Pearson BTEC Level 5

HNC/D Diploma in Computing and Systems

Development
Local Area Networking Technology
Assessment
RDI LAN
Date for Submission: 12th November 2015
(The submission portal will close at 13:59GMT)
Set by: Dr. Adrian J Pullin

Assignment Brief
As part of the formal assessment for the HNC/D programme you are required to submit an
assignment for each module. Please refer to your Student Handbook for full details of the
programme assessment scheme and general information on preparing and submitting
assignments.
After completing the module you should be able to:
1. Understand the impact of LAN technologies
2. Design LAN infrastructures
3. Implement LAN infrastructures
4. Manage LAN infrastructures.
Completing the assignment tasks will demonstrate your ability to do these things. Specifically, each
part of each task corresponds to the relevant assessment criterion given at the end of this
specification. E.g. task 1 part 1 corresponds with Assessment Criterion 1.1.
Scenario
A new modern office block is being built for RDI in Coventry. The building consists of three floors.
The ground floor has the main reception, three large meeting rooms (capacity 50 people each) where
presentations may be made and three smaller meeting rooms (capacity 4 people) for private
interviews. There is also a staff common room and kitchen on the ground floor.
The middle floor is laid out as a single open plan office space with movable dividers allowing for
changes in layout as required. This office space will be used by the student support and admissions
teams whose main jobs are based on using Office applications, managing the iLearn virtual learning
environment and e-mailing tutors and students.
The top floor has dedicated space for the IT department to house servers, switches, routers and other
infrastructure in an air conditioned room with dedicated power supply etc. This is next to an open
plan office are for the IT staff. This floor also has a number of individual offices for the senior
management team.
Each floor has lavatories, a hall with a lift and stairs connecting to other floors. As this is a new
building, there are suitable service ducts between floors and all the ceilings are suspended, allowing
for all wiring to be concealed and secured.
You are to design an appropriate local area network infrastructure for this building. You may make
appropriate assumptions about what is required but these assumptions must be appropriate to the
scenario given and must be stated. You must as a minimum include a switch, wired workstations, at
least one server, an Internet connection and a wireless access point in your design. This assignment
is split into tasks detailed below that cover all the required aspects of the design.
Note: Obviously RDI is a real company, running the education programmes that you are familiar with.
However, the remainder of the material in this assignment is fictitious, being designed to provide a
suitable scenario for the tasks. Do not contact RDI (and in particular do not contact RDIs IT
department) about this assignment as they will not know what you are talking about!
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Assignment Task
Task 1 Guideline length 800 words
There are a range of users who need to access the network at RDIs new building. These include the
staff that work there on a daily basis and have their own desk with PC, tutors visiting regularly for
meetings who bring their own laptops and tablet devices, and external examiners and other
academics who are on occasional visits and will only get restricted access to the network to link to the
Internet. RDI also need to support the communications requirements of their servers, including the
ones hosting iLearn. Consider the following issues:
1.1 RDI need to keep data secure on their network and in particular keep visitors communications
separate from the office staff communications and the web traffic to and from iLearn.
1.2 The web servers hosting iLearn need sufficient data rate available to provide a reasonable level of
performance to students and staff accessing remotely. Just consider the LAN part of the
connection here, not the external Internet connection.
1.3 All wireless communications need to be secure.
For each of these concerns, identify appropriate LAN technology that can address the problem. Note
that the security issues are about communications security, not securing servers, login etc.
Explain how each technology provides a solution to the problem.
Your answers must focus specifically on RDI and its concerns. Your answer to this task should have
three sections, labelled 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 respectively.
Formative Feedback:
You are advised to draft your answer to task 1 early on in the module and send it to the tutor via email no later than Monday the 28th September 2015 (with your full name, student id and the module
name) for comments and feedback.
Task 2 Guideline length diagram plus 600 words
2.1 Taking into account the material you have submitted in task 1, you must design an appropriate
LAN infrastructure.
Provide logical network diagrams showing how the building might provide the required services and
connections. This may be one or more diagrams as you see fit. Any suitable drawing package can
be used and you will not be graded on the drawings themselves; just the network design.
Explain each infrastructure device, what its function is and why you have selected that device for the
job. This explanation must focus on the RDI and its requirements.
2.2 Identify two particular products that could be used for each infrastructure device, including the
exact make and model along with a supplier and price. Since RDI is in the UK, the supplier and price
must be UK based.
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You must as a minimum include a router, a switch and a wireless access point in your design. Note
that this module is NOT about servers or printers, so you do not need to consider these.
Remember that this is a business, not a home network, so you must be considering business class
equipment.
Task 3 Guideline length 500 words
3.1 For the network you designed in task 2, devise appropriate address allocations and explain how
these will be implemented. You need to include both static and dynamic addresses in your scheme.
You should cover the following:
Actual addresses and address ranges used in various parts of the network, with justification.
Methods used by different devices to acquire their address. In particular, consider how a networked
printer in the main office and how a tablet device (iPad, Google Nexus Tablet, etc.) used by a guest
visiting the building would get their IP addresses.
3.2 With the aid of suitable screen shots, show how wireless access via Wi-Fi is configured in
Windows or another suitable operating system. Focus on the security requirements of connecting to
an existing wireless LAN using appropriate encryption technology.
3.3 Once the Wi-Fi connection is established, outline three tests that you would perform to ensure
that the LAN is working properly. You should cover tests that show the user can connect to a local
server, to the Internet and can print. Explain how to test each of these functions including what the
user would do and what the expected result would be.
Task 4 Guideline length 800 words
Identify one specific network monitoring tool that the organisation could use to ensure that their
network continues to perform correctly. You should identify the type of tool, a specific product
(including manufacturer, product and exact version or model number as appropriate) including
supplier and price.
For the tool you have identified, explain what it does and how the information it supplies can be used
by the organisation. In particular show how it can be used to:
4.1 Monitor and trouble shoot the LAN.
4.2 resolve LAN issues to improve security, reliability and performance.
4.3 critically evaluate the performance of the LAN.

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Student Guidelines
1. You should write each task of this assignment as detailed above, in the order given above and clearly
labelled with the task and subtask numbers used above (Task 1.1, Task 1.2 etc.). The assignment
should be in coherent and appropriate English, complete with citations in the text and a list of
references in Harvard notation.
2. You must ensure that the submitted assignment is all your own work and that all sources used are
correctly attributed. Penalties apply to assignments which show evidence of academic unfair practice.
See the Student Handbook which is in the Induction Area for more information. Please also refer to the
Guide to Unfair Practice in Assessment on the module page on ilearn.
3. You MUST underpin your analysis and evaluation of the key issues with appropriate and wide ranging
academic research and ensure this is referenced using the Harvard system. The My Study Skills area
contains the following useful resources; Study Skills Guide (containing a Harvard Referencing section)
and a Harvard Referencing Interactive Tutorial. You must use the Harvard Referencing method in your
assignment. All your answers must be directly related to and focused on the scenario. Generic
responses will score very poorly.
4. You should use diagrams and tables of figures where appropriate ensuring to reference their source
using the Harvard Referencing method.
5. It is advised that you write your assignment within approximately 3500 words in order for your research
and summarising skills to be developed, and for effective time management. You are required to
ensure that the assignment addresses ALL of the assessment tasks .There is no penalty for being over
the suggested word count, however, in the interests of good academic practice, assignments
submitted with excessive word counts (e.g. over 4000 words) may be returned to students and
asked to be reduced before marking.
The word count excludes the title page, reference list and appendices. Where assessment
questions have been reprinted from the assessment brief these will also be excluded from the word
count. ALL other printed words ARE included in the word count. Printed words include those
contained within charts and tables.
6. Your assignment should be submitted as a single document. For more information please see the
Guide to Submitting an Assignment document available on the module page on iLearn.
7. As well as submitting a draft of task 1 within the first month of the module for feedback, you are also
advised to submit a full draft of the complete assignment to the tutor via e-mail (with your full name,
student id and the module name) for comments and feedback prior to submission. This should be done
no later than 5th November 2015 so that you have time to make any suggested changes.

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Recommended Additional Resources

In order to complete this assignment you will have to access a wide range of resources that are
available on the Internet. Searching for and locating these sources as well as filtering the relevant
material from the results of searches is part of the skill set that is assessed in this assignment.
Assessment Criteria for Pass
To achieve a pass you must meet all of the assessment criteria as stated
below. Failure to cover all of the assessment criteria will result in a referral
grade and you will be required to re-submit your assignment.

Learning
Outcomes/

For tutor use

Assessment
Criteria

Further guidance on completion of your assignment can be found in the

guidance notes which are posted on the group learning space by your
module tutor. For additional support please post questions onto the group
learning space, or email apullin@rdi.co.uk
LO1 Understand the impact of LAN technologies
1.1 critically evaluate different LAN technologies

Task 1.1

1.2 critically analyse traffic intensive services and their performance

Task 1.2

1.3 discuss LAN concerns and make recommendations to sustain network

security, reliability and performance
LO2 Be able to design LAN infrastructures

Task 1.3

2.1 build and configure a LAN (including services) to meet a given

requirement
2.2 critically evaluate the suitability of LAN components

Task 2.1
Task 2.2

LO3 Be able to implement LAN infrastructures

3.1 build and configure a LAN (including services) to meet a given
requirement
3.2 implement network security on a LAN

Task 3.1

3.3 critically review and test a LAN

Task 3.3

Task 3.2

LO4 Be able to manage LAN infrastructures

4.1 monitor and troubleshoot a LAN

Task 4.1

4.2 resolve LAN issues to improve security, reliability and performance

Task 4.2

4.3 critically evaluate the performance of a LAN

Task 4.3

Assessment Criteria for Merit

To achieve a Merit all of the Pass criteria need to be met, then the tutor
will assess whether you have met the Merit Criteria. Each of the Merit
criteria must have been met at least once within the assignment.
The following statements are examples of how a merit may be achieved, if

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Criteria Met

(you may wish to

use this in your
preparation for
your assignment
submission)

you do meet the Merit Criteria by showing you have reached this level in
other ways then credit will be awarded for this. You will need to meet M1,
M2, M3 at least once.
Identify and apply strategies to find appropriate solutions.
Effective judgements have been made when selecting appropriate
solutions.

M1

Select design and apply appropriate methods/techniques

A range of credible sources of information have been used to
identify appropriate products and solutions

M2

Selected solutions make appropriate use of available technologies

Present and Communicate Findings

Material is presented in a logical and accurate manner matching
the stated requirements for each task.

Appropriate levels of material are presented, taking into account

the target audience.

Some use of referencing is made.

M3

Assessment Criteria for Distinction

To achieve a Distinction you have met all of the Pass and the Merit
criteria. Each of the Distinction criteria must be met at least once within
the assignment.
The following statements are examples of how a Distinction may be
achieved, if you do meet the Distinction Criteria by showing you have
reached this level in other ways then credit will be awarded for this. You
will need to meet D1,D2,D3 at least once.
Use critical reflection to evaluate your own work & justify valid conclusions
Proposals offer clearly justified matches to the requirements, with
alternatives being discussed.

The work demonstrates a clear understanding of the overall

requirements of the client as well as the individual system
requirements.

Take responsibility for managing and organising activities.

Independent research, outside that provided in course materials,
has been utilised to prepare the work

D2

Appropriate assumptions are made and justified where detailed

scenario information is not available

Demonstrate convergent, lateral & creative thinking.

Solutions presented show an innovative approach to network
design based on the latest available equipment.

D1

A clear understanding of the current trends in LAN Technology is

demonstrated by the specification of systems that will handle

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D3

future requirements appropriately.

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