You Are A Network Engineer For An IT Consulting Company

You Are A Network Engineer For An It Consulting Company Your Supervis

You are a Network Engineer for an IT consulting company. Your supervisor has tasked you with designing a network for your company's newest client. The client business details are as follows: 50 employees - half Sales office and half Business office users, with 2 subnets—separate LANs within the office, accommodating 30 hosts per subnet (including 25 employees, 1 printer, 2 servers, and 2 additional addresses). Additionally, there are 2 network printers (one per subnet), one connection to the WAN/Internet, and a core router with 2 Ethernet interfaces (one for each subnet) plus a Serial interface for WAN connectivity. Each subnet will use 1 switch for all hosts. The plan should also support growth to up to 6 subnets, which do not need to be depicted in the current diagram. You are assigned the IP address space 192.168.111.0 /24 and need to develop a subnetting scheme supporting two subnets initially, with expansion for up to 6 total subnets.

Paper For Above instruction

Designing Subnet Schemes for Organizational Growth and Network Efficiency

Determining the appropriate number of subnets and hosts is fundamental in designing an efficient, scalable organizational network. This process involves analyzing current requirements, anticipating future growth, and applying subnetting techniques to optimize IP address utilization. The planning stage involves understanding the organizational structure, estimating current and future device counts, and selecting suitable subnet masks that balance address space with network performance.

To begin, the organization has a Class C IP address space: 192.168.111.0 /24. This provides a total of 256 IP addresses, with 254 usable for hosts after reserving network and broadcast addresses. Given the current needs—two subnets each supporting approximately 30 hosts—the initial subnetting scheme must allocate sufficient addresses while leaving room for growth up to six subnets in total. This implies the need for subnet masks that supports at least 6 subnets, each with at least 30 hosts.

Calculating the number of hosts per subnet involves understanding the relationship between subnet mask bits and address capacity. Using a subnet mask with more bits borrowed from the host portion increases the number of subnets but reduces the number of hosts per subnet. Conversely, fewer subnet bits provide more hosts per subnet but fewer total subnets. The challenge is to find a balance to support current requirements and future expansion without wasting address space.

For this case, subnetting the /24 network into smaller subnets with a /27 mask yields 8 subnets, each supporting 30 hosts (32 addresses, 30 usable). Specifically, a /27 subnet mask corresponds to 255.255.255.224. This configuration supports current needs and provides room for growth beyond six subnets, aligning with the planned expansion. The subnet mask in dotted decimal notation is 255.255.255.224, and the subnetting scheme allows for the creation of multiple subnets by incrementing the subnet address by 32 addresses (e.g., 192.168.111.0, 192.168.111.32, 192.168.111.64, etc.).

Below is a detailed table for the initial subnets, including the subnet address, subnet mask, broadcast, and host ranges:

The network devices, including the core router, switches, servers, and printers, will be configured with addresses within these ranges. The default gateway for each subnet will be the last usable IP address, suited for router interface configuration. For example, the Sales office subnet (192.168.111.0/27), the gateway would be 192.168.111.30. Similarly, the Business office subnet (192.168.111.32/27) would have the gateway 192.168.111.62.

For the printers, assigning the first usable IP addresses of each subnet ensures consistent addressing. The Sales printer could be assigned 192.168.111.1, and the Business printer 192.168.111.33. These addresses enable easy management and configuration of printer services within the network.

The addressing scheme for the core router interfaces would place each interface at the last usable IP address of respective subnets. For instance, the Ethernet interface connecting to the Sales subnet would have IP 192.168.111.30, and the interface for the Business subnet would have IP 192.168.111.62. This setup facilitates straightforward routing between subnets and to external networks via WAN links.

In planning for expansion, additional subnets can be created by further subnetting the original network, with the same masking scheme yielding up to 8 or more subnets, accommodating future organizational growth. For future routers and expansion, connectivity protocols such as OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) or EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol) are recommended for dynamic routing, scalable to support additional routers within the organization (Stallings, 2019; Comer, 2018).

In conclusion, effective subnetting involves understanding current needs, projecting future growth, and applying appropriate subnet masks to maximize IP address utilization. The chosen /27 scheme balances these requirements, supports growth, and simplifies network management, ensuring reliable connectivity between business units, printers, servers, and WAN links.

References

• Stallings, W. (2019). Data and Computer Communications (10th ed.). Pearson.
• Comer, D. E. (2018). Computer Networks and Internets (6th ed.). Pearson.
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