A Local Area Network (LAN) at its simplest is comprised of two or more computers interconnected with cables and network operating software (NOS).

It gets your computers "talking" via cable interconnectivity. Maximizing computer resources and making files and applications easier to share are just some of the reasons for implementing a LAN. Whether you have two or 502 computer users creating documents and spreadsheets that they want to print, you don't need two or 502 printers.

You can share as few or as many printers over the LAN as you choose. The same is true for the applications that the computers use. Instead of buying 502 word processing applications, you can buy one or two copies with the appropriate number of licenses for each user and share the single copy of the application over the network. Many businesses, government offices, schools, colleges, and even some home computer users utilize local area networks to get the most out of their available resources.

Selecting the best LAN for a particular environment is a lot like choosing a car. You must determine the basic functions you need and then work your way down to the details. Let Mechatronic Technology guide you in your decision making process.

We offer computer networking services to corporations. The services include the following:

Network planning consists of the following steps:

Identifying the applications that you intend to use: Computer networking may be required diverse environments such as Enterprise Resource Management (ERM), Internet telephony, Instant Messaging (IM), eMail and others. It is important to discuss the applications that you intend to use such as the above. These in turn are used for estimating the software, hardware, and traffic requirements.

Traffic Requirements: Computing traffic requirements include several factors. A few point to consider are as follows:-

Scalability Requirements: Scalability refers to the extent of network growth that should be supported. For corporation, scalability is a major consideration. Provision must be made to add users, applications, additional sites, and external network connections.

Geographical considerations: Consider the LAN and WAN links that may be required. Offices that are separated by large distance can be linked together by a WAN (Wide Area Network) link. Similarly, building complexes with a compound can be linked by a LAN (Local Area Network) link.

Typically, the LAN links are high band width (100Mbps) and WAN links are of lower bandwidth (64 Kbps - 2Mbps). Further, the LANs fall within the premises of a Company whereas WANs are typically leased and maintained by the Telecom.

Hence, WANs are costly in bandwidth terms and need to be planned and designed with utmost care to minimize resource consumption.

Availability: The availability of a network need to be given careful consideration while designing a network. It is the amount of time a network is available to users over a period of time and is often a critical design parameter. 

Availability has direct relation with amount of redundancy required. Another important factor that needs to be considered when computing availability requirements is the business loss to the Company due to unavailability of the network for a given amount of time. A right balance needs to be arrived at such that the profitability is maintained.

Security and Accessibility: Security and accessibility are among the important design phase steps. A security plan needs to be devised that meets the required security specifications. You must specify:

Cost considerations: For LANs, the tendency is to minimize the equipment cost. That is minimizing the cable cost, minimizing the per port cost, and the labour cost. For WANs the primary goal is to maximize the usage of the bandwidth. This is because, the recurring costs for bandwidth are normally much higher than the equipment or labour cost. Therefore more weightage is given to reliable equipment, and efficient utilization of bandwidth.

Some factors that influence cost are:

Network security
needs to be defined preferably using a Security Policy. The security policy document is a comprehensive document covering areas of security preparation, prevention, and response. 
Security policy preparations: Security policy preparation include creating of usage policy statements, risk analysis, and security team formation. The risk analysis should identify the risks to your network resources including physical devices, and data. The classification of risks is done ( e.g. low risk components,  high risk components etc.) and appropriate security measures taken. Next step in security policy preparation is establishing the access levels such as super admin, admin, backup operator, user etc. By assigning appropriate resource access levels restricts access to critical resources only to authorized personnel. Firewalls, proxy servers, gateways, and email servers need to be given highest levels of security.
Security policy implementation: The security policy team is responsible for implementation of security provisions. The security provisions typically include the following:

Security Response: Should any security breach occurs, a response should be implemented by the security team. A security response consists of identifying the security violation, implementation of remedial action, review, and documentation. Typical steps include the following:

Restoration: Once the security violation is investigated and documented, restore the system according to the accepted restoration procedure.

Network implementation

This consist of the following below:-

Physical network design-

LAN design consists of selecting appropriate devices such as Hubs, Bridges, Switches, and Routers. Criteria for selecting LAN devices include the following:

Various WAN technologies are available for connecting enterprise resources. A few prominent technologies are given below:

The technology that suit an enterprise requirement depends on the bandwidth and QoS requirements, security requirements, and application requirements.

Remote Access requirements:

The companies are increasing becoming mobile. This demands remote access capability to its executives, customers and vendors. Devices are chosen taking into consideration the remote access requirements of the Company. Several technologies can be used for remote access including PPP, Multilink PPP, ISDN, or Cable Modem. Careful consideration to be given whether the software or WAN devices support authentication and authorization methods intended to be adopted by the Company. 

Testing, and Documentation:

Appropriate test methods be developed for thoroughly testing a campus or enterprise network. The test methods must include connectivity, accessibility, availability, and load testing. Documentation is to done with the help of network diagrams. Both logical and physical networks must be documented properly. Don't forget to take a network baselining for future reference and troubleshooting.
 
Wireless networking: 

Wireless LAN technology conforms to standard 802.11b increasingly being used as  main standard for corporate internal wireless LAN networks. The bandwidth of 802.11b is 11 Mbps and operates at 2.4 GHz Frequency.

The successor of this current 802.11b standard is 802.11a and it is designed to operate at faster speed and at a different frequency. Though 802.11a standard and the technology behind it has become available, 802.11b is still widely used today. Both 802.11b and 802.11a are compatible with each other and many companies deploying dual 802.11b and 802.11a devices.

Benefits of wireless networking:

Security Concerns:

Being a wireless network, a wireless LAN has a few security risk that need to be taken care of while designing the network. Typical security risks are categorized below:

Insertion Attacks- Process of placing unauthorized devices on the wireless network without going through a security process and review.

Interception and monitoring wireless traffic: An attacker can sniff and capture legitimate traffic. By encrypting the data this type of attack can be minimized.