UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS 2017
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN DATA
COMMUNICATIONS
MDC 6204: NETWORK SYSTEMS DESIGN & MANAGEMENT
DATE: DECEMBER, 2017 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question One & ANY OTHER TWO questions.
QUESTION ONE [20 MARKS]
a) A company has considered creating a network for their complex that has just been
completed. The building is composed of five floors including the ground floor. You have
been tasked to be the designer of this network which will later be connected to the rest of
the company network. It is assumed that you will base your design on Ethernet and all the
floors will be cabled. It is further assumed that each floor will have approximately 400
computers. On each floor, there will be administrative computers which must be
separated from the student computers.
(i) Describe four goals that are common to any network design. 4 Marks
(ii) What is the minimum number of wiring closets you would create for this
particular network? 1 Mark
(iii) Where would you place your MDF and why? 2 Marks
(iv) Assuming that the average UTP cable run for each computer is 50 metres. How
many reels of UTP cable would you require for wiring the whole building? Show your
working. 3 Marks
b. A wide variety of software and hardware tools are available to make troubleshooting
easier.
These tools may be used to gather and analyze symptoms of network problems and often
provide monitoring and reporting functions that can be used to establish the network
baseline. Explain any three of these tools 6
Marks
c. When planning the installation of LAN cabling, there are four physical areas to consider:
Work area, Telecommunications room, also known as the distribution facility, Backbone
cabling, also known as vertical cabling and Distribution cabling, also known as horizontal
cabling. Discuss.
QUESTION TWO [15 MARKS]
a) Describe the steps involved in WAN design. 3 Marks
b) Explain the procedure for creating a single user account with the Active Directory
Administrative Center in Windows Server 2012. 4 Marks
c) A security principal can receive permissions in many ways, and it is important for an
administrator to understand how these permissions interact. The combination of Allow
permissions and Deny permissions that a security principal receives for a given system
element, whether explicitly assigned, inherited, or received through a group membership,
is called the effective access for that element. Because a security principal can receive
permissions from so many sources, it is not unusual for those permissions to conflict.
Explain the rules that define how the permissions combine to form the effective access.
d) The convergence of the many different communication media onto a single network
platform is fueling exponential growth in network capabilities. There are three major trends that
are contributing to the future shape of complex information networks. Discuss. 3 Marks
e) Explain how you can ensure secure connectivity 2 Marks
QUESTION THREE [15 MARKS]
a) With the aid of a clearly labeled diagram, explain how the structured cabling is
implemented between the work areas and the equipment rooms (wiring closets).
b) Outline the steps for correcting application layer problems 4 Marks
c) Discuss the following concepts as used in hierarchical network designs:
(i) User community analysis 2 Marks
(ii) Data stores and data server analysis 2 Marks
d) Discuss the stages involved when gathering symptoms for a network problem.
QUESTION FOUR [15 MARKS]
Study the diagram below very carefully. By using VLSM, create the subnets and show where
they fit on the interfaces.
