Top-Down Network Design
Chapter Three
Characterizing the Existing Internetwork
Copyright 2004 Cisco Press & Priscilla Oppenheimer
Where Are We?
• Characterize the exiting internetwork in
terms of:
– Its infrastructure
• Logical structure (modularity, hierarchy, topology)
• Physical structure
– Addressing and naming
– Wiring and media
Get a Network Map
Medford Roseburg
Fast Ethernet Fast Ethernet
50 users 30 users
Frame Relay Frame Relay
CIR = 56 Kbps CIR = 56 Kbps
DLCI = 5 DLCI = 4
Gigabit Grants Pass
HQ
Ethernet 16 Mbps
Grants Pass Token Ring
HQ
Fast Ethernet
75 users
FEP
(Front End
Processor)
IBM
Mainframe
T1
Web/FTP server
Eugene
Ethernet T1 Internet
20 users
Characterize Addressing and
Naming
• IP addressing for major devices, client
networks, server networks, and so on
• Any addressing oddities, such as
discontiguous subnets?
• Any strategies for addressing and naming?
– For example, sites may be named using airport
codes
• San Francisco = SFO, Oakland = OAK
Discontiguous Subnets
Area 0
Network
[Link]
Router A Router B
Area 1 Area 2
Subnets [Link] - Subnets [Link] -
[Link] [Link]
Characterize the Wiring and
• Single-mode fiber
Media
• Multi-mode fiber
• Shielded twisted pair (STP) copper
• Unshielded-twisted-pair (UTP) copper
• Coaxial cable
• Microwave
• Laser
• Radio
• Infra-red
Campus Network Wiring
Horizontal Work-Area
Wiring Wiring
Wallplate
Telecommunications
Wiring Closet
Vertical
Wiring
(Building
Backbone)
Main Cross-Connect Room Intermediate Cross-Connect Room
(or Main Distribution Frame) (or Intermediate Distribution Frame)
Campus
Building A - Headquarters Backbone Building B
Architectural Constraints
• Make sure the following are sufficient
– Air conditioning
– Heating
– Ventilation
– Power
– Protection from electromagnetic interference
– Doors that can lock
Architectural Constraints
• Make sure there’s space for:
– Cabling conduits
– Patch panels
– Equipment racks
– Work areas for technicians installing and
troubleshooting equipment
Issues for Wireless Installations
• Reflection
• Absorption
• Refraction
• Diffraction
Check the Health of the Existing
Internetwork
• Performance
• Availability
• Bandwidth utilization
• Accuracy
• Efficiency
• Response time
• Status of major routers, switches, and firewalls
Characterize Availability
Date and Duration of Cause of Last
MTBF MTTR Last Major Major
Downtime Downtime
Enterprise
Segment 1
Segment 2
Segment n
Network Utilization in Minute
Intervals
Network Utilization
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
Time
[Link] Series1
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Utilization
Network Utilization in Hour
Intervals
Network Utilization
[Link]
[Link]
Time
[Link] Series1
[Link]
[Link]
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
Utilization
Bandwidth Utilization by
Protocol
Relative Absolute Multicast
Broadcast
Network Network Rate
Rate
Utilization Utilization
Protocol 1
Protocol 2
Protocol 3
Protocol n
Characterize Packet Sizes
Characterize Response Time
Node A Node B Node C Node D
X
Node A
X
Node B
Node C X
Node D X
Check the Status of Major
Routers, Switches, and Firewalls
• show buffers
• show environment
• show interfaces
• show memory
• show processes
• show running-config
• show version
Tools
• Protocol analyzers
• Multi Router Traffic Grapher (MRTG)
• Remote monitoring (RMON) probes
• Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP)
• Cisco IOS NetFlow technology
• CiscoWorks
• Cisco IOS Service Assurance Agent (SAA)
• Cisco Internetwork Performance Monitor (IPM)
Summary
• Characterize the exiting internetwork before
designing enhancements
• Helps you verify that a customer’s design goals
are realistic
• Helps you locate where new equipment will go
• Helps you cover yourself if the new network
has problems due to unresolved problems in the
old network
