The Riordan Manufacturing Plant

Introduction:

The Riordan Manufacturing Plant network at Albany, GA consists of a total of 20 Compaq Presario client computers. Out of these, 8 computers have 233 MHz processors, and 64 Megabytes of Random Access Memory. The next 7 Compaq Presario computers have 450 MHz processors and 128 Megabytes of Random Access Memory. And finally, the remaining Compaq Presario computers have 600 MHz processors and 256 Megabytes of Random Access Memory. The network has two Compaq Proliant servers. Both of these have Pentium III 800 MHz processors, and 512 Megabytes of Random Access Memory. Both servers run the Microsoft Windows NT operating system. One server is used for file and printer services and the other is used for exchange. We also noted two Hewlett Packard servers running their version of UNIX referred to as HP-UX. One server is used for ERP and the other is used for MRP II. The rest of the network includes one Kentrox Datasmart 658 DSU/CSU, one Cisco router, three Nortel Baystack 450-24T Ethernet switches, and one 48 port patch switch. There are also two Hewlett Packard Laserjet V printers, one Universal Power Supply, and hardware for one Fractional T1 Line.

The most important network protocol, in use at the Albany plant, is TCP/IP. TCP/IP is not just a single protocol but an entire suite of related protocols: HTTP, FTP, Telnet, SMTP, DNS, and SNMP, etc. TCP/IP supports all these protocols at the Application layer of the TCP/IP layers (Wikipedia, 2006) which corresponds to the Application, Presentation and Session layers of the OSI model. The TCP/IP protocol is a combination of two protocols namely, TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and IP (Internet Protocol). TCP is a connection-oriented Transport layer protocol that establishes a connection to the network before the data is sent to another computer on the network. The main purpose of the Transport layer is to ensure that the data packets are transported reliably and without errors over the network. The IP provides logical addressing and routing functions at the Network layer. The IP protocol uses logical IP addresses to refer to individual devices rather than physical (MAC) addresses. A protocol called ARP (for Address Resolution Protocol) handles the task of converting IP addresses to MAC addresses. Because IP addresses consist of a network part and a host part, IP is a routable protocol. As a result, IP can forward a packet to another network even if the host is not on the current network. Another part of TCP/IP protocol suite is UDP (User Datagram Protocol). UDP is used to broadcast messages to multiple network devices/clients simultaneously and feature not provided by TCP as it is a one-to-one connection with another network device.

The rationale for using TCP/IP protocol is quite natural. TCP/IP is the most popular protocol for networking. It is even older than the Ethernet. Moreover, the internet is based on the TCP/IP protocol too. TCP/IP can work over a number of different Network Interface layer protocols including the Ethernet and since the Ethernet is used for interfacing the network devices at Riordan Manufacturing Plant, TCP/IP is definitely the best choice.

Advantages of TCP/IP:

TCP/IP can be used for both LAN and WAN connectivity (Topology, 2006).

TCP/IP provides a rich set of services and utilities for the Windows platform (the one being used at Riordan).

TCP/IP has the ability to build very large hierarchical networks using routers.

TCP/IP supports almost all of the currently available networking protocols.

TCP/IP is a routable protocol that allows for communication across varied networks.

Disadvantages of TCP/IP:

Configuring the TCP/IP protocol is more complicated than NetBIOS or IPX/SPX.

TCP/IP’s header is larger than other common protocols like NetBEUI (Topology, 2006).

TCP/IP is also slower than NetBEUI.

TCP/IP requires very careful planning and management of the IP address space (Topology, 2006)

Recommendations and Benefits:

It is recommended that all of the current computer systems be replaced since many of the parts including the processors and motherboards are no longer manufactured. The lack of replacement parts makes these workstations difficult and expensive to maintain.

The Servers also need to be replaced with faster servers, both in terms of Processing speed and RAM.

It was also noted that the current network configuration does not have any backup facility. So, it is recommended