Network Convergence and Improved Network Infrastructure

Discuss about the Performance Assessment and Analysis of DNS.

The report is presented to discuss the various important aspects of telecommunications and networks considering the case study of the business organization Cookie Company in Australia. The company has managed online business activities properly, though it is seen that due to slow network connection and inappropriate and disturbed voice calls resulting from the network related issues, there have been misunderstanding between the staffs and customers. To enhance the experiences of customers and ensure that they are satisfied, it is important to manage consultation with the technical experts and business partners to improve the existing IT infrastructure and fulfill the needs and requirements of the business. The networking is a major component that can not only enhance the customers’ services efficiency but will also ensure that the company manages proper business growth and expansion by enabling proper network connectivity and maintaining communication between the various departments and staffs at Cookie Co (Aiello, Merlo and Papaleo 2012).

Network convergence allows for utilization of telephone, video and data communication and combines those to create a good network connection. Multiple modes of communication can be utilized to offer better network flexibility and improve the network infrastructure with ease and effectiveness.  The network convergence, also known as the media convergence can include sending text messages, explore various websites, manage transmission of voice and multimedia over the internet protocol networks. This would also enable video conferencing and manage conversations between the business and customers face to face through the use of web camera (Bezruk et al. 2012). E-commerce would help in buying and selling of products and services online by using the internet and ensure that the quality of network services is improved largely.

Unified communications help in integrating the communication in the business including messaging, voice over internet protocol, manage audio and video conferencing, enable desktop sharing along with speech recognition and call control with the non real time communication services. The unified communication could make Cooke Co. improve the network interface and even the user experience across multiple devices and media types. It uses various forms of mobile utility applications and enhances the efficiency of platforms for ensuring proper communication between the business and its customers with ease and effectiveness (Ims 2012). 

A local area network or LAN enables connecting a group of computer systems by sharing a common wireless link such as a router to the server. This can help in managing commercial business online as well as share resources like a printer or network storage with ease. A LAN setup includes multiple users who remain interconnected with each other via switches and routers to connect users to the internal servers. The use of Ethernet and Wi-Fi is essential for Cookie Co. to manage the LAN connection.  One such kind of LAN is the WAN, which can be installed at the head office to connect all the departments and reduce the level of broadcast that may span the entire network through the implementation of multiple routers. The network routers have better functionality than the switches and can manage the network traffic as well as preserve the bandwidth for various applications (Kermajani and Gomez 2014). Metropolitan area network could also be used to provide a wider range of network connectivity and use higher speed technologies at a lesser price when compared to the other WAN technologies. 

Unified Communications for Integrated Communication

The LAN is used for enabling network connection by using internet within a lower range and so it is used at the branches of Cookie Co. The use of Ethernet will help in connecting multiple computer systems and make sure that network connection is established properly to manage the business activities online. A cabling plan will consist of various subsystems and connect the computers systems by using servers, routers, switches, security systems and by using telecom equipment and phone systems as well (Kuhlenkamp, Klems and Röss 2014). The backbone cabling can be used at the head office while the horizontal cabling will be used at the branches. LAN is used by using coaxial cables and even shielded twisted pair is used in the token ring of Cooke Co. for implementing LAN using Cat3 cable.

A wide area network is a telecommunications network that covers a large geographical area to establish a network by using various telecommunication circuits. The Internet is considered as WAN and can help in establishing various modes of communication and network facilities over a long distance. The Asynchronous transfer mode or ATM can make Cookie Co. manage good data traffic and has been based on the use of internet protocol at the head office (Mahalingam et al. 2014).

The cable modem is another LAN type that can act as a network bridge to manage communication of data, information, and messages by using the radio frequency channels present on the radio frequency and hybrid fiber-coaxial infrastructures. It delivers improved broadband internet access and can help the company to overcome the low-speed network connection and even gain benefits of the HFC and RFoG networks. This is suitable and can be used at the branches (Ostapenko et al. 2013).

For enabling transmission media, it is important to develop a network by connecting various people, devices and computer systems. The media types include a copper cable that includes unshielded twisted pair and coaxial cable, wireless media including radio frequencies, infrared, microwave and fiber optics. The fiber optics deliver great bandwidth and can prevent security issues as well as deliver an improved level of security.

DNS enables proper communication through the use of internet and uses the computer systems rather than using the IP addresses. The IPAM integrates both DNS and DHCP to bring necessary changes in the IP address and improve the functionalities of a network including better aggregation of data and troubleshooting activities (Ross 2012). The  DNS management could help in reducing the human errors and prevent repetitive and complex data by deploying those on multiple physical servers. This would enhance the efficiency of the network connection established and allow Cookie Co. to improve its network stability.

LAN and WAN for Better Networking

VoIP – One of the most effective networked services is the voice over internet protocol or VoIP, which can allow the organization to interact with customers and other businesses by making calls with the use of broadband internet rather than using any telephonic system. It can save the cost of using a mobile phone, manages better portability and internet accessibility along with better flexibility. In case any phone calls come, then the signals can be converted into digital data and can be routed over the internet (Sansò and Soriano 2012).

Extranet – It is a kind of intranet, which is a controlled private network to allow the business gain accessibility to its business partners and customers, suppliers and other stakeholders with ease. It can allow the business organization to transfer or exchange information over the internet with ease and effectiveness.

Intranet –An intranet is a private and closed network that consists of various LANs interconnected with each other along with use of leased lines in the WAN. It can create connections through the use of multiple gateway computer systems to the internet (Sinnreich and Johnston 2012).

Email – Email or electronic mail allows for transfer or exchange of data, information and messages from one person to another by use of internet. It is fast, reliable and can even make the company send its brand-related messages to its customers by emails. This could not only allow the head and brand offices to remain connected and know about the business operations but would also create good relationships with the customers (Wang et al. 2013).

The storage area network or SAN enables consolidated, block level data storage facilities by utilising disk arrays, tape libraries and even by managing accessibility to the servers to make the device for storage act as a locally attached system. The cost and complexity, both have reduced largely due to utilization in higher numbers across the small and medium sized organizations.

Cloud storage helps in storing the digital data in pools and the physical storage is managed by multiple servers that are set up by the organization. The cloud storage facilitates the accessibility and availability of data and information, thereby keeping the physical environment protected and functional as well (Wang et al. 2015). Cloud storage offers better flexibility and ease of storing, accessing and managing data and information with ease and effectiveness.

The distributed database can be beneficial for the company too for storing various portions of the database in multiple physical locations while the processing of data is distributed among multiple nodes of the database.

Different Types of LAN and WAN

P2P – The data stored in databases are integrated and used for various purposes afterwards. The peer to peer data processing could deliver better flexibility, scalability and manage the corporate network applications and provide best data sharing and exchange services with ease. This is useful because the customer related data and information are processed and can be used to assess the needs and requirements if the customers and deliver services accordingly (Bezruk et al. 2012). Other information and data are processed to ensure that the company maintains a good brand image and attract as many customers as it can, furthermore improving the sales revenue and gaining competitive advantage in business for Cookie Co (Ims 2012).

Conclusion

The main focus was done on the business executives who have limited ICT knowledge, so that they could know how the networking solutions would be beneficial for the business and improve the customers’ services, therefore ensuring satisfaction of customers and improving the network infrastructure as well. Various telecommunications and networking technologies had been used for gaining business benefits and furthermore improve the infrastructure of the organization effectively. The LAN was used in branch office whereas WAN was used at the head office. The IP and DNS management was done to prevent human errors and this helped the company to manage the networked services by using VoIP, intranet, extranet and email. The storage of company and customer data was managed through the use of Cloud storage and SAN while the processing of data with the use of P2P had helped in gaining accessibility to relevant data, use those to improve the business operations’ efficiency and improve the level of satisfaction of customers.

• Use of firewall is recommended for proving better network security and even protects the database against any threats.
• The database should be checked properly to prevent any data redundancy
• It is recommended to make sure that the Ethernet cables, coaxial cables, and fiber optics are arranged properly to keep the flow of network secured and function properly.
• The external hard drive connected to the router must be protected by a password so that any unauthorized access is prevented.

References

Aiello, M., Merlo, A. and Papaleo, G., 2012. Performance assessment and analysis of DNS tunneling tools. Logic Journal of IGPL, 21(4), pp.592-602.

Bezruk, V., Bukhanko, A., Chebotaryova, D. and Varich, V., 2012. Multicriteria optimization in telecommunication networks planning, designing and controlling. In Telecommunications Networks-Current Status and Future Trends. InTech.

Ims, L.A., 2012. Broadband access networks: introduction strategies and techno-economic evaluation. Springer Science & Business Media.

Kermajani, H. and Gomez, C., 2014. On the network convergence process in RPL over IEEE 802.15. 4 multihop networks: Improvement and trade-offs. Sensors, 14(7), pp.11993-12022.

Kuhlenkamp, J., Klems, M. and Röss, O., 2014. Benchmarking scalability and elasticity of distributed database systems. Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment, 7(12), pp.1219-1230.

Mahalingam, M., Dutt, D., Duda, K., Agarwal, P., Kreeger, L., Sridhar, T., Bursell, M. and Wright, C., 2014. Virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN): A framework for overlaying virtualized layer 2 networks over layer 3 networks (No. RFC 7348).

Ostapenko, E.G., Kulikov, S.S., Tolstykh, N.N., Pasternak, Y.G. and Popova, L.G., 2013. Denial of service in components of information telecommunication systems through the example of “network storm” attacks.

Ross, K.W., 2012. Multiservice loss models for broadband telecommunication networks. Springer Science & Business Media.

Sansò, B. and Soriano, P. eds., 2012. Telecommunications network planning. Springer Science & Business Media.

Sinnreich, H. and Johnston, A.B., 2012. Internet communications using SIP: Delivering VoIP and multimedia services with Session Initiation Protocol (Vol. 27). John Wiley & Sons.

Wang, C., Chow, S.S., Wang, Q., Ren, K. and Lou, W., 2013. Privacy-preserving public auditing for secure cloud storage. IEEE transactions on computers, 62(2), pp.362-375.

Wang, Y., Chi, N., Wang, Y., Tao, L. and Shi, J., 2015. Network architecture of a high-speed visible light communication local area network. IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 27(2), pp.197-200.