Hi,
I am a 3rd year university student majoring in Networking and Telecommunications.
For one of my networking courses we are to develop a WAN solution for a ficticious company. For our project we pretend to be a networking consultant group. We are to respond to an RFP with a proper WAN solution connecting seven cities (headquarters in Toronto) across Canada.
Here are some of the particulars of PHASE 1:
? Each city requiring bandwidths ranging from 704 Kbps to 3960 Kbps
? Voice channels per cities range from 3 to 15
? No video traffic needed at this time, but have the scalability and room for expansion in all areas
? The response should Include WAN connectivity methods, services, and equipment
As you know there are several options, but our original preference was ATM because of its scalability and robustness. However, after thinking about it some more, we realized ATM may not be the best solution right now as it is a lot more expensive than the other methods (i.e. Frame Relay, XDSL, VPN). So, in light this, we were thinking to implement Frame Relay first, and then after 3 years or so upgrade to ATM or MPLS.
So, my questions are:
1 Is our WAN solution good, or is there a better solution?
2 As the networking consultants, is this our job to talk to the telcos and negotiate pricing?
3 After deciding the connectivity method, will the client have to provide the necessary equipment or will the telcos provide them? (ie, if we were to go with ATM, would the client purchase the ATM switches, multiplexers, CSU/DSU)
3 If we go with FR and then decide to upgrade to a more scalable method, approx. how long will it be to upgrade, and will there be a lot of equipment changes and business disruptions?
Any help to our project would be fabulous! I am sincerely looking forward to your assistance.
E