In my Cybersecurity major, I had to take a class called “Introduction to Information and Security” also known as “IT 315.” In that class, we had to do a case analysis where we hypothetically made a wired network of a local high school.
The assignment read: “Design a wired network for Maury High school. Your plan must include two live network outlets for each classroom and office connected to a secured Internet connection that the whole school will share. The school will not have any internet-facing servers.
You are encouraged to discuss the project with up to two other people in the class; however, you must hand in your version of each part of the project. Each part of the project will be graded on a “must work” basis: if the particular design will work you will get full credit for that part, but if a part does not work or you do not hand it in on time you will get a zero for that part. All parts must be submitted on or before the last regular class day for grading, meaning you may submit parts earlier for feedback and grading regarding whether or not they will work.”
The assignment went forward to state that the class must submit the following: “A plan and budget for the wiring of the building that includes an estimated total of the cable runs to each room and between the equipment room and the telecom closets, along with an estimate of the total amount of cabling needed. Your budget should include the total cost of cabling, costs of RJ45 outlets and wall plates in the classrooms/offices, and patch panels in the equipment room and telecom closets. Indicate the sources of your pricing information. Indicate on the floor plan where the equipment room and telecom closets will be. You have permission to use up to four of the small offices shown on the floor plan next to the stairs. You will have to determine the scale of the floor plan yourself, assuming that Maury is 95 meters wide (do not ask to go into the building). The floor plan you have been given does not match the current floor plan of Maury.
A plan and budget of where and what equipment is needed to support an Ethernet network that connects all of the rooms in Maury High School, including patch cables and managed switches. The total number of Ethernet ports purchased must be at least 10% more than the total number of outlets. Indicate what equipment is to be installed in each equipment room and telecom closet. Indicate the sources of your pricing information.
A plan and budget for securing network traffic within Maury and to the Internet, including a firewall that supports 200-300 users. Your plan should include a network diagram with separate subnets/VLANs to separate staff traffic from student traffic. Your firewall should be able to allow and block traffic from any internal subnet or address to any Internet subnet or address. Indicate the sources of your pricing information.”
To get the total estimate cabling for Maury High school, I decided to average the shortest and longest cable runs to the equipment room or telecom closet then multiply that number by the cables running to that room. So, since the layout for the basement, first floor, second floor, and third floor are very similar the longest and shortest cable runs will be the same for each floor. I will have one equipment room on the second floor at the middle of the floor. I will then have a telecommunication room on the basement, first floor, and third floor. The diagrams I submitted will show exactly where the telecommunication closets and equipment room is located. I will be using a star topology for the network setup. The telecommunication closets as well as the equipment rooms will just house backbones, distribution panels, horizontal cabling termination points, circuit administration points as well as auxiliary workstation power supplies.
Using the basement as the example I will set the telecommunication closet in the room next to the entrance toward the middle of the floor. The longest cable from that room will be from the telecommunication closet to the room in the top right corner. Since, the width of the school is 95 meters (311 feet) I will estimate that the length of the longest cable run will be 45 meters or (150 feet). The shortest cable run will be from the telecommunication closet to the adjacent room which will be 1 foot. The average of the shortest and longest cable will be 75 feet (the average will be the same amongst all floors). The cables running into the telecommunication closet room will be 30 (since there are two live network outlets for each classroom). So, now I will multiple my 75 feet with 30 (multiplying the average of the longest and shortest cable to the total amount of cables running into the room). So, the total amount of cabling for the basement will be roughly 2,250 feet of cabling. The first floor will have the telecommunication room in the same place the basement had its telecommunication room. So, I will multiple the average (75 feet) to the total number of cables runs to the closet which for this floor is 34. This gives me a total cabling of 2,550 feet for the first floor. The second floor will again have the same average which is 75 feet multiplied by the total cable runs which is 36. So, the total cabling of the second floor is 2,700 feet. The third floor will again have the same average which will be 75 feet and the same total cable runs which is 36. So, the total amount of cabling needed for this floor will again be 2,700 feet. The total amount of cabling for all the floors of the school will amount to 10,200 feet of cabling.
I found a website called cable wholesale that sells 1,000 feet Cat6 cables in bulk for roughly 252.32 dollars per 1,000 feet (comes with RJ45 tips). I bought 11 of the 1,000 feet Cat6 cables. So, the total cost of cabling for the school will be $2,775.52. Since there needs to be two live network outlets in each room, I need roughly 100 RJ45 outlets and patch panels. I found a two-pack of the RJ45 outlets on Amazon for 11 dollars (comes with wall plates) and I found a patch panel on Amazon for roughly 37 dollars (it has 24 ports). So, the total cost of the RJ45 outlets will be 550 dollars and the patch panels will be 3,700 dollars. I have also decided to get managed switches for every floor (so four in total for the telecommunication closets and equipment room) I will be using Cisco 250 series smart switches priced at 109 dollars. I will buy four of them for a total cost of 436 dollars. I will be using WatchGuard Firebox T55-W Network Security and Firewall appliance as a multipurpose firewall to secure network traffic. The cost of the hardware on Newegg will be $1,713.99 (does not include subscription or another Wi-Fi access point). The WatchGuard is a pre-built proprietary hardware device and comes with pre-installed firewall operating system that is preconfigured to work with my hardware device. So, the total budget for everything will be $9,175.51. I am also assuming that all the computers in the high school have 10/100/1000Base-T NIC and I am also assuming that the high school utilizes 1 gigabyte ethernet.
