The owner of Dana Dance and Drama School has asked you to design a network that the dance school will be able to use to move more of their business online

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Network Design

Scenario

You have been recruited to design a network for a drama and dance school. Dana School of Dance and Drama currently uses a paper-based system for recording attendance and the payments made for each of the classes. Parents of the children pay cash or cheque each week and their attendance card is updated by hand, showing the payments they have made. Some children stop attending classes and need deleting from the list but there are always new recruits and currently the school roll is full with a waiting list.  

The current paper based system is never accurate. When the children are entered for any exams the information is collated by hand and then submitted to parents and the awarding body separately. All of this work is very time consuming for the owner Dana as she needs to check carefully that the exam entries are accurate and all the other figures are correct. 

Dana has heard that other dance and drama schools are moving to online payments and recording of student information and she feels this would be good for her business. The business will have at least two standalone PCs but they will also have roaming ipads/laptops that they will need to connect to the network. She has also heard about cloud storage and applications but does not know whether these are suitable for her business. The school also wants to offer parents free wifi whilst they are waiting for their children to finish the classes. The school will need application software that will enable it to record student details, send emails/letters, record payments, record exam results and use mailmerge. The school also wants you to consider security issues which will allow it to share files, printers and communications. The owner of Dana Dance and Drama School has asked you to design a network that the dance school will be able to use to move more of their business online. Staff would also like remote access to the network when they are not in the dance school, although most of the components will be in a fixed location within the school. The school will need to be able to stream audio and video during their lessons and keep a record in line with copyright legislation. You have been asked to design a wired and wireless network which will be suitable for the dance school.

Activity 1

The owner of Dana Dance and Drama School has asked you to design a network that the dance school will be able to use to move more of their business online.

Produce a design brief which outlines the design of a structured network to meet the design brief which includes:

• an analysis of the business needs to design the network
• an evaluation of the hardware and software needed to run the IT network successfully
• an assessment of the methods that can be used to manage the mobile devices on this mobile network
• a critical evaluation of possible solutions to meet the design brief
• the development of viable alternative solutions to meet the design brief

LO1 and LO2 Assessment criteria, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4

Activity 2

Dana is pleased with your design brief and she has asked you to build the network to meet the client brief. Keep a log showing how you have created the network with photographs/screenshots to show the development.

LO3 Assessment criteria 3.1

Activity 3

Now that the network has been designed and built you will need to test it against a test plan and the client brief. Create a test plan which identifies testing objectives, testing criteria and use this to test the built network.  Keep copies of the test results from the testing process.

Make any amendments to the network based on your testing.

LO3 Assessment criteria 3.2

Activity 4

Now that the network is complete, Dana has asked you to produce a reflective report on the designed and built network. Produce a report which:

• evaluates the rules of network protocols that will apply to this network
• analyses the tools that will be used to manage the network
• evaluates the performance issues of the built network against the client brief
• recommends security requirements that will keep the network safe and secure.

LO1 Assessment criteria 1.1, 1.4

LO3 Assessment criteria AC3.3, 3.4
Guidelines for assessors

The assignments submitted by learners must achieve the learning outcomes and meet the standards specified by the assessment criteria for the unit.  The suggested evidence below is how learners can demonstrate that they have met the required standard.