mobility. Concerns include secure traffic passing and monitoring for security and compliance. The assignment involves discussing recent routing protocol implementations suitable for a WAN and the Internet, their typical deployment locations, operational mechanisms, and how routers can assist in secure traffic monitoring with practical examples. Additionally, proposing alternative network design options aligned with the company's needs and providing supporting evidence using academic or credible non-academic IT sources in APA style are required.

Paper For Above instruction

Creating a secure, reliable, and efficient wide area network (WAN) connecting multiple international offices is a complex endeavor, requiring careful consideration of routing protocols, security measures, and network design. The recent advancements in routing protocols have significantly enhanced WAN performance, scalability, and security, which are vital for a corporation seeking seamlessly integrated global offices.

Recent implementations of routing protocols in WANs

Modern WANs predominantly utilize dynamic routing protocols to optimize path selection and ensure network resilience. Among the latest are Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). OSPF is widely adopted within enterprise networks for its rapid convergence and scalability, operating as an Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP). BGP, on the other hand, is the backbone protocol of the Internet and is essential for managing routing between different autonomous systems, making it suitable for large-scale multi-site deployments like the company's project.

OSPF implements link-state routing, where routers share the entire network topology to compute the shortest path to each destination. BGP is a path-vector protocol that maintains path information, providing policy-based routing, crucial for managing traffic flow across multiple ISPs and regions, such as in multinational company networks (Moy, 1998; Labovitz et al., 2010). Their deployment locations depend on whether the network is private or involves external connectivity; OSPF is generally used within the organization’s LANs and large enterprise WANs, while BGP manages connectivity to the Internet and between different organizational branches.

Since routing protocols determine data flow, their effectiveness directly influences network security. Routers operating these protocols support traffic monitoring through features like access control lists (ACLs), intrusion detection, and logging, which can be configured to monitor passing traffic without disrupting connectivity. For example, employing BGP route filtering allows a network administrator to prevent untrusted routes from entering the corporate network, thus securing the WAN against external threats (Hu, 2012). SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) integrated within routers enables real-time traffic analysis, usage pattern tracking, and anomaly detection, ensuring compliance with security policies.

Moreover, the advent of Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) solutions introduces centralized control planes that enhance security and traffic management. These solutions can dynamically route traffic based on application-level policies, monitor performance, and enforce encryption, providing better security than traditional routing protocols alone (McManus & Shinder, 2019). For the company’s scenario, recommending SD-WAN as an alternative could streamline management, improve security, and optimize traffic flow across international sites.

In conclusion, the latest WAN implementations leverage robust routing protocols like OSPF and BGP, combined with security-enhancing features and monitoring tools. For maximum security and efficiency, integrating modern solutions like SD-WAN, which provides centralized control, traffic encryption, and policy-based routing, is advised. This approach aligns with best practices by supporting secure, scalable, and manageable network architectures, thereby ensuring the company’s global offices remain interconnected and secure.

References

• Hu, J. (2012). Routing Protocol Security: An Overview and Practical Approach. Journal of Computer Networks and Communications, 2012.
• Labovitz, C., Lakshman, T., & Malan, G. (2010). Internet Routing Stability. ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, 24(5), 37-48.
• Moy, J. T. (1998). OSPF: Anatomy of an Internet Routing Protocol. Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc.
• McManus, J., & Shinder, D. (2019). SD-WAN for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons.