Security Sage's Guide to Hardening the Network Infrastructure
This text provides detailed, hands-on coverage on how use network devices, protocols and design techniques to optimize the security of your Enterprise Network.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Security Sage's Guide to Hardening the Network Infrastructure
Choosing the Right Switch
Now that you know what features differentiate switches, how do you know what switch you should purchase? Buying a switch with features that you don t need will drain your budget of money that you could spend elsewhere, while under-buying could force you to upgrade earlier than you should. In most campuses, you ll need to purchase more than one switch. Should you only purchase the same, exact switch no matter where you place it in the campus? You probably don t want to do this.
Vendors divide campus networks into multiple layers. 3Com uses the terms desktop, workgroup, and core, while Cisco uses access, distribution, and core. Other vendors have their own terms for each layer. For example, most vendors will use backbone synonymously with core and edge instead of access. As Cisco has created a business training administrators, let s discuss the campus network using their terms.
Understanding the Layers of the Campus Network
Designing a large network might seem to be a daunting task, but it becomes much more manageable if you split it into smaller pieces. Most large networks will have three distinct layers: access, distribution, and core. Each layer serves a specific function in the campus network, and as such, each layer will use different devices. Even small networks will still have these three layers at a functional level, although multiple layers could get combined into the same piece of equipment.
Access Layer
Switches at this layer of the campus connect directly to workstations.
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