Operating Systems and Networking Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Operating Systems and Networking - Coursework Example In 2007, the college diversified its products by introducing legal studies as they opened a third campus in East London. In 2009, XYZ College launched its Open and Distance learning services to 5 study centres to cater for its student fraternity outside London. Currently, the college specialises in finance and law, has 3 campuses in Greater London and 5 study centres outside of London and has more than 200 staff members (including administration and academic staff) and over 2000 students in total across the country. The nature of business in the three campuses is the same. There are administration offices, lecture halls, a library, and a computer lab. There are several designated Wi-Fi hotspots for students with laptops. At each of the five study centres, there is an office, a small library, a computer lab, Wi-Fi hotspot, and several rooms that serve as reading areas for students and also as exam centres. XYZ College faces competition from similar colleges in London that offer course s in law and finance such London Business School, King’s College London, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Imperial College London amongst others. Requirement Analysis Keshav (2009) urges that networking involves providing a way of transmitting information from one point to another and providing a mechanism to share available resources. As networks are improved, there two things that change: The speeds of data transmission increases as current network technology is improved and as new technologies are invented in an organisation. New services and products take advantage of the improved network performance andprovide users in the organisation with exciting new applications. The new network design will bring the benefit to improve competitiveness of XYZ College in the following ways: There will be better utilisation of available resources such as printers whereby one central printer will serve the entire department instead of duplicating them in every offi ce. The logical grouping/subnetting of the overall network into smaller networks will optimize its efficiency and availability. This will result to high speeds of data transmission enabling all users to achieve more. It will enable XYZ College to implement new products for its clients. For example the network will have the quality of service required to stream lectures from the main campus and offer video conferencing sessions to students at the study centres. The realisation of this new network will require the following: Hardware: these are the physical devices that will act as nodes in the internetworking. These include: i) Computers - the college already has enough of them. Majority of students also come along with their laptops. ii) Servers – they will provide client stations with access to files, printers, and other shared resources in the  network iii) Routers – they will forward data packets between computer  networks iv) Switches - determine if data packet s should remain on a LAN and transfer them only to the connection that needs them v) VoIP phones – for making calls over the internet vi) Wireless Access Points – for providing wireless signal in Wi-Fi hotspots vii) Printers – they will be one of the shared resources Software: These are the applications that will be running on the hardware to make the network accessible and usable to the users. They include: i) Operating systems e.g. Windows XP, Vista, 7; Linux; Mac ii) Browsers – for browsing the internet e.g. Chrome, Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer