CC3W01N Work Placement for Professional Experience

Module Leader: Dr. Yanguo Jing

Report

Student Name: XXXXXXXX Student ID: YYYYYY

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Contents
1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 3 1.1 1.2 1.3 2 Background to the placement ............................................................................................... 3 Structure and role of CompanyYYYY Ltd. ............................................................................... 5 Details of CompanyYYYY IT department ................................................................................ 6

Review of Activities ........................................................................................................................ 6 2.1 Summarization & Evaluation ................................................................................................. 7

Academic Context ........................................................................................................................ 12 3.1 Discussion ............................................................................................................................ 12

4 5 6 7

Ability Evaluation ......................................................................................................................... 13 Challenges .................................................................................................................................... 15 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 17 Appendix A: Photos of my work place and configured equipment ............................................. 18

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Introduction
Background to the placement

1.1

The work placement that Ive done it was with company called CompanyYYYY. I was working in CompanyYYYY sport ground which is used by the company to organize different events. So in that place I was introduced to Mr. Matthew Raymond who is the IT director of CompanyYYYY. He asked me what Im doing in London and I explained to him that Im student doing BSc Computer Networks in London Metropolitan University. After few weeks he called me and he said that CompanyYYYY need help in terms of Voice over IP (VoIP) technology and if I want to help. I accept the offer because my final year project for BSc Computer Networking is on Voice over IP technology. I realized that the experience and the knowledge gained will be very beneficial for my career and for my project also. The work experience was for the summer only from July 2011 to September 2011. During this months I was working 3 days per week in one of CompanyYYYY offices located in Earls Court road London. In this office CompanyYYYY IT department is located where my work place was. My duties where related to VoIP testing, monitoring and analyses of VoIP calls. These VoIP duties were part of a project which CompanyYYYY implement. The project was associated with migration from distributed VoIP architecture to centralized architecture. The company has 28 sites across the UK & Ireland each site has its own VoIP servers. The main goal of the project was to centralize those servers into single building. For this reason the servers from the sites were removed and sites were connected to the central server. The driving benefit behind the project is the improved control and management of VoIP calls that CompanyYYYY gained. With the successful project implementation CompanyYYYY were able to manage VoIP calls by themselves instead of service providers.

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Figure 1-1 Simple Network Diagram of CompanyYYYY Ltd. Network

Figure 1-1 shows few of the CompanyYYYY sites across UK and Ireland. CompanyYYYY have complicated and large network infrastructure.
Figure 1-2 Partial Diagram of CompanyYYYY VoIP migration project

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Network Topology
AR2 23 AR1 15 HK2 AR3 9 HK3

HK1
Iomart

ECR
ECR Earls Court Road (42-50 Earls Court Rd W8 6FT HK1 High street Kensington 194 W8 7RG HK2 High street Kensington 215 W8 6BD GS Global Switch 1 Data Centre (E14 2AX) IOMART- 16-22 Epworth Street EC2A 4DN AR Abingdon Road (9/15/23 W86AH)

Global Switch 1

Figure 1-2 is a simple diagram showing the project that I was involved during my work placement. The diagram is partial because the complete diagram of the project is very complicated. The figure 1-2 shows the calls to and from remote offices (HK1, HK3) are managed form central place (ECR). This central point is connected to Global switch 1 where back up of the calls is performed. I was performing VoIP testing on those links from the central point (ECR) to the connected remote offices such as HK1, HK3, etc. I successfully test and made recommendations on those voice VLAN links. In result of the recommendations the bandwidth of some links was increased. This increased the quality of the calls. Note: Diagrams in Figure 1-1 and 1-2 are provided by Mr. Matthew Raymond CompanyYYYY Ltd. 1.2 Structure and role of CompanyYYYY Ltd.

CompanyYYYY Ltd is the leading independent travel agency/tour operator in the United Kingdom and Ireland. They celebrated their 40th year in business last year. Copied below is the About Us section of their website which gives a good overview of the company.

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Experts in tailor making itineraries worldwide, CompanyYYYY offers unbeatable value and exceptional service. CompanyYYYY was founded in 1970 by former SAS officer Mike Gooley with a staff of four. The company remains privately owned but today has a staff of over 1100 and has made travel arrangements for over 11 million clients. 24 travel canters are staffed by the most expert travel consultants in the industry. On hand 7 days a week we are located throughout the UK and Ireland. With a worldwide reputation, we have the widest range of flights, tours, hotels, cruises, car & motor home hire across the globe. From budget to luxury our prices are amongst the lowest you will find anywhere. As the pioneers of tailor made travel we believe there's no substitute for one-on-one, bespoke service. Our travel consultants have between them travelled to over 96% of the world's countries. As a result the service and advice they offer is second to none.

1.3

Details of CompanyYYYY IT department

The IT Department at CompanyYYYY is based in Kensington, but has responsibility for all aspects of IT and systems within the group, incorporating 28 sites in U.K and Ireland and three sites in Australia. There are a total of 21 staff who are dedicated IT, incorporating development, maintenance and management. The IT Director, Matthew Raymond, is in charge of all IT matters and reports directly to the Chairman and owner of the company Mike Gooley. The nature of the company with multiple branches means that wide area networking and more recently distributed IP Telephony are vital to their success. They do not operate an online model, so telephony is critical to all aspects of the business. The migration to a centralised VOIP/SIP platform was core project that I was involved with during my time at CompanyYYYY.

2 Review of Activities

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2.1

Summarization & Evaluation

The work placement was based on weekly tasks given to me by my manager Mr. Matthew Raymond. The tasks were mainly associated with the VoIP migration project. I also had tasks for troubleshooting VoIP problems when they occur. In the first 4 weeks I had a company introduction and training on two software tools (Observer and Path View) (LO1, LO2, LO4, LO5). Those tools I used to achieve the tasks given to me later on. During this training time I had meetings on regular basis with Mr. Matthew Raymond. On those meeting the progress of my training was discussed and further information regarding VoIP migration project was given to me. (LO1, LO5).

Figure 2-1 Notes taken during the training sessions and meetings

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Figure 2-2 Notes taken during the training sessions and meetings

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The training was crucial to my work placement because it gives me valuable knowledge of software/ hardware products related to the tasks given to me later on. During this training period I build up good connections with few engineers. Those network engineers provide the training to CompanyYYYY staff and they are external sub contractors. In this period I had the chance to use everything that I learned in London Metropolitan University in real environment. The training was total success and I was very satisfied from what I achieved. In the next 4 weeks Ive been given tasks to analyze in details the newly created VLANs part of the VoIP migration project and to document the results of the analysis. VoIP migration project consolidates 26 separate IP PBX systems into single central PBX system. The new voice VLANs were created for each of these 26 locations. I analyse those VLANs by using the tools on which I had training. After that all my analyses were documented by using reporting features included in the tools. I present those reports to Mr .Matthew Raymond on weekly basis. He was very happy with the analyses that I presented. I was collaborating with CompanyYYYY IT staff in order to analyse the VLANs properly. (LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5) This part of my work placement was successful and I manage to work and cooperate in a team effectively. I demonstrated the knowledge and skills gained during training and BSc Computer Networking in London Metropolitan University.
Figure 2-3 Path View daily report used form my analyses of the links

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Figure 2-3 shows a daily report of the performance of the monitored links (paths). Those reports are automatically produced by the software on daily basis. I used those reports to quickly identify the problem link. After that I used the tool for further investigation.
Figure 2-4 Results of the monitored link

Figure 2-4 shows different measurement that I made such as data loss, latency, etc. In the figure 2-4 the black lines indicate lost connection in the link. This was caused by one of the CompanyYYYY switches. This Cisco switch had wrong interface configuration. So we reconfigure this interface and the problem was solved.

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In the last weeks of my work placement Ive been given tasks to carry out the analysis of the VLANs from the previous 4 weeks and to troubleshoot VoIP routing problems and quality of calls. Based on the tools that I used and my analytical skills I resolved few problems. Those problems were associated with wrong configuration parameters in the service provider (ViaTel) equipment. (LO1, LO3, LO5) During the troubleshooting stage I managed to build up confidence in my skills and knowledge. Those last weeks shows me that Im prepared for real time problems.

3 Academic Context

3.1

Discussion

This work placement is directly connected with BSc Computer Networking degree course because all the tasks given to me were network related. Also my final year project for BSc Computer Networking is on Enterprise IP Telephony technology. This project is directly related with the work placement since in both cases Voice over IP is concerned. The analyses performed were valuable for my project also because they reveal how VoIP is operating in real environment (CompanyYYYY network). The knowledge gained during the degree course helps me to fulfil all the tasks. Without this fundamental knowledge such as OSI model, TCP 3 way handshake, network protocols, etc. I could not perform any task given to me. Without this knowledge and the ability to learn quickly I could not pass successfully the training that I had. The work placement had great impact on my professional and personal plans for further development. I build up confidence in the theory that I know and I also learn new skills from personal prospective. Such skills as team work and communication are equally important to the theory learned during the degree course that Im doing.

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Throughout the whole work placement few elements of academic theory were applied. Those theoretical elements are network protocols (e.g. CDP, UDP, IP, IPX, etc), VLAN operation on Cisco switches, IP routing, structure of data packets (e.g. headers, payload, etc.). Those elements were discussed during my training period. Observer and Path View tools work based on those elements so understanding of this elements was crucial.

4 Ability Evaluation

In the entire work placement I was making notes during the training sessions and meetings. This improves my ability to make clear and short notes and to organize my thoughts in consistent manner. I used those notes to prepare myself for the next meeting or training session. The note taking is also very effective way to organize what I learned. This was noticed by Mr. Raymond. The notes had positive effect on my communication skill. During the meetings with Mr. Raymond I was refereeing to the notes which help me to build up confidence in communication.

I performed revision and research on background theory before each training session. Ive done the revision by using the appropriate materials from BSc Computer Networking degree course. Those revisions were very beneficial to me. I was able very quickly and easy to adopt the new knowledge from the training sessions. The notes and the revisions were also very efficient when I was performing analyses of captured network data traffic

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Figure 4-1 Research and revision on the background theory that I performed

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Important element of my skills development was the troubleshooting of few network related problems that occurred while I was doing the work experience. Those problems were related to wrong configuration of firewalls and Cisco routers. In the process of resolving this process I was able to improve my team work because I could not identify and resolve the problem by myself. I was cooperating with CompanyYYYY IT staff in order to identify the problem first and then to propose appropriate solution. The troubleshooting allows me to develop a plan for identification and resolution of the problem. I build up effective plan. I used the Observer and Path view tools to identify where the problem reside. After that I was consulting with CompanyYYYY IT staff in order to make the suitable solution. During the work experience I enhance my time management skill. This is one of the most valuable skills for me. Every time when task was given to me I was breaking the task into smaller tasks. On those tasks I allocated time. This practise was very efficient because I was able to manage the time very accurate. At the end of the placement my confidence, ability to communicate and cooperate with other team members, time management were improved dramatically. Those important components will play vital role in my career.

5 Challenges

One of the biggest challenges during the work placement was a problem related to quality of the calls in CompanyYYYY remote office. The office in Ireland was experiencing poor quality of calls. So Mr. Raymond allocates this problem to me. I investigated the problem by constantly monitoring the path (link) to Ireland office using Path View tool. The challenge was that the data which I collected didnt indicate any problem with VoIP system in Ireland. After 1 week I noticed that the round trip time (RTT) for the packets to get to Ireland was higher than the normal value. I measurements of RTT reveals 70 ms where the expected value for such a distance should be around 14-15 ms. I also observed a few dropped packets. The interesting fact was that the packets were dropped by specific device.

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According the Path View the dropping of the packets was occurring in of the service provider (Viatel) router. My next step was to present my finding to Mr. Raymond so I organized a meeting. On the meeting I was involved in a conference call with Mr. Cliff Chapman who trained me on Path View who verified my findings and analyses. At the end of the meeting and the call it was clear that I analyze the results properly. I used Observer tool to capture packets of that link. After the capturing of the packets I analyze the collected packets. With the help of Mr. Steve Merrill (he trained me on Observer) I identify the problem. The problem was that one of the service provider routers on the link had maximum transmission unit (MTU) set to 1430 bytes instead of the normal value (1500 bytes). MTU field of the packet is defining the maximum packet size permitted for transmission on the network. So when the packet arrives the router is looking at MTU value in order to determine if it can transmit this packet or not. In order to transmit the packet router is comparing the MTU value of the packet with its own configured MTU value. If the packet MTU and router MTU are the same packet is transmitted on the network. If MTUs didnt match, the router cannot transmit this packet and packet is dropped. I organized a new meeting on which I show the results. On the meeting it was clear that the problem router needs MTU reconfiguration. After the meeting Mr. Raymond (my manager) sent my results to the service provider (Viatel). After this we (me and Mr. Raymond) made conference call to the service provider. In this call I explained what the problem is and the solution to this problem. Viatel (the service provider) accept this and after few days the problem was solved. The quality of the calls to and from Ireland office was back to normal. This challenge shows me that in the future I need to pay attention to the small details (e.g. MTU values). I also get experience of dealing with service provider. I learned what document should be produced and sent to the service provider such as reports. Those reports should indicate the problem clearly and is used to prove that the fault if from the service provider side.

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6 Conclusion

This report presents the work placement that I undertook. The work placement was with company called CompanyYYYY. CompanyYYYY is one of the biggest stand alone travel agency in UK with 26 offices around the country. The report introduced further the company and the IT department where I was working. It also provides background to the work placement which can be beneficial to future students looking for placement. In this report evaluation of performed activities, skill and academic theory used during the placement was made. The evaluation shows that BSc Computer Networking degree from London Metropolitan University is compulsory for the success of the work placement. The success of the work placement is expressed also with the learning outcomes. Those outcomes were identified in the learning agreement form before the start of the placement. The report presents the achieved Learning outcomes during the placement. The report also identified the biggest challenge during my placement. Description of the challenge, solution and outcomes were provided within this report. The challenge and all skills and knowledge gained turn this work placement in total success. The work placement is very beneficial not only from career prospective but also from personal prospective. During the work placement I build up confidence in skills and knowledge which is one of my biggest achievements in this work placement. Im planning to use this confidence and everything achieved from this work experience to start and develop my career. The development of my career will follow three main steps. First step will be doing a master degree in Computer Networking area and possible PhD. The second step will be working for CompanyYYYY for 2-3 year. During this time Im planning to gain more experience. In the final step Im planning to build up my own company. The work placement for me was pleasant way of collaborating with network engineers and professionals. I enjoyed the meetings by expressing my ideas and results. I also enjoyed the supervision provided by London Metropolitan University. Mr. Jing and Ms. Nelson carried out the supervision session.
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Their professional advices and assistance before and during the supervision prove to me the high quality of London Metropolitan University modules. I want to recommend this short work placement module to all present and future students for a life time experience.

7 Appendix A: Photos of my work place and configured equipment

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Figure 7-2 Hardware device that I used to prioritize and compress voice traffic

I used this device to resolve the problem with heavy congested links. This device gives priority of the voice traffic over the other types of traffic in a link.

Figure 7-3 CompanyYYYY VoIP Servers, those servers are running Mitel server software

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Figure 7-4 Switch Tap that I use

Figure 6-4 shows the tap that I used for traffic capturing. I installed this device into CompanyYYYY network. This device redirects real-time voice traffic to my computer. This traffic was captured and analysed by me.
Figure 7-5 Device that I implement and configure for deep VoIP packet inspection

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Figure 7-6 Path View micro appliance

I configured and install this device. This device I used to measure different aspects of the monitored links such as latency, packet loss, etc. This device is Linux based and I used web browser to configure it.

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