Virtual Local Area Networks (VLAN) are beneficial because they improve security and bandwidth consumption. The call center has expanded taking up space on other floors causing part of the Engineering department and the Operations department to move offsite. All of the departments still need to be connected so that their data is still accessible to each other despite the expansion. A VLAN will allow these employees to continue to connectivity with their groups and any shared services and security from the physical LAN. Members will have the freedom to move from one group or area to another with the help from software versus having to physically move workstations, wires, or any other devices. Originally, the traditional methods of a LAN were used because each department was separated on different floors. Since, the call center employees have moved to the other floors occupied by the other departments, security issues could be likely to arise as well as bandwidth issues. This can happen because now all the departments can see the call center’s transmissions as well as the transmissions from the other departments that have moved offsite.
By implementing a VLAN, different domains can avoid bandwidth consumption because the network is split into different segments and then divided into different groups; every group or department will have its own segment, which will greatly reduce the bandwidth consumption. Creating group permissions will ensure that department will only be able to access the information that they have access to, reducing security issues. A port assigned VLAN membership should be used. Administrators can easily change configurations by using the port assigned protocol. A layer 3 flow-based switch would be used because of its enhanced performance.
The Essay on The Role of Information Security Policy 3
“An Information Security Policy is the cornerstone of an Information Security Program. It should reflect the organization’s objectives for security and the agreed upon management strategy for securing information”(Bayuk, 2009). Finding out how management views security is the first step in composing a security policy. The human element is the biggest security vulnerability for ...
The switch can identify flow of IP packets that have the same source and destination and create a predefined route, which increases processing speeds. According to Stallings (2009), as the number and devices grow, layer 2 switches have inadequacies such as broadcast overload and the lack of multiple links. Since there is a chance of packet flooding with the layer 2 switch, the layer 3 switch seems to be the best choice. As the company continues to grow, it might be ideal to implement multiple VLANs on multiple switches. Multiple VLANs on multiple switches can still communicate with each other through the VLAN trunking protocol (VTP).
VTP can add efficiency and speed to the network. By using VTP, switch number 1 is configured in server mode and the additional switches connected to it are configured in client mode. This will allow all VLANs the ability to communicate to each other.
References
Orbit-Computer Solutions.com. (2012).
VLAN Trunking.. Retrieved from http://www.orbit-computer-solutions.com/VLAN-Trunking.php Shinder, D. (2005, July 12).
Scaling your network with VLANs. Retrieved from http://www.techrepublic.com/article/scaling-your-network-with-vlans/5779489 Stallings, W. (2009).
Business Data Communications (6th ed.).
: Prentice Hall.
