Network Design Proposal
R.E. Miller Elementary
8 December, 2000
CNT 170
Patrick Lawrence
1. Introduction
The R.E. Miller Elementary School is a part of the Maricopa School District. Its architecture presented a number of interesting networking situations, as the layout is composed of four separate buildings and numerous portables. All the rooms and hallway areas have drop ceilings, which improves the ease of laying network cables, but the remoteness of some classrooms caused us to investigate a number of different solution strategies for the school's networking needs.
One such difficulty was the distances to the portables. These distances exceeded the capability of Cat5 cabling and were clearly not feasible to run. Also, the need for network drops to portables required a careful examination of possible cable paths, to rule out the need for an additional connected switch to the MDF by fiber-optic cable. Fortunately, this extra expense proved to be necessary, and could be laid to drops in these locations without concern for loss or degradation of signal.
Finally, we note that the total cost for the networking of this school is significantly higher than for others of similar size. Since R.E. Miller is a "larger" school (in the neighborhood of 1000 students), we had originally estimated total networking media and hardware costs to run between $500,000.00 to $750,000.00, when in fact it was $1,200,000.00 including the cost of workstations and servers (estimated number of workstations are 1150/number of servers 6). We attribute this discrepancy to the fact that the distances from the MDF to many of the drops proved to be large, and the number of drops desired per room was two Fiber-optic (not 1 Cat5 as originally planned), thus doubling the cost of networking hardware and wire.
2.1 Phase One - Backbone
The first phase of the network implementation involved running fiber drops to four buildings. We located the MDF in the multi-purpose building, choosing this location for its centrality to both sides of the campus and its relative security. In each of the three other buildings contain an IDF serving that buildings users except in the case of the North and South buildings IDFs which also serve the portables. The only difference with the cable run to the portables is that there is only one fiber drop per classroom, thereby facilitating a shared connection with teachers and students from these locations.
From this, we see that there are four buildings to be networked, each with two fiber drops. The cable run to the rooms vary from 200 to 440 feet, including the ten feet of vertical drop for the cable to travel up from the managed switches in the IDFs to the wall mounts in the classrooms. This comes to a total of about 1020' for the four buildings' backbone.
Fiber Backbone Distances
Building Media Drops Horizontal Run Vertical Run Total in Feet
North Fiber 2 90.00 10.00 200.00
South Fiber 2 210.00 10.00 440.00
Media Fiber 2 180.00 10.00 380.00
(2 Multi-mode Fiber runs per building) Total in feet: 1020.00
2. Phase Two - Network Equipment & Cost
Here is the data for all the other network connections in the buildings. Each has a value that represents the footage to the room, the vertical footage to drop, and the number of drops for that room. The total is simply the sum of the vertical and horizontal runs, times the number of drops for a particular room. All Network Equipment and Costs section are included in 2.1 and all distances are in 2.2.
2.1 Equipment Cost
Item Quantity Unit Price Total
Cisco 3524XL 24 10/100 44 $2179.99 $95876.00
Ports, 2GBIC Modules
Cisco 3508XL 1000Mbs 10 $3649.99 $36499.90
Switch, 8GBIC Modules
Cisco 3512XL 1 $1849.99 $1849.99
10/100/1000 Switch
12 10/100 ports
2 GBIC Modules
Cisco 2621 Router 1 $2319.99 $2319.99
2 10/100 Ports
2 WAN Interfaces
1000' Gigabit Multi- 5 $679.00 $3395.00
mode fiber cable
1000' Beldin Cat5 cable 23 $299.00 $6600.00
84" Full size 5 $1399.00 $6995.00
lockable cabinet
24" Wall Cabinet 44 $449.99 $19799.56
48 port Patch Panel 1 $245.00 $245.00
3' modular patch cord 20 $2.85 $57.00
10' modular patch cord 20 $7.50 $150.00
Single 10BT jack 100 $5.95 $595.95
Double 10BT jack 68 $9.85 $678.80
Homaco Swing Gate 1 $105.35 $105.35
Rack
Box for wall 4 $6.45 $25.80
mounting
Wire Mold 24 $3.00 $72.00
2 ft sections
Ortronics Hinged 1 $49.00 $49.00
Bracket103907
Up Front ISDN 1 $2,400.00 $2400.00
cost (1 time)
Labor Cost $150,000.00
Total Network Equipment Cost: $256,869.95
Proliant M370 6 $2300.00 $13,800.00
Servers
Proliant 5150 1175 $750.00 $881,250.00
Workstation
Total Workstation and Server Cost: $895,050.00
Total Cost: $1,151,869.00
* This cost breakout shows all the costs necessary to startup the network. This includes routers, switches, cable, and all other related equipment costs.
2.2 Distances
Multi-purpose Building
Room # Drops Cable Run Vertical Run Total Distance Total Run
In Feet In Feet In Feet In Feet
Principal 1 15.00 10.00 25.00 25.00
Asst Prin 1 35.00 10.00 45.00 45.00
Nurse 1 30.00 10.00 40.00 40.00
Secretaries
D1 1 65.00 10.00 75.00 75.00
D2 1 50.00 10.00 60.00 60.00
D3 1 45.00 10.00 55.00 55.00
D4 1 20.00 10.00 30.00 30.00
D5 1 15.00 10.00 25.00 25.00
D6 1 35.00 10.00 45.00 45.00
Printers
P1 2 12.00 10.00 22.00 44.00
P2 2 30.00 10.00 40.00 80.00
Wksta 11 50.00 10.00 60.00 60.00
Wksta 21 20.00 10.00 30.00 30.00
Cat5 Cable Run 614.00
for Multi- purpose Building In Feet
Total Cat5 Cable 22,000.00
for Entire School Network In Feet
* Note each classroom will require approximately 500 feet of Cat5 cable running from the switch to the individual workstations. (The total for all 44 classrooms will be 22,000 feet, therefore we will need 22 1000' rolls at a cost of $299.00 per roll which will total $6600.00).
North Building
Room # Drops Cable Run Vertical Run Total Distance Total Run
In Feet In Feet In Feet In Feet
200 2 50.00 10.00 60.00 120.00
201 2 55.00 10.00 65.00 130.00
202 2 75.00 10.00 85.00 170.00
203 2 75.00 10.00 85.00 170.00
205 2 75.00 10.00 85.00 170.00
206 2 35.00 10.00 45.00 90.00
207 2 35.00 10.00 45.00 90.00
208 2 40.00 10.00 50.00 100.00
209 2 50.00 10.00 60.00 120.00
210 2 50.00 10.00 60.00 120.00
211 2 95.00 10.00 105.00 210.00
212 2 95.00 10.00 105.00 210.00
Fiber Cable Run 1870.00
In Feet
South Building
Room # Drops Cable Run Vertical Run Total Distance Total Run
In Feet In Feet In Feet In Feet
100 2 70.00 10.00 80.00 160.00
101 2 55.00 10.00 65.00 130.00
102 2 25.00 10.00 35.00 70.00
104 2 25.00 10.00 35.00 70.00
105 2 55.00 10.00 65.00 130.00
106 2 40.00 10.00 50.00 100.00
107 2 55.00 10.00 65.00 130.00
108 2 55.00 10.00 65.00 130.00
109 2 30.00 10.00 40.00 80.00
110 2 60.00 10.00 70.00 140.00
111 2 50.00 10.00 60.00 120.00
112 2 50.00 10.00 60.00 120.00
113 2 70.00 10.00 80.00 160.00
114 2 60.00 10.00 70.00 140.00
Fiber Cable Run 1810.00
In Feet
Media Center
Room # Drops Cable Run Vertical Run Total Distance Total Run
In Feet In Feet In Feet In Feet
Area A 2 60.00 10.00 70.00 140.00
Area B 2 85.00 10.00 95.00 190.00
Area C 2 40.00 10.00 50.00 100.00
Area D 2 15.00 10.00 25.00 50.00
Fiber Cable Run 480.00
In Feet
Total Fiber Backbone 1020.00
In Feet
Total Fiber Cable 4834.00
for inside buildings
In Feet
Total Fiber Cable 5200.00
In feet
Cat5 Cable Run 614.00
In Feet
Total Cat5 Cable Run 22614.00
inside buildings
In Feet
4. Conclusion
The overall network will end up costing around $1,250,000.00. This figure includes the first and second phases of the network design, all networking hardware, and all workstations and servers. The first phase requires only the four buildings to be fiber wired at a cost of $25,000.00, including labor. The second phase will be significantly more substantial, as the wiring and hardware requirements will be many times those of the previous phase at a cost of $1,075,000.00. The remaining balance of $150,000.00 would be our labor costs for phase two.
In conclusion, the R.E. Miller Elementary School provided an ideal study of a large school district with ambitious networking plans. In addition to the many rooms to connect, the group wanted two fiber drops for most rooms, plus additional drops in the Media Center, to provide optimal extensibility of network hardware resources. We attempted to accommodate these requests as best possible, and were in fact able to provide many of the network solutions sought by the group. The school's architecture also provided some interesting situations with respect to wiring, as we sometimes had to contend with structural feasibilities of the building itself. Finally, the project provided the group with useful instruction in network topology development and in satisfying client needs within realistic constraints.
