Historical Background on designing network distribution systems

Networks are necessary for proper communication between entities located in different areas. Business networks are often referred to as enterprise networks because they were designed to connect several divisions or branches of a company or many separate firms. They are typically designed to share resources across a firm, whether it is a network-enabled printer or database/storage. This field of technology is responsible for the birth of the Internet as it answered to the need of human connectivity through the provision of a connection between different sections of an organization. Like many others in the electronics and computing world, this sector came into existence within the last half of the twentieth century.

The first attempt at networking two computers was made in the late 1950s by the American military, which has contributed significantly to its development to date. This was done in 1957 through the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE), a military radar system (Anthony). It was a network connecting computers over the radar system in 20 different locations. This project is responsible for the massive explosion in the interest to interconnect various institutional computers, either for defense or otherwise. In 1960, two mainframes were successfully connected to be used for the commercial airline reservations. Afterwards, the struggle to interconnect computers over a distance was taken up by numerous companies from the Western world. Some of the notable names include Xerox Corporation, Bell Labs, and General Electric. Researchers from technology institutions such as Dartmouth College and Massachusetts were also involved in the development of the networks for the military and corporates. For instance, the former created the Dartmouth Time Sharing System, a feature that is still in use to date. The latter came up with a computer system that could manage telephone connections, in collaboration with the Bell Labs and General Electric. The idea of packet exchange, which is fundamental to the networking world, was first conceptualized by Paul Baran, Leonard Kleinrock, and Donald Davies in 1965 (Constable and Somerville 147). It was later used in the implementation of the ARPANET’s TCP/IP network (Roberts). These two technologies power all networking communication today.

TCP/IP architecture created by DARPA has become one of the most popular networking protocols, considering the fact that it serves as the backbone of any connections between two computers. Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf are referred to as ‘the fathers of the Internet’ thanks to their efforts in designing this protocol, based on the packets model (Miller 4). At this time, the Use of computer networks was restricted to the government, scientific organizations, and the military. Thomas Marill and Lawrence Roberts brought it closer to businesses in 1965 through their design of the first Wide Area Network (WAN). It was implemented in 1969 connecting four universities across the United States: University of California at Los Angeles, University of Utah, University of California at Santa Barbara, and the Stanford Research Institute, which marked the initiation of ARPANET, operating at 50kbits/s (Arabo 14).

The Wide Area Network describes the distribution of a network across a large region, which may span a town, country, or the world. It is usually implemented as a network connecting other smaller networks to each other. It has been used across the world in numerous forms. Some common examples of the use of this technology include the ATM, DSL, Cable modem, SONET, and the ISDN, among many others. It is usually built as a private network for corporate institutions. In order for it to function as the backbone of communication within the organizational structure and branches, it utilizes various protocols and technologies, such as the Packet over SONET/SDH, ATM, MPLS, and the Frame Relay.

2.2. Concepts Significant to the questions of the research on designing and implementing enterprises’ network distribution systems.

Certain considerations have to be met with regards to the implementation of the enterprise network distribution systems. These variables are important as they determine the functionality and cost of the whole system. For instance, a network needed for carrying of video and audio in addition to synchronous and asynchronous data will have different requirements from that which is meant for the transportation of text messages only. Also, the period of implementation is crucial. Some of the important considerations, according to Paul Kirvan, include: size of staff, local and remote access requirements, existing applications, network equipment available, and client equipment (Kirvan). These things will enable a designer to determine the latency, packet loss and the ability of retransmission, and throughput of the network. Also, security, network scalability, redundancy, and disaster recovery requirements are vital to ensuring network confidentiality, availability, and integrity (Weedmark).

2.3. Recent Practical Literature Significant to the questions of the research on designing and implementing enterprises’ network distribution systems.

The world is becoming smaller every day as technology continues to advance. This means that more companies will have an easier access to an international market than it was before. It translates to the fact that a shared network will be required across the offices of these companies that choose to spread geographically. Security, availability, scalability, and confidentiality are an important consideration in the designs to be implemented in future. This research will help in coming up with new ways to ensure that lightweight networks with advanced capabilities are made available.

2.4. Conceptual framework on designing and implementing enterprises’ network distribution systems.

The rate of development in the technology world as well as the falling costs have pushed businesses to approach the international markets, seeking to extend their boundaries. The cost of Internet and infrastructure has also gone down. However, security threats have increased against small company networks as they are perceived to have weaker security protocols (Smith). The design of a strong network is based on certain parameters which must be balanced to ensure stability of application versus cost of implementation. The most crucial factors to consider include the following:

Number of stations: these are the company’s branches or departments to be connected onto the distributed network. It is important as it will determine the suitable network topology to be selected at the least cost.

Number of Employees: This variable stands for the current number of staff members of the company as well as the estimated projection of future employees. It is a crucial factor as it helps to determine the scalability of the network. It also dictates the size of the company, and whether a costly connection is worthy.

Equipment availability: This factor is important as it will determine the effectiveness of the distributed network. Also, it will dictate the level of security implementable on the network.

The three parameters are interdependent. They affect each other mutually. Therefore, a clear balance should be set to ensure that a network obeys the CIA triad.

Works Cited

Anthony, Sebastian. 28 March 2013. Web. 22 February 2017. .

Arabo, Abdullahi. User-Centred and Context-Aware Identity Management in Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013. Print.

Constable, George and Bob Somerville. A Century of Innovation: Twenty Engineering Achievements that Transformed Our Lives. Joseph Henry Press, 2003. Print.

Kirvan, Paul F. Best practices for WAN design and capacity planning. March 2009. Web. 22 February 2017. .

Miller, Philip. TCP/IP: The Ultimate Protocol Guide, Volume 1. Universal-Publishers, 2009. Print.

Roberts, Larry. Lawrence Roberts Manages The ARPANET Program. 3 June 1968. Web. 22 February 2017. .

Smith, Mark. Huge rise in hack attacks as cyber-criminals target small businesses. 8 February 2016. Web. 22 February 2017. .

Weedmark, David. Five Things to Be Considered in Designing a Network. 2017. Web. 22 February 2017. .