Network planning assessment answer sheet
| IP Address (NT) | |
| Subnet Mask | |
| Number of Address |
| IP Address (QLD) | |
| Subnet Mask | |
| Number of Address |
| IP Address (NSW) | |
| Subnet Mask | |
| Number of Address |
| IP Address (VIC) | |
| Subnet Mask | |
| Number of Address |
| IP Address (SA) | |
| Subnet Mask | |
| Number of Address |
| IP Address (TAS) | |
| Subnet Mask | |
| Number of Address |
Page 1: IP address and the Subnet Mask for each state
CRICOS Provider No. 00103D Network Planning Assignment Final – Answer Sheet Page 1 of 3
2
Networking and Security
Routing table for R2
| Destination Network | Interface | Next Hop |
| Destination Network | Interface | Next Hop |
Page 2: Insert routing table entry in the box for 3 edge routers
Routing table for R1
| Destination Network | Interface | Next Hop |
Routing table for R3
CRICOS Provider No. 00103D Network Planning Assignment Final – Answer Sheet Page 2 of 3
Networking and Security
Page 3: IP address for the Network Interface Card (NIC) to connect NT, WA and SA
| Router NIC IP Address R1 #5 R1 #8 R1 #6 R1 #7 R2 #4 R2 #2 R2 #3 R2 #1 R3 #9 R3 #10 R3 #11 R3 #12 |
CRICOS Provider No. 00103D Network Planning Assignment Final – Answer Sheet Page 3 of 3
Network Planning Assignment
Overview
The main objectives of this assignment are:
- To help students gain a good understanding of the IP (Internet Protocol), which is the major underlying technology of the Internet.
- To help students to understand the importance of subnet and routing of IP address.
- To encourage students to conduct an independent investigation into IP related topics from books, the Internet and through practical investigation.
Engagement with this assignment should help students to understand the primary underlying concepts of the Internet world.
Scenario
You have been appointed as a Network System Administrator by the Australian government to allocate public IP Version 4 (IPv4) addresses and build a routing table for edge routers to connect the Australian states as shown in Figure 1.
The IPv4 is an exhaustive list of IPv4 addresses for current Internet users in the world. However, in this scenario, you have the liberty to use the entire available unreserved public IPv4 addresses for the Internet users in Australia.
Figure 1: Edge routers R1 – R6 connecting different Australian States.
Tasks
The major task is to allocate the unreserved public IPv4 addresses to different states in Australia based on the number of Internet users in those states. The number of Internet users for each state is given below:
| New South Wales (NSW) | : 6 Million |
| Victoria (VIC) | : 4 Million |
| Queensland (QLD) | : 3 Million |
| Western Australia (WA) | : 2 Million |
| South Australia (SA) | : 1 Million |
| Tasmania (TAS) | : 300 Thousand |
| Northern Territory (NT) | : 150 Thousand |
The task needs to be completed based on the following constraints and assumptions:
- Only unreserved public IPv4 addresses should be used for allocation.
- Each state should have a unique set of addresses – no address or set of addresses can be reassigned to any other state.
- You should use only the classless IPv4 addressing in the assignment.
- The number of allocated addresses for each state should not exceed by 20% of the specified Internet users for that particular state. For instance, the assigned addresses for Tasmania should not exceed 360 Thousand addresses.
- It is allowed to use one or more subnets to achieve the number of required address for a given state.
The minor task is to create a routing table for edge routers only for the state NT, WA and SA. The task needs to be completed based on the following constraints and assumptions:
- The routing table should be minimal with no redundant routes in the table.
- Any packets from the source (NT or WA or SA) should take the minimal route to reach the destination (NT or WA or SA).
- Identify the Network Interface Card address to connect NT, WA and SA.
Recommended Readings
The required materials for this assignment are covered from Week 4 onwards. It is highly recommended to read the following resources to complete the assignment:
- Week 5 – The Internet (Network) Layer (Layer 3) Lecture in Moodle
- Week 5 – IP settings and configuration in Moodle resource
- Week 5 – Network Layer (IPv4 & IPv6 address format) in Moodle resource
- Reserved IP addresses (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserved_IP_addresses)
- Subnetwork (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subnetwork)
- IP address (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address)
- Routing concepts: How to read the Routing Table (https://www.ictshore.com/free–ccna–course/ routing-table-fundamentals/
Learning Outcomes Assessed
The following course learning outcomes are assessed by completing this assessment:
- K1. Describe and explain the role and function of network connectivity in current computing.
- K2. Describe and explain the principles of communication in networks.
- K3. Describe the role and functionality of hardware and software entities that contribute to the network communications.
- K4. Describe and explain the protocols and interactions that implement network communications.
- K6. Describe fundamental aspects of cloud computing.
- A1. Apply networking architecture knowledge to analyze the networking needs of the business.
Assessment Details
All works submitted must be authored by the individual student submitting the work. Students found to have plagiarised will be dealt with according to university plagiarism policy
(https://federation.edu.au/current-students/learning-and-study/online-help-with/ plagiarism).
Please note it is highly unlikely that two students would have the same set of addresses allocated for a given state.
Submission
Students are required to use the template supplied along with the assignment. The completed template with your name and student number (3 pages only) should be submitted through Turnitin in Moodle by Week 10 – refer course description for exact due date and time.
Marking Guidelines
| The IP address for each state (7 x 9 marks) | 63 Marks |
| Subnet mask for each state (7 x 4 marks) | 28 Marks |
| Allocation not more than 20% (7 x 2 marks) | 14 Marks |
| Routing Table for each 3 edge routers (3 x 11 marks) | 33 Marks |
| Router Link (NIC) address for 3 edge routers (12 x 1 mark) | 12 Marks |
| Total marks | 150 Marks |
The total marks, for this assignment, are 150 (15% Weighting for the course).
The marks will be available in Moodle and FDLMarks by the end of week 12 of the semester
Network Planning Assignment
Frequently Asked Questions
- What type of IP address do I need to use for NIC of the edge routers?
The edge routers are used to route the packets on the internet, outside your local network. Therefore, the edge routers should always have the unreserved public IPv4 addresses as their NIC address.
- What type of address can be used for the link connecting to the cloud (the State) from the edge router?
You should use only unreserved public IPv4 addresses in this assignment for all the links.
- What should I insert in the table given in page 1 of the answer template?
You need to insert the IP address range selected for that particular State, subnet mask and the number of the unreserved public IP address that can be used for internet users in that State.
For instance, if “my state” need 120 unreserved public IP addresses, then the assignment IP table looks like below:
| IP Address (my State) | 124.182.42.1 – 124.182.42.126 |
| Subnet Mask | 255.255.255.128 |
| Number of Address | 126 |
- The routing table on the internet (or in the links provided) are different, which routing table do I need to use in this assignment?
In general, a routing table has many columns, such as a gateway and metric based on the type of routers used. Still, these router configurations are out of the scope for this introductory-level course. Please refer Week 5 slide 24 – 26.
- How many destination networks should be there in the routing table (pg.2 of the template)? Do the routes in the routing table limited to the given rows in the Assignment Template?
The answer to the first question is given in the assignment specification – the assignment says the following :
Any packets from the source (NT or WA or SA) should take the minimal route to reach the destination (NT or WA or SA).
Therefore, it is not necessary to consider any packets from other states. In other words, the destination in the three edges routers should have the network id(s) for these three states (NT or WA or SA) only.
No – the given number of rows in the routing table is only for the template purpose. The assignment template for the routing table shows ten rows. However, the actual number rows may be less or equal to 10 rows and entirely depend on the interfaces of the (edge) routers and the destination networks of the incoming packets.
