Bead Bar Network Paper

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to determine the network topology and architecture that best suites the Bead Bar. Also being discussed is the Bead Bar’s background, recommendations for the Bead Bar, as well as network advantages and drawbacks.

Background

The Bead Bar, founded by Meredith S. in 1998, is a company that specializes in making Bead Jewelry. The Bead Bar allows its customers to come in to the Bead Bar and make their own custom Jewelry (bracelets, necklaces, etc.). Today the company has three divisions: studios, franchises, and Bead Bar on Board. As of right now the Bead Bar has a studio in New Canaan, Connecticut, two studios in New Your City, one in Long Island, one in Washington, D.C. and one in Boston, Massachusetts.

According to Malaga, R (2005), “The franchise division sells a complete beading supply package to businesses that want to open their own bead studio.” The franchise division has the responsibility of fulfilling franchisees’ supply requirements. Today there are currently five franchisees: Kansas City, Missouri; Chicago, Illinois; Los Angeles, California; Seattle, Washington, and Miami, Florida. Malaga, R 2(005)
Recommendation Overview

A network’s topology specifies how a network operates at a physical level. I am recommending the star topology network for the Bead Bar. I am also recommending the peer – to – peer network, for defining how the network will operate at a conceptual level.

Network Topology

In a star topology, each individual device (computers, printers, servers, etc.) is connected to a hub. A hub is a specialized type of hardware that receives data transmissions and routes them to the proper destination.

As an advantage of using a star topology, it is easy to install and update because all nodes are connected directly to the hub. For example: If a business needs to reconfigure its network, it would make changes to the hub, instead of completely re – wiring the entire network. It would also be easier to diagnose a problem in the star network because each node is connected directly to the hub.

The disadvantage of using the star topology is that if the hub fails, the network will shut down. Another disadvantage of using a hub is that the hub can also bottleneck, which slows the network.

Network Architecture

I have chosen peer – to – peer network architecture as part of the Bead Bar’s computer network. In this architecture all computers are clients and servers. According to Malaga, R (2005), “Any computer in the network is capable of sharing its resources, such as disk space and printers, with any other computer.”

This arrangement “peer –to –peer network” is much simpler than the client/ server architecture. When using a client/server architecture, certain computers can sometimes act as providers for services, or servers, or even clients. (Malaga, R., 2005) I believe that the peer – to – peer architecture would be a better fit for the Bead Bar than the client/server architecture, because with the peer –to – peer architecture, the Bead Bar does not need to assign multiple computers different tasks.

By using the peer – to – peer architecture the Bead Bar will be able to use a computer to do all tasks, instead of using different computers for different tasks. This way every computer that the Bead Bar uses for networking, will be capable of achieving multiple tasks.

Network Advantages and Drawbacks

As mentioned earlier, “The disadvantage of using the star topology is that if the hub fails, the network will shut down. Another disadvantage of using a hub is that the hub can also bottleneck, which slows the network.”

The advantages of using the star topology are that it is easy to install and update because all nodes are connected directly to the hub. For example: If a business needs to reconfigure its network, it would make changes to the hub, instead of completely re – wiring the entire network. It would also be easier to diagnose a problem in the star network because each node is connected directly to the hub.

The disadvantage of using the peer – to – peer architecture is that it is usually not as powerful as using dedicated servers. The advantage of using a peer – to – peer network is that it is much easier and less complex to use than the client/server architecture.

Conclusion

In my final opinion, the Bead Bar should have a topology network that is connected to a hub for receiving data transmissions and to route them to their proper destination point. This would make the installing and updating of information easier and it would be easier to diagnose a problem if something were to go wrong.

The Bead Bar also needs a peer – to – peer architecture to define how the network will operate at a conceptual level. The use of a peer – to – peer architecture would make the network easier to use and manage for the Bead Bar.

References

Malaga, R (2005), Information Systems Technology