As introduced in Part 1, the parameters of network design will be chiefly determined by the constraints and requirements of a business. Part 2 will cover the Requirements of Network Design.

Requirements of Network Design

A variety of requirements skillfully combined during implementation will allow the creation of a network design that helps attain a company’s business goals. The following is a classification of the design requirements for an organization. A number of them may be provided directly by the network design team, while others will arise from or are determined by the business objectives or requirements of a company.

Business Objectives

• Reduction of operational costs
• Expansion of business via additional remote sites
• Raise staff productivity

Business Requirements

• Reduce costs of the maintenance of multiple voice & data networks
• Support business growth through the addition of remote sites
• Increase employee productivity by improving internal communications via mobile and video devices, while safeguarding the security of the company

Functional Requirements

• Capable of adding and supporting new remote sites to network without redesign
• Unified infrastructure supporting data, video, voice, and wireless
• Ability to isolate guest and employee wired and wireless traffic for company security policy compliance

Application Requirements

For example, when a business plans the addition of video and VoIP capability to its network, specific application requirements must be met. The network design must be able to provide sufficient network availability, efficiency, and performance for these two new capabilities to support business goals.

Technical Requirements

For the attainment of the above functional and application requirements in consideration of the company’s business objectives, the network design requires the following features:

High Availability – Raise the level of high availability to support traffic crucial to business, such as data and voice.

Quality of Service (QoS) – User experience can be greatly improved through the introduction of QoS to attain excellent voice and video services.

Scalability – Implementation of scalable network design to support expansion of the company projected for the next 12 months.

Security –Network security requires optimization when new features such as voice, video, and Wi-Fi are added.

Traffic Isolation – Provide traffic isolation to meet information security requirements.

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