USING OPNET - INVESTIGATE THE PERFORMANCE OF A NETWORK
LOOKING AT WAN TECHNOLOGIES, WITH DIFFERING TRAFFIC LOADS
Introduction
Over the last several years, web-based applications, wireless devices as well
as virtual private networking (VPN) have changed the expectations about computer
networks. Currently, corporate networks are accessible virtually anytime from
anywhere, with many users which expect the access to their network of the company
while at home or on the road. Remote access solutions come in all shapes and
sizes. Each of the solutions of the company is commonly combination of different
WAN services. Most of these services are gained from a service provider, including a
regional telecommunications company. This is due to the fact that the transmission
facilities belong to a service provider. Types of available WAN services and their
costs changes depending on the geographical region as well as provider (.).
Compared to data on your local area network (LAN), the information traveling on
your wide area network (WAN) traverses longer distances and encounters a wider
variety of physical and logical environments en route. WAN technologies, including
56 Kbps circuits, ISDN, leased lines (including T1 lines), and frame relay, are
optimized for these lengthy journeys. In technical language, wide area networks
utilize protocols at levels 1-3 of the OSI reference model that are optimized, both
physically and logically, for extended travel. Schools use WAN technologies to
connect their school buildings to each other and to the Internet (1999).
Statement of the Problem
Over the last few years, WAN optimization technologies have evolved from
traffic management, caching, and web load distribution to a much more
comprehensive feature set. Newer features include compression, basic caching, bit
level pattern caching (also called advanced compression), TCP optimization,
Enterprise network managers trying to improve application performance are faced
with many different application acceleration and WAN optimization technologies, but
their tools, techniques, and training often aren’t sufficient to let them make a choice
with the confidence that it’s the right one. In such a fast-changing market, it’s no
surprise that there’s a lot of confusion about the various technologies available, what
situations each is best at addressing, how to evaluate them, how to justify a
purchase, and how to manage the chosen solution on an ongoing basis. One of the
top concerns in most organizations is the end-user experience and ensuring
applications are performing well.
Importance of the Study
It is critical to ensure continued responsiveness of applications that impact
customer service and support. Their IT engineering team identified several areas
where their current capabilities needed improvement. Performance of networked
applications depends on complex interactions among applications, servers, and
networks. ACE provides IT organizations with a detailed, quantitative understanding
of these interactions to efficiently and cost-effectively troubleshoot and deploy
applications.
Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to investigate the performance of a network looking at
WAN technologies, with differing traffic loads. The following are the objectives of the
study:
diagnose the performance problems that are connected with the production
applications;
validated network changes in the lab information before going into the
production; and
focus on the different actions and plans to be done in order to optimize and
improve the bandwidth upgrades;
Methods
The researcher finds this the most appropriate approach as this study would
mainly employ gathering and classifying data from the selected population. This
type of research also utilizes observations in the study. To illustrate the descriptive
type of research, (1994) states that the descriptive method of research is to gather
information about the present existing condition. The purpose of employing this
method is to describe the nature of a situation, as it exists at the time of the study
and to explore the causes of the particular phenomena. The researcher opted to use
this kind of research considering the desire of the researcher to obtain first hand data
from the respondents so as to formulate rational and sound conclusions and
recommendations for the study.
The following are the processes done by the research: survey, laboratory
testing and production network analysis. First the survey will focus on the on the
network industry in order to focus on the different technologies that are related with
WAN. Then the second phase will be done by benchmarking products in order to
evaluate the benefits as well as the different factors that are related with the WAN
technologies. The last is the production network analysis which focuses on selecting
a network location, installed the product and analyze the results and performance.