Junos Enterprise Routing, 2nd Edition

Design Guidelines

The design guidelines for an enterprise network follow a similar set of principles as designing a home. There is not a single home design that will meet the needs of all people, because their requirements will differ in too many areas. However, drawing from the history of house design and construction, there is a common set of design guidelines that can be applied to any home design.

For any home design, there are several factors to consider: what are the available materials and technologies, and what are the components of the home itself that must meet the lifestyle requirements of the occupants? Only when these elements are combined into the total home design will it be a home for a lifetime.

Designing an enterprise network should be done along the same lines. An enterprise network should consider the following factors:

Set goals for the network

The network design goals have to mesh with the corporate goals of the enterprise. What are the growth expectations, what are the security requirements, and what are the access requirements? These goals have more to do with the expectations of the enterprise than with the technologies of the network.

What technologies have historically been used to meet the network requirements?

A historical perspective allows a designer to learn the whys of a network element and provides an understanding of the how. Any design has to look at the universe of design elements and cull the possibilities, separating what is needed to meet the overall ...