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Huffman Trucking Network

Network topology refers to the shape of a network, or the network's layout. How different nodes in a network are connected to each other and how they communicate is determined by the network's topology. Topologies are either physical or logical. Physical topology refers to the cables and physical equipment required for the network. Logical topology refers to the path data travels between computers. The five most common topologies include the following: Star, Bus, Mesh, Ring, and the Tree topology.
Huffman trucking has four different locations with problems in their networks. They are running old versions of Windows and using outdated means of communication. The California location is currently on a Bus network topology. The office internet connection is through AOL and the plant is using a frame relay connection. They are running Windows 98 with CAT 3 cabling. The California office has a 28.8 modem, PBX telephone system with no voice mail or call waiting and a stand alone web server.
There are many different updates that need to be made to make Huffman Trucking operate more efficiently. The Bus topology will remain intact, but the AOL connection and the frame relay will be replaced with full T-1 lines. A T-1 line is a dedicated phone connection supporting data rates of 1.544Mbits per second. A T-1 line actually consists of 24 individual channels, each of which supports 64Kbits per second. Each 64Kbit/second channel can be configured to carry voice or data traffic. There will also be the introduction of switches which will be covered later in the paper. California will also have their cabling updated to CAT-5 and have their fax machines networked to the other three locations.
At all locations other updates will include updating all computers to Windows XP, initializing a centralized e-mail service which would be routed through the exchange server located in Ohio. GroupWise by Novell will be the software of choice. GroupWise have many...