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WAN Enterprise IP and Network design???

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by architech

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I have a client who is considering a WAN with 600 to 2000 locations. Each location will host a server and 10-60 nodes. The network will most likely be Wireless Ethernet with Cisco equipment. The bandwidth,the type of circuit, and the cost, and scalability are all factors? This scale of network may need an SLA with a telco provider? If so how is that best setup? What is the best way to design and provision this network with IP's? Where would you start and how would you do it? Any links or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

11 replies

by Former member

First you must design the network, with factors starting with: How many sites exactly, How many nodes, Need Internet Access? Use NAT or PAT? Proxy/Security warranted? WHy wireless, do these users move around the sites a lot? What are the speed requirements back to the central site? WHat type of WAN topology needed: Mesh or Point-to-point? These factors also will help you to decide on the Cisco hardware.

WAN Service Provider: Needs your IP requirements (after you figure out if you can use NAT) also needs your speed requirements. You will need a service provider who has a presence in each location.

I would highly recommend you hire a GOOD consultant. If you're in the Des Moines area, contact me.

by Former member

Good luck to you. This seems to be a MAAJOR project, too big for this forum!

by omar

Is there any more information on this that you can provide, I am impleeting an international WAN based on Cisco products and i asked many many more questions than you. I think you would get more oout of the forum if you are a bit more detailed in your post.

And like Q, I am a consultant, but in the New York City area, relocating to the UK soon.

by architech

Thank you Q, for your response. This seems to be the problem with this client. Not enough information. He is farmed out to do 600 locations initially but it may run up to as much as 33,000 sites!!! My concern is the sheer scalability and provisioning of IP?s for this project. Each node will be as thin as possible, small hard disk and RAM, and it?s default route will be to the Internet and will be locked down to browsing, NetMeeting etc, only. Most likely use NAT and static IP's at each site,although I have considered DHCP. Bandwidth is not a major concern, but a speed that will allow 5-40 of these nodes to surf at one time without too much latency. Uptime is the major concern. Wireless Ethernet will be implemented for the reason of inaccessibility at most of these sites to cabled with CAT5. We have looked into wireless service providers, but most likely it will be a dedicated point-to-point circuit. A national provider will most likely be needed.

by architech

Thank you Q, for your response. This seems to be the problem with this client. Not enough information. He is farmed out to do 600 locations initially but it may run up to as much as 33,000 sites!!! My concern is the sheer scalability and provisioning of IP?s for this project. Each node will be as thin as possible, small hard disk and RAM, and it?s default route will be to the Internet and will be locked down to browsing, NetMeeting etc, only. Most likely use NAT and static IP's at each site, although I have considered DHCP. Bandwidth is not a major concern, but a speed that will allow 5-40 of these nodes to surf at one time without too much latency. Uptime is the major concern. Wireless Ethernet will be implemented for the reason of inaccessibility at most of these sites to cabled with CAT5. We have looked into wireless service providers, but most likely it will be a dedicated point-to-point circuit. A national provider will most likely be needed.

by scott.l.miller

With the large number of sites mentioned, I would suggest that, unless you have the money to throw at dedicated connections, you need to implement some form of VPN over the Internet.

Even an average of $500/site, that is $300K per month for frame relay. And this doesn't even begin to add the long distance charges if you are looking at point-to-point...

In the long run, LANs are cheap, WANs are not...

by dlw6

If you don't get the customer to agree, on paper, to what he's buying from you, the rest of the project management cycle will be painful beyond belief.

It might be okay to build scalability, if it's contracted clearly. But "between X and Y nodes" doesn't give you enough information to even start designing, unless you plan for the worst, which raises costs.

The less clarity in your specifications, the more likely you are to end up in a contract dispute when it comes time to get paid.Dire warnings out of the way, we need more info to event start to solve this one. What are the distances involved? What is the expected network load? What are the security requirements?

Good fortune,
Don

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