The Scenario

A small Sydney CBD-based import/export business, Bancroft Systems, has recently expanded by buying a warehouse. The warehouse is located 15km from the CBD in the suburb of Botany, which is adjacent to both the international shipping port and the international airport. The company presently has 22 employees, however with the purchase of a dedicated warehouse they will recruit a further 11 staff for jobs at the warehouse location.

You have been hired as a consultant to re-design Bancroft Systems' network as it will now span more than one location. As you are a consultant in this scenario youmustanswer the following questions in a report format as if you were writing a business proposal.

The current network of the CBD location:

The Brief

Your consulting brief consists of four parts:

Question 1 Wireless

The warehouse is to be networked, it is 100 meters by 40 meters with a 15 meter tall ceiling. The network will not be heavily used since there are only a few workers working in the warehouse during a shift, but the coverage needs to be complete as a worker may be on a forklift, ladder, or cherry picker, in any position within the building when they need to update the warehouse's stock database. The owners have explained that not much bandwidth is required (the workers are not meant to be streaming video, listening to audio, or playing interactive games on the network).

Choose an appropriate WiFi technology (ie. which 802.11 variant: a, b, g, n, ac, ax, or ad). Prepare a recommendation explaining how you would position multiple instances of WiFi access points in the warehouse, and what band (2.4GHz, 5GHz, 60GHz) and channels you would have each instance operate on, to ensure complete coverage, appropriately low interference, and minimal total cost. Be sure to explain clearly the proposed position and channel for each router (after all, someone else will be installing them, not you). As always, justify your recommendation.

Question 2 Security

Given that the company now has two geographically separate sites, the company's management team would like to bolster their overall security posture. Provide an itemised description of changes or additions to the network that would improve the security posture of the company. For each proposed change or addition, describe what benefits, and detriments, would the change have on the performance, operation, and security of the network. Options that you may consider include, but are not limited to, Firewalls, NAT, IDS/IPS, authentication, services, WiFi placement (within the CBD office), additional servers, or consolidated servers.

Remember that your role is as a consultant, and that you have been hired by the company to perform a security analysis. Your report should include not only existing controls, but also controls for those risks you have identified that currently have no mitigation. This means that you are making a proposal, of what you think that your client should do. Of course, your client can choose not to implement your proposed changes but that isn't really the point here. What you need to do is simply identify what the risks are and the most appropriate controls to mitigate those risks.

Question 3 WAN

There are a number of network connectivity options available to enable network traffic to flow between the two sites. Createtwodifferent proposals for connecting the two company networks. Your report should include a comparison of the two approaches showing how each compares in terms of security, performance, operational expenditure (running costs), and capital expenditure (initial purchase price).

Question 4 Network Diagram

Create a new diagram showing the logical topology of the combined network that includes all the changes from the previous three questions. As question 1 asks you to create two different proposals you will need to diagram both proposals. If you are able to document both proposals in a single diagram in such a way that it is clear that you are offering two alternatives you may do so. If you prefer, you can create two separate diagrams. You are welcome to use any diagramming tool (including PowerPoint) as long as the diagram is clear.