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Chapter Three Contents

 Designing Basic Campus and Data Center Networks

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 Campus Network Design Considerations
 Designing an Enterprise Campus Network
 An enterprise campus network is a large-scale network infrastructure that
connects multiple buildings, departments, and users within an
organization's campus or corporate environment.
 It provides connectivity, communication, and access to various resources
and services across the enterprise.
 The following three characteristics should be considered when designing
the campus network:
1. Network application characteristics
2. Environmental characteristics
3. Infrastructure device characteristics
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 Network Application Characteristics
Different types of application communication result in varying network
demands.
The following sections review four types of application communication:
Peer-peer
Client–local server
Client–Server Farm
Client–Enterprise Edge server

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 Peer-Peer Applications
Peer-to-peer communication refers to a decentralized model where two or more devices directly
communicate with each other without relying on a central server.
From the network designer’s perspective, peer-peer applications include applications in which
the majority of network traffic passes from one network edge device to another through the
organization’s network.
 Typical peer-peer applications include the following:
Instant messaging: After the connection is established, the conversation is directly between two
peers.
 IP phone calls: Two peers establish communication with the help of an IP telephony manager;
however, the conversation occurs directly between the two peers when the connection is
established.
File sharing: Some operating systems and applications require direct access to data on other
workstations.
Videoconference systems: Videoconferencing is similar to IP telephony.
However, the network requirements are usually higher, particularly related to bandwidth
consumption and QoS.
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 Client–Local Server Applications…
 With increased traffic on the corporate network and a relatively fixed
location for users, an organization might split the network into several
isolated segments, as shown in Figure.
 Each of these segments has its own servers, known as local servers, for its
application

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 Client–Server Farm Applications
 To keep administrative costs down, the servers are located in a common
Server Farm, as shown in Figure.
 Client–Server Farm applications apply the 20/ 80 rule, where only 20 percent
of the traffic remains on the local LAN segment, and 80 percent leaves the
segment to reach centralized servers, the Internet, and so on.
 Such applications include the following:
 Organizational mail servers (such as Microsoft Exchange)
 Common file servers (such as Microsoft and Sun server)
 Common database servers for organizational applications (such as Oracle)

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Client–Server Farm Applications…

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 Client–Enterprise Edge Applications
 As shown in Figure, client–Enterprise Edge applications use servers on the
Enterprise Edge to exchange data between the organization and its public
servers.
 The most important issues between the Enterprise Campus network and the
Enterprise Edge are security and high availability

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 Environmental Characteristics
The campus environment, including the location of the network nodes, the distance between
the nodes, and the transmission media used, influences the network topology.
This section examines these considerations.
Network Geography Considerations
 The location of Enterprise Campus nodes and the distances between them determine the
network’s geography.
 Nodes, including end-user workstations and servers, can be located in one or multiple
buildings.
Based on the location of nodes and the distance between them, the network designer decides
which technology should interconnect them based on the required maximum speed, distance,
and so forth.
 Consider the following structures with respect to the network geography:
 Intrabuilding
 Interbuilding
 Distant remote building
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 Intra-building Structure
 An intrabuilding campus network structure provides connectivity for all end
nodes located in the same building and gives them access to the network
resources.
 The Building Access and Building Distribution layers are typically located in
the same building.
 Access layer switches usually connect to the Building Distribution switches
over optical fiber, providing better transmission performance and less sensitivity
to environmental disturbances than copper.
 Inter-building Structure
 An inter-building network structure provides connectivity between the
individual campus buildings’ central switches.
 These buildings are usually in close proximity, typically only a few hundred
meters to a few kilometers apart.

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 Distant Remote Building Structure
When connecting buildings at distances that exceed a few kilometers (but still
within a metropolitan area), the most important factor to consider is the
physical media.
The speed and cost of the network infrastructure depend heavily on the media
selection.
Distant remote building connectivity refers to network connections between
buildings that are located far apart, typically over longer distances.
It involves establishing network links between geographically dispersed sites,
such as branch offices, remote facilities, or data centers located in different
cities or regions.
Distant remote building connectivity often relies on wide area network
(WAN) technologies.

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 Enterprise Data Center
The Enterprise Data Center
 For large enterprises with a significant number of servers, a dedicated Enterprise Data
Center provides employees, partners, and customers with access to data and resources to
effectively work, collaborate, and interact.

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 Enterprise Data Center…
Here are some key components that an enterprise data center typically includes:
Building and Environment: The data center should have a secure and controlled
physical environment with appropriate temperature, humidity, and fire suppression
systems to ensure the safe operation of equipment.
Power and Cooling: Adequate power supply, backup generators, and uninterruptible
power supply (UPS) systems are essential to ensure constant availability.
Effective cooling mechanisms, such as air conditioning or liquid cooling systems, are
necessary to maintain optimal operating temperatures.
Server : The data center houses a multitude of servers, including rack-mounted servers,
blade servers, or modular servers, depending on the organization's requirements.
Compute Capacity: The data center must have sufficient compute capacity, including
processing power (CPUs), memory (RAM), and storage, to support the organization's
applications and workloads.
Storage: Data centers typically include storage systems such as network-attached
storage (NAS) devices, storage area network (SAN) devices, or solid-state drives
(SSDs) to store and manage large amounts of data.
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 Enterprise Data Center…
Data Redundancy: Implementing data redundancy mechanisms, such as RAID
(redundant array of independent disks), helps protect against data loss and ensures
data availability.
Security Measures: Data centers should have robust security measures in place,
including physical access controls, surveillance systems, intrusion detection, and
firewalls, to safeguard the infrastructure and data from unauthorized access or
threats.
Backup and Disaster Recovery: Regular data backups and disaster recovery
plans are crucial to protect against data loss and ensure business continuity in the
event of system failures or disasters.
Server Management Tools: Data centers employ server management software
and tools to administer, monitor, and control the servers, including tasks such as
provisioning, configuration, and performance monitoring.
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 Density and Scalability of Servers
The most common access layer in enterprises today is based on the modular
chassis Cisco Catalyst 6500 or 4500 Series switches.
This topology has also proven to be a very scalable method of building Server
Farms that provide high-density, high-speed uplinks and redundant power and
processors.
Although this approach has been very successful, it results in challenges when
used in Enterprise Data Center environments.
The typical Enterprise Data Center experiences high growth in the sheer
number of servers; at the same time, server density has been improved with
1RU and blade server solutions.
 Three particular challenges result from this trend:
Cable bulk: Typically, three to four interfaces are connected on a server.
With a higher density of servers per rack, cable routing and management can
become quite difficult.
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 Density and Scalability of Servers…
Power: The increased density of components in a rack is driving a need for a
larger power feed to the rack.
 Many data centers do not have the power capacity at the server rows to
support this increase.
Cooling: The number of cables lying under the raised floor and the cable bulk at
the cabinet base entry is blocking the airflow required to cool equipment in the
racks.
At the same time, the servers in the rack require more cooling volume because
of their higher density.
 These challenges have forced customers to find alternative solutions by
spacing cabinets, modifying cable routes, or other means, including not
deploying high-density server solutions.

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