A systematic approach for planning, tuning and upgrading local area networks

Abstract

A systematic approach that allows network planners to design networks in a cost-effective way and that provides guidelines for tuning existing LANs (local area networks) to achieve better performance is introduced. It also allows network administrators to decide when and how to upgrade networks. Unlike the current ad hoc approaches, the proposed approach is based on the projection of the user traffic demands or on the real traffic measured from operational networks. The essence of this approach is to group users that communicate heavily among each other on the same network segment, and then to interconnect various segments to provide full connectivity. This approach has become possible by the availability of twisted-pair and fiber optic LANs supporting hub wiring. Hubbed architectures significantly reduce the design limitations imposed by the physical locations of users, and, in most cases, simplify the movement of users from one segment to another regardless their physical locations. Several design algorithms have been developed to improve the performance of the networks. These algorithms maximize the locality of traffic within each segment and balance the load across various segments. Various network architectures are also discussed.<>