Introduction
Picosystems Ghana Ltd is a rapidly growing IT company with the principal aim of solving specific problems of its clientele. Our primary objective of providing a first rate service customer experience emphasizes and reiterates this fact. At Picosystems we are committed to providing and facilitating a stimulating and pleasant working environment with all our clients.
In our current global environment the development of any institution is propelled not only by a competent team of personnel. Technological advancement combined with the right know how would provide any business with the essential tools and edge to maximize both productivity and profits.
Picosystem prides itself on being a unique problem solver with an unrelenting prompt service delivery. We offer a wide and varying array of IT services. These include webhosting and maintenance of client’s website. Further, we also make available webhosting of private label sites. For those who require a thorough make over or a fresh building of a new site can also find respite with us. We undertake both networking and the building of software tailored to meet the particular needs of our customer and their companies.
Prior to its formation, Master Kwesi Gyang-Taah, the founder of Picosystems Ghana Ltd, was in charge of the team given the mandate to install a wireless network in the main faculty building. This was achieved by the creation of a network set up by using radio signal frequency to communicate among computers and other network devices .The project attempted to cover a substantial part of the main faculty building where both students and lectures would be connected to one another in an effort to facilitate lecturer-student relationship. The completion of the project which was a success meant that students and lectures were inter-linked enhancing communication like never before. The wireless connectivity which span approximately 100m about the main faculty building has been working satisfactorily till date. The service provided by this existing wireless connectivity has generated an even greater need for interaction both at the academic level and offline on the campus.
With strong backing from a tough board of directors, coupled with affiliations in and out of the country, Picosystems Ghana Ltd is poised to deliver quality services and change the IT scenery.
Background
In the early part of 2008, Master Kwesi Gyang-Taah, head at Picosystems Ghana Ltd was given the mandate to provide the MUCG campus with a wireless connectivity which spans approximately a 100m radius around the main faculty building. This project ended satisfactorily but another need has been created, to connect the entire student body to the school administrative body allowing students access to results, library books and enquires from their lectures, all in an endeavor to foster a conducive learning environment.
Currently, the university has the capability and potential to create one of the largest online libraries, because it can already boast of one of the best libraries available to both students and lecturers on campus. The university library offers its users the ability to read, register and borrow books. However, a quick survey revealed a low patronage, mainly because students do not have an easy means of accessing the facility.
With the unique advantage of being accessible by any number of users, and at any time, an online university library would offer an alternative means of research and learning especially during examination periods when libraries become overrun with students. Additionally the cost incurred on replacing worn out or stolen library materials will be greatly reduced. And since there is a minimal cost associated with posting ones work online, it would encourage both lecturers and students with research findings to easily present their work online for a small fee which would go to the library coffers. And from virtually anywhere, one can easily and comfortable access all needed materials from the library in minutes and practically at any hour of the day.
It is evidently clear nowadays how increasingly dependent society as a whole relies on the internet in our daily activities. This practice is not in itself bad, but becomes defective when it fails to serve its primary purpose. That is primarily to market ones product to a larger mass, inexpensively, and at all hours. From large corporations to sprouting companies, everyone is relying on the power of the internet to support its growth and promote its customer image while maintaining a cordial relationship with its clients. Recently however, it has become widespread to find works of both professors and students displayed on a variety of educational websites. The internet has become and is a platform where colleagues and students can meet from all over the globe to interact, sharing knowledge and ideas. This affords academics and educationalists the opportunity to touch people all over the world with their research, articles, essays and project works. This means others can build upon laid down foundation, in our daily quest to advance in our various fields of knowledge. Additionally, colleagues in different parts of the globe will be able to undertake joint projects simultaneously, allowing them the opportunity to test their theories in various parts of the world without necessarily being present.
Unfortunately though, it is evident that one cannot maintain an uninterrupted connection on the internet. This is not always due to human errors as weather conditions and plant overloads can cause slowdowns or a complete halt of the internet connection. Despite this however, within the network domain, a nearly constant connection can always be maintained among the various workstations. All available workstations in the network will be clearly recognizable and accessible to the other members in the workgroup even when working offline. This would be a restricted computer network, accessible only to members of the university community. Within this network, it is possible for both lecturers and students to send, receive and share files or documents. This is especially helpful when dealing with confidential materials. Furthermore, workstations in the network can share similar hardware, including faxes and printers.
Presently, all interactions between and among both lecturers and students of the university are face to face. In situations where the students would require further direction into a particular topic it becomes necessary to meet up with the lecturer after sessions. Given also that students are usually workers who have very little time, it becomes necessary for students to be able to meet lecturers after class hours. In endeavoring to promote a favorable learning environment for as many of the students as possible, convenience and accessibility to study notes and materials becomes very important.
With wireless network connectivity, students can easily and inexpensively connect to the internet by sharing one network connection. Furthermore, new workstations can easily connect to this workgroup, with only a wireless card and of course the required access password. More importantly, this network will be able to support any number of students’ workstations with no side effects to the quality of reception.
Again, workstations in the wireless network will be able to share files without necessarily being connected to the internet. This would be very beneficial especially in situations where the internet connection is down. Furthermore, the workstations would also be able to share the same printer. This will be exceedingly cost efficient since it would cut down the cost of having to provide printers all over the campus. Both students and lecturers can easily write their documents anywhere they want and have it printed out when necessary on a printer connected to the network.
Advanced Enterprise Features
The xStack™ DGS-3324SR implements a robust and consistent set of QoS/CoS, VLAN, and Security features. It supports 8 priority queues for 802.1p/ToS/DiffServ, with classification and marking based on MAC SA/DA, IP SA/DA, and/or TCP/UDP port numbers. Layer 3 dynamic routing protocols include RIPv1/v2, OSPFv2, PIM-DM, PIM-SM, DVMRP, and VRRP. Security features include 802.1x Port Based Authentication 802.1x MAC Based Authentication , and Access Control Lists based on MAC address, IP address, TCP/UDP port numbers, and IPv6 address and traffic class. The DGS-3324SR also has extensive support for GARP/GVRP, 802.1q, 802.1v IPv6 VLAN, and port based VLANs for up to 4000 groups.
The xStack™ DGS-3324SR is the latest example of D-Link’s continued commitment to our channel partners and customers to be the industry leader in delivering cost-effective, reliable, high performance, feature-rich switches.
Activities and Work Plan
This part of the project follows a series of steps and activities of a carefully designed scheme to yield a systematic integration of workstation across the university’s campus. The project would comprise three main phases, each measurable and seeking to attain
Phase One
The initial stage will include the setting up of the needed framework and machinery for the subsequent installation of the wireless network. This early part of the project will seek to identify and establish possible hotspots for the wireless reception. During this phase, we will also examine the topological structure of the university’s campus. This will aid in locating expedient domains to install both the routers and the antennas. The antennas which would capable of picking up signals in all directions would generally been set up on higher ground to boost a favorable reception.
Phase Two
This stage will comprise the bulk of the project, and would involve the assembling of all equipment to run a successful wireless connection. Before this however, there would initially be the installation of both hardware and software in designated locations where a favorable reception is likely to be achieved.
The installation of the hardware would include the mounting of routers and the Omni directional antennas across the campus. This will make it possible to start the networking process, the wireless routers will then become the central location where all access points connect.
The software installations would involve
This part of the project would include test runs and possible reruns or changes made to earlier installed equipment.
 During this stage, a wireless local network will be established. This will enable all workstations in the network group to connect to each other, so they can share documents and files. This would be especially useful in the exchanging of confidential files and documents of the workstations. Furthermore, this local area network would allow all workstations to connect as one unto the internet. This is more productive and less expensive.
At the end of the second phase, a framework, similar to the one in the diagram on the left would have been created. This would only be a skeletal representation of the end project but would be responsible for building the foundation on which the whole project would be based.
Output
At the completion of this project, we would have created a massive array of interconnecting workstations which optionally can be further linked to the worldwide web.
This is represented in the diagram below.
At its completion, virtually any wireless device including, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), wireless laptops and desktops and any other wireless handheld devices can easily connect to internet. Moreover, clients can make can, that is Voice over Internet Protocols (VoIP).
Beneficiaries and Impact
The popularity of wireless networking is a testament primarily to their convenience, cost efficiency, and ease of integration with other networks and network components. Furthermore, since the majority of computers sold to consumers today come pre-equipped with all necessary wireless technology it becomes easier to integrate them into an already existing wireless network work.
The numerous benefits achieved with use of a wireless connectivity make them highly recommendable and efficient when dealing with workstation connections.
The first and foremost is its cost saving attribute. While the initial investment required for wireless network hardware can be higher than the cost of wired network hardware, overall installation expenses and life-cycle costs can be significantly lower. Long-term cost benefits are greatest in dynamic environments requiring frequent moves and changes.Wireless networking hardware is at worst a modest increase from its wired counterpart. This potentially increased cost is always more than outweighed by the savings in cost and labor associated with running physical cables.Primarily having no wires by nature; wireless networks require no labor for digging trenches and limited time stringing cable. With wireless technology you can rapidly deploy a new architecture from a maintenance standpoint. Wireless networking enables you create a more dynamic and cost efficient architecture to support the rapid changes and flexible management demanded on campus.
Further, wireless networks can serve a suddenly-increased number of users with the existing equipment. In a wired network, additional users would require additional wiring.
Additionally, wireless technologies are evolving at a much faster rate than traditional wiring technology. Therefore, with this kind of technology at your fingertips, you have the ability to upgrade a wireless architecture quickly and efficiently to meet the organizations growing demands as they occur.
Furthermore, the wireless nature of such networks allows users to access network resources from nearly any convenient location within their primary networking environment. Wireless network systems can provide network users with access to real-time information anywhere in their organization. With the increasing saturation of laptops pre-equipped with wireless connectivity, this is particularly relevant as it allows users access from any convenient location and so work comfortably from any place of their choice. This mobility supports productivity and service opportunities not possible with wired networks.
Users connected to a wireless network can maintain a nearly constant affiliation with their desired network as they move from place to place. For a business, this implies that an employee can potentially be more productive as his or her work can be accomplished from any convenient location. For the University, this means that, lecture and students do not all necessarily need to be at one specific location before accessing the internet. This then promotes productivity since each individual’s effort is not dependent on another’s.
Installing a wireless network system is fast and easy and can eliminate the need to pull cable through walls and ceilings. Initial setup of an infrastructure-based wireless network requires little more than a single access point. Wired networks, on the other hand, have the additional cost and complexity of actual physical cables being run to numerous locations, which can even be impossible for hard-to-reach locations within a building. Deploying a wireless network is much more easily achieved.
Wireless network systems can be configured in a variety of topologies to meet the needs of specific applications and installations. Since configurations can easily be changed and range from peer-to-peer networks which are suitable for a small number of users to full infrastructure networks of thousands of users that enable roaming over a broad area. This particularly makes wireless suitable in any environment since it is readily adaptable and scalable to suit the specific terrain.
Though wireless technology itself faces a few drawbacks, it is not impossible to completely guard against these glitches.
Wireless network transceivers are designed to serve computers throughout a structure with uninterrupted service using radio frequencies. Because of space and cost, the antennas typically present on wireless networking cards in the end computers are generally relatively poor. In order to properly receive signals using such limited antennas throughout even a modest area, the wireless network transceiver utilizes a fairly considerable amount of power. What this means is that not only can the wireless packets be intercepted by a nearby adversary's poorly-equipped computer, but more importantly, a user willing to spend a small amount of money on a good quality antenna can pick up packets at a remarkable distance; perhaps hundreds of times the radius as the typical user. In fact, there are even computer users dedicated to locating and sometimes even cracking into wireless networks, known as war drivers. On a wired network, any adversary would first have to overcome the physical limitation of tapping into the actual wires, but this is not an issue with wireless packets. To combat this consideration, wireless networks users usually choose to utilize various encryption technologies available such as Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). Some of the older encryption methods, such as Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) are known to have weaknesses that a dedicated adversary can compromise.
The typical range of a common 802.11g network with standard equipment is on the order of tens of meters. While sufficient for a typical home, it will be insufficient in a larger structure. To obtain additional range, repeaters or additional access points will have to be purchased. Costs for these items can add up quickly. Other technologies are in the development phase, however, which feature increased range, hoping to render this disadvantage irrelevant.
Like any radio frequency transmission, wireless networking signals are subject to a wide variety of interference, as well as complex propagation effects (such as multipath or especially in this case Rician fading) that are beyond the control of the network administrator. One of the most insidious problems that can affect the stability and reliability of a wireless network is the microwave oven. In the case of typical networks, modulation is achieved by complicated forms of Phase-Shift Keying (PSK) or Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), making interference and propagation effects all the more disturbing. As a result, important network resources such as servers are rarely connected wirelessly.
The speed on most wireless networks (typically 1-108 Mbit/s) is reasonably slow compared to the slowest common wired networks (100 Mbit/s up to several Gbit/s). There are also performance issues caused by TCP and its built-in congestion avoidance. For most users, however, this observation is irrelevant since the speed bottleneck is not in the wireless routing but rather in the outside network connectivity itself. For example, the maximum Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, (ADSL) throughput (usually 8 Mbit/s or less) offered by telecommunications companies to general-purpose customers is already far slower than the slowest wireless network to which it is typically connected. That is to say, in most environments, a wireless network running at its slowest speed is still faster than the internet connection serving it in the first place. However, in specialized environments, higher throughput through a wired network might be necessary. Newer standards such as 802.11n are addressing this limitation and will support peak throughput in the range of 100-200 Mbit/s.
Wireless networks present a host of issues for network managers. Unauthorized access points, broadcasted Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs), unknown stations, and spoofed MAC addresses are just a few of the problems addressed in WLAN troubleshooting. Most network analysis vendors, such as Network Instruments, Network General, and Fluke, offer Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) troubleshooting tools or functionalities as part of their product line.
Monitoring and Evaluation
The convenience of wireless networking and lightweight handheld devices has led to a large-scale adoption of wireless technologies. Corporations, universities, hospitals, homes, and public places are deploying these networks at a remarkable rate.
Over the years various techniques have been developed to improve the performance of wireless information services. Techniques such as information broadcasting, caching of frequently accessed data, and point-to-point channels for pull-based data requests are often used to reduce data access time. To efficiently utilize information broadcast, indexing and scheduling schemes are employed for the organization of data broadcast.
The objective then is to develop a dynamic data delivery for the university’s wireless communication system.
On the other hand, wireless networks pose significant management challenges in the following ways. First, a wireless network is a complex system with many inter-dependent factors that affect its behavior. These factors such as traffic flows, network topologies, network protocols, hardware and software, affect the interactions among them.
Second, wireless interference has a profound impact on network performance. Due to its high variability and dependency on environmental conditions, obtaining and effectively incorporating wireless interference into a network management is a challenge.
Third, unlike wires networks which may employ more wires to reduce the impact of performance problems and network failures to a certain extent, such duplication in wireless networks is not a solution. This is due to the limited wireless spectrum and the effects of wireless interference. As a result, wireless users experience various problems, such as lack of coverage, intermittent connectivity, poor performance and unreliability. Most often network administrators lack tools to effectively configure provision, diagnose, and optimize networks, so they often have to resort to manual trial-and-error.
At the end of this project however, we aim to provide comprehensive solutions for managing wireless networks. We would develop a systematic management framework that is consistent, measurable, controllable and possible to model other systems management on. This would include system ‘up time’, which
Our focus in this project would include, developing a flexible network model which would be responsible for estimating normal network behavior, while executing a sensitivity analysis. And then, to design effective control strategies through channel assignment, routing and rerouting.
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