LECTURE 5: NETWORK SYSTEMS DESIGN METHODOLOGY

Designing a network is as complicated or as simple as the architect desires it to be. There are
multiple methods for network design, ranging from “Get it Done!” to “The Equipment’s Here!”
to a planned and defined approach using established methods and models.

There are schools of design for architecture (buildings), clothing, furniture, and interiors, but
there is not an established school for telecommunications or network design. Electronic and
electrical engineering programs generally include a class or sequence of classes in economics for
engineers and, of course, basic efficiency design for performance. These two subjects seek to
provide the engineer with an understanding of costs and market, but neither subject defines a
structure for designing complex networks and systems.

The telecommunications and network designer/architect is clearly competent in determining the

best technical solution for a problem, but may miss the non-engineering applications and needs.

5.2 Specific Objectives

At the end of the lesson you should be able to;
 Explain the network systems design goals.
 Explain LAN Design considerations
 Identify and explain the benefits of network system designs.
 Describe the different network design models/topologies.
 Explain the benefits of the three-tier network design architecture.

5.3 Lecture Outline

5.3.1 Introduction
5.3.2 Benefits of Structured Network Design Methodology
5.3.3 Network Systems Design Methodology
5.3.3.1 Benefits of PPDIOO
5.4 Lecture Activities
5.5 Self-test Questions
5.6 Summary

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5.3.1 Introduction
Network planning and design is an iterative process, encompassing topological design, network-
synthesis, and network-realization, and is aimed at ensuring that a new telecommunications
network or service meets the needs of the subscriber and operator.The process can be tailored
according to each new network or service.

A traditional network planning methodology involves five layers of planning, namely: business
planning, long-term and medium-term network planning, short-term network planning, IT asset
sourcing, operations and maintenance.

Each of these layers incorporates plans for different time horizons, i.e. the business planning
layer determines the planning that the operator must perform to ensure that the network will
perform as required for its intended life-span. The Operations and Maintenance layer, however,
examines how the network will run on a day-to-day basis.

The network planning process begins with the acquisition of external information. This includes:
forecasts of how the new network/service will operate; the economic information concerning
costs; and the technical details of the network’s capabilities. Planning a new network/service
involves implementing the new system across the first four layers of the OSI Reference Model.
Choices must be made for the protocols and transmission technologies.
Network planning process involves three main steps:
Topological design: This stage involves determining where to place the components and how to
connect them. The (topological) optimisation methods that can be used in this stage come from
an area of mathematics called Graph Theory. These methods involve determining the costs of
transmission and the cost of switching, and thereby determining the optimum connection matrix
and location of switches and concentrators.
Network-synthesis: This stage involves determining the size of the components used, subject to
performance criteria such as the Grade of Service (GOS). The method used is known as
"Nonlinear Optimisation", and involves determining the topology, required GoS, cost of
transmission, etc., and using this information to calculate a routing plan, and the size of the
components.
Network realization: This stage involves determining how to meet capacity requirements, and
ensure reliability within the network. The method used is known as "Multicommodity Flow
Optimisation", and involves determining all information relating to demand, costs and reliability,
and then using this information to calculate an actual physical circuit plan.

5.3.2 Benefits of Structured Network Design Methodology

A structured approach towards network design has the following benefits:

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  Functionality: Supports the organizational requirements.
 Scalability: Supports growth and expansion of organizational tasks by separating
functions and products into layers; this separation makes it easier to grow the network.
 Availability: Provides the necessary services, reliably, anywhere, anytime.
 Performance: Provides the desired responsiveness, throughput, and utilization on a per
application basis through the network infrastructure and services.
 Manageability: Provides control, performance monitoring, and fault detection.
 Efficiency: Provides the required network services and infrastructure with reasonable
operational costs and appropriate capital investment on a migration path to a more
intelligent network, through step-by-step network services growth.
 Security: Provides for an effective balance between usability and security while
protecting information assets and infrastructure from inside and outside threats.

5.3.3 Network Systems Design Methodology

Methodology is a documented, systematic way of doing something. Following a methodology is
designing a network is important because:
 It ensures that no step is missed when the process is followed.
 It provides a framework for the design process deliverables.
 It encourages consistency in the creative process, enabling network designers to set
appropriate deadlines and maintain customer and manager satisfaction.
 It allows customers and managers to validate that the designers have thought about how
to meet their requirements.

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The methodology (PPDIOO) presents the following stages/steps/phases:

Prepare: Involves establishing the organizational requirements, developing a network strategy,

and proposing a high-level conceptual architecture identifying technologies that can best support
the architecture. The prepare phase can establish a financial justification for network strategy by
assessing the business case for the proposed architecture.

The Prepare phase establishes organization and business requirements, develops a network
strategy, and proposes a high-level conceptual architecture to support the strategy. Technologies
that support the architecture are identified. This phase creates a business case to establish a
financial justification for a network strategy.

Plan: The Plan phase identifies the network requirements based on goals, facilities, and user
needs. This phase characterizes sites and assesses the network, performs a gap analysis against
best-practice architectures, and looks at the operational environment. A project plan is developed
to manage the tasks, responsible parties, milestones, and resources to do the design and
implementation. The project plan aligns with the scope, cost, and resource parameters established
with the original business requirements. This project plan is followed (and updated) during all
phases of the cycle.

It Involves identifying initial network requirements based on goals, facilities, user needs, and so
on. The plan phase involves characterizing sites and assessing any existing networks and
performing a gap analysis to determine whether the existing system infrastructure, sites, and the
operational environment can support the proposed system. A project plan is useful for helping
manage the tasks, responsibilities, critical milestones, and resources required to implement
changes to the network. The project plan should align with the scope, cost, and resource
parameters established in the original business requirements.

Design: The network design is developed based on the technical and business requirements
obtained from the previous phases. The network design specification is a comprehensive detailed
design that meets current business and technical requirements. It provides high availability,
reliability, security, scalability, and performance. The design includes network diagrams and an
equipment list. The project plan is updated with more granular information for implementation.
After the Design phase is approved, the Implement phase begins.

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The initial requirements that were derived in the planning phase drive the activities of the
network design specialists. The network design specification is a comprehensive detailed design
that meets current business and technical requirements, and incorporates specifications to support
availability, reliability, security, scalability, and performance. The design specification is the
basis for the implementation activities.

Implement: New equipment is installed and configured, according to design specifications, in

the Implement phase. New devices replace or augment the existing infrastructure. The project
plan is followed during this phase. Planned network changes should be communicated in change
control meetings, with necessary approvals to proceed. Each step in the implementation should
includes a description, detailed implementation guidelines, estimated time to implement, rollback
steps in case of a failure, and any additional reference information. As changes are implemented
they are also tested before moving to the Operate phase.

The network is built or additional components are incorporated according to the design
specifications, with the goal of integrating devices without disrupting the existing network or
creating points of vulnerability.

Operate: The Operate phase maintains the network’s day-to-day operational health. Operations
include managing and monitoring network components, routing maintenance, managing
upgrades, managing performance, and identifying and correcting network faults. This phase is
the design’s final test. During operation, network management stations should monitor the
network’s general health and generate traps when certain thresholds are reached. Fault detection,
correction, and performance monitoring events provide initial data for the optimize phase.

Operation is the final test of the appropriateness of the design. The operational phase involves
maintaining network health through day-to-day operations, including maintaining high
availability and reducing expenses. The fault detection, correction, and performance monitoring
that occur in daily operations provide the initial data for the optimization phase.

Optimize: The Optimize phase involves proactive network management by identifying and
resolving issues before they affect the network. The Optimize phase may create a modified
network design if too many network problems arise, to improve performance issues, or to resolve
application issues. The requirement for a modified network design leads to the network life cycle
beginning.

It Involves proactive management of the network. The goal of proactive management is to

identify and resolve issues before they affect the organization. Reactive fault detection and
correction (troubleshooting) is needed when proactive management cannot predict and mitigate
failures. In the PPDIOO process, the optimization phase can prompt a network redesign if too

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many network problems and errors arise, if performance does not meet expectations, or if new
applications are identified to support organizational and technical requirements.

At this point, it is worth mentioning that the PPDIOO is a structured network design
methodology that was developed by CISCO to facilitate the design of enterprise networks.

5.3.3.1 Benefits of PPDIOO

The structured network design approach provides several key benefits aside from keeping the
design process organized. The main documented reasons for applying a methodical approach to
network design are as follows:
 Lowering the total cost of network ownership
 Increasing network availability
 Improving business agility
 Speeding access to applications and services

The total cost of network ownership is especially important into today's business climate. Lower
costs associated with IT expenses are being aggressively assessed by enterprise executives.

Nevertheless, a proper network lifecycle approach aids in lowering costs by these actions:
 Identifying and validating technology requirements
 Planning for infrastructure changes and resource requirements
 Developing a sound network design aligned with technical requirements and business
goals
 Accelerating successful implementation
 Improving the efficiency of your network and of the staff supporting it
 Reducing operating expenses by improving the efficiency of operational processes and
tools

Network availability has always been a top priority of enterprises. However, network downtime
can result in a loss of revenue. Examples of where downtime could cause loss of revenue is with
network outages that prevent market trading during a surprise interest rate cut or the inability to
process credit card transactions on black Friday, the shopping day following Thanksgiving.

The network lifecycle improves high availability of networks by these actions:

 Assessing the network's security state and its capability to support the proposed design
 Specifying the correct set of hardware and software releases, and keeping them
operational and current
 Producing a sound operations design and validating network operations
 Staging and testing the proposed system before deployment
 Improving staff skills

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  Proactively monitoring the system and assessing availability trends and alerts
 Proactively identifying security breaches and defining remediation plans

Enterprises need to react quickly to changes in the economy. Enterprises that execute quickly
gain competitive advantages over other businesses. Nevertheless, the network lifecycle gains
business agility by the following actions:
 Establishing business requirements and technology strategies
 Readying sites to support the system that you want to implement
 Integrating technical requirements and business goals into a detailed design and
demonstrating that the network is functioning as specified
 Expertly installing, configuring, and integrating system components
 Continually enhancing performance
Accessibility to network applications and services is critical to a productive environment. As
such, the network lifecycle accelerates access to network applications and services by the
following actions:
 Assessing and improving operational preparedness to support current and planned
network technologies and services
 Improving service-delivery efficiency and effectiveness by increasing availability,
resource capacity, and performance
 Improving the availability, reliability, and stability of the network and the applications
running on it
 Managing and resolving problems affecting your system and keeping software
applications current

PPDIOO is a methodology developed by CISCO and seems to have been received by the IT
industry and many network designers are now using it in their day-to-day process of designing
and implementing network systems.

5.4 Lecture Activities

 Go on a fact -finding mission and get information from the Network
Administrator/Engineer of your company/organization. Try to find out the
following:
 Was the network planned for or it was implemented on a need-basis?
 Was any methodology used in the design of the network?
 As you relate to the last lecture, did the methodology follow a hierarchical
approach?

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 5.5 Self –Test Questions
 List and briefly explain the benefits of structured network design methodology.
 What are the phases of the PPDIOO?
 In your own opinion, why do Network Designers sometimes find it challenging to
design network systems using the structured network design methodology?

5.6 Summary
In this lesson we have learned:
 A structured Network systems design methodology.
 The phases of a structured network design methodology e.g. PPDIOO.
 The benefits of PPDIOO.

5.7 Suggestion for Further Reading

The learner can read further by visiting the link provided below and reading the
literature presented:
http://www.ciscopress.com/articles/article.asp?p=1608131&seqNum=3