Departmental Network Analysis Project

 

Part I: Network Architecture

1. Description/diagram of the network; type of network; how it's wired--adherence to Ethernet standards

 

2. How the network is used; types of hosts/computers/network nodes in use

 

Part II: Network Utilization Patterns(based on at least five samples of network traffic)

 

1. Distribution of Traffic by Protocol Type - a percentage distribution of network traffic by protocol type, including your judgment as to whether this distribution seems reasonable based on the description of how the network is being used

 

2. Actual Utilization - a summary of the actual utilization over these samples, describing peak utilization times and periods of low utilization; does the utilization rate vary based on time of day or day of week?

 

3. Broadcast Traffic - a summary of the relative amount of traffic (%) coming from broadcast packets; based on discussions with others in the class, does this seem like an unusual or high percentage? does the amount of broadcast traffic seem to vary based on time of day or day or week?

 

4. Major Sources and Destinations - identification of the major sources and destinations of traffic; specifically identify as best as you can the top five (5) source addresses and destination addresses in terms of total traffic from your samples; do these change across samples? do these surprise the network manager?

 

5. ICMP Packets - a description of any ICMP packets that you find; is there anything unusual showing up on the network, such as ICMP redirects or an unusual number of host or network unreachable packets? (Note: read the Bellovin article on reserve for an indication of the sorts of things to look for here.)

 

6. IP and IPX Traffic and Applications - a review of IP and IPX traffic; what seem to be the dominant IP and IPX applications being used on the network (based on a review of your samples);

 

7. Other Topics of Interest - any other characteristics or patterns of network traffic that you find of interest; various software related problems and issues (sniffer)

 

Part III: Network Recommendations

1. Recommendations - summary of recommendations in terms of how the network is designed or used that may improve performance.

 

2. Problems Making Recommendations - if you do not have any recommendations to make (due to lack of problems on the network or insufficient information), I would like to know what leads you to that decision; if it is due to inadequate information, what additional data would you need to make any recommendations?