Capstone Proposal

Introduction

One of the primary mission networks in our workforce is reliant on a sound static IP addressing scheme. Multiple workstations, printers, multifunctional devices, VOIP phones, and media devices make up this intricate network providing strategic communication and specialized resources to multiple personnel across different geographical locations. With the increase in operations the network has significantly grown and the management of usable IP addresses has at times become burdensome and even error prone for the networks team. Improper mapping of network devices, assignment of IP addresses, and overlapping IP ranges has significantly complicated the ability to maintain an ever increasing scalable network. In addition to IP conflicts, authentication issues have become more prevalent with improper manual configurations and lack of manpower is also a lingering concern with more time needed on device configuration/trouble shooting between the networks and systems departments.

Networks have greatly evolved enabling them to accommodate business critical applications and services which are heavily relied upon by the user. In this situation, the network technicians are not only required to add new machines to the network but also troubleshoot more complex issues to enable it to run at high speed. The main standard used in computer networking is TCP/IP it appears not to have any competitors in the socializing arena. The main aspect of working with TCP/IP is that one always has an understanding of the concept of network addressing. However, the use of TCP/IP needs the network administrator to devote much of his time in trying to assign IP addresses as they just don’t magically get assigned. These addresses need to be assigned through manual configuration or by use of other means. If a new computer is brought into a network, it requires that it be given an IP address so that it can be able to communicate using that network. The same case happens when a computer moves to a new location where it will require a change of the previous IP address to enable it to use the new network to communicate.

The process of managing IP addresses manually in the TCP/IP model makes the process daunting and tiresome (Gao et al. 2015). Same problems are incurred by the network administrator when a DNS server is also moved to a new subnet as he or she is required to reconfigure every user computer or if a user is moved into a new subnet the IP address will need to be updated. The process of configuring the IP addresses manually will force the network administrators of companies to be always on the move from one office to another trying to do the update. This process can prove to be tiresome if offices are spread out or if the company operates on a medium to large scale network. The work is more tedious when the IP addresses are manually managed as it will force you to visit every computer to update the TCP/IP configurations. Hence, manual configuration of networks can lead to various problems, like a dead drop where devices connected to the wall jack do not indicate the availability of a network since those jacks are not activated. This problem arises when a connection is not patched because they are not often used or maybe those ports are administratively disabled. Another problem of configuring IP addresses manually is that some devices in the network are unable to get IP addresses. The cause of this is that an operating system may have alerted the DHCP server, but after checking the network chip status, the machine was not given an IP address to enable it to communicate using the available network. The cause of this is that the DHCP maybe out of addresses. Also, the clients may be unable to connect to the application server which is caused by router issues between the user and the server.

Another problem is incorrect VLAN assignment brought about when a new device or new services are being installed, for example, an IP for a phone may not register with the call manager, which makes the computer connected to the phone not be able to connect to key servers. The cause of this is the improper configuration of the network switches. Most companies also experience IP conflicts whereby two devices connected to a network receive the same IP address. IP conflicts occur because of many reasons like inadequate network subdivision, DHCP errors, bad IP address recording and inactive hardware (Dwijaksara 2017).

The aim of this project is to bring to an end all the problems associated with network IP address allocation to all devices connected to a network to enhance smooth communication between all clients of the network. All this will be made possible through the implementation of the DHCP server whereby all computers and devices connected to the server are allocated their IP addresses automatically. Through the use of the DHCP, the users will be obtaining IP addressesautomatically, meaning that the network administrator is no longer required to configure the TCP/IP manually to give IP addresses. The dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) provides all the important confirmation information details to all its customers hence most of the difficulties for tracing problems are eliminated through the use of the DHCP protocol. Configuration restrictions offered by the DHCP server to the TCP/IP network model include the internet protocol for each net adapter of the client computer, subnet masks, default gateways and other configuration restrictions that can be awarded to assigned users.

The working of the DHCP involves four phases. If the client’s computer has more than one network chip, the dynamic host configuration protocol occurs separately on each adapter hence each adapter will have a different IP address. Communication of the DHCP is done by the use of the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) ports 67 and 68. DHCP servers communicate by broadcasting their messages. The first phase is the IP lease discover, which involves the initialization of the limited version of TCP/IP by the client and then broadcasting a message requesting for the allocation of the DHCP server and the IP addressing information. Phase two is the IP lease offer,whereby all the DHCP server with proper IP addressing details available broadcast an offer to the user. The third step is the IP lease request which happens after the client chooses the IP addressing data from the offer it obtains first and sends a message demanding the lease of the IP address info contained in the proposal. The last phase is IP lease acknowledgment whereby the DHCP server which made the offer answers to the message forcing other servers to withdraw their offers. The client is then assigned the IP addressing information and an acknowledgement is sent to the client which allows the client to bind to the TCP/IP protocol and once the automatic configuration process is complete, the computer can use all the TCP/IP facilities and efficacies for normal networking and can communicate to other clients on the network (Gao et al. 2015).

Review of Other Work

IP addresses are the most imperative parameter in an IP network. Absence of proper IP addresses make communication impossible. In wired networks, the tradition is that the administrator configures each computer manually by assigning each computer an IP address from the finite address interstellar. This approach had no elements of self-organization, sointroducing DHCP was an achievement made towards self-organization of internet protocols (IPs). With the implementation of DHCP, computers can dynamically receive IP addresses from the server.

The nature of Adhoc networks is that they are autonomous which requires the presence of an IP address automatic configuration mechanism. The Adhoc systems need a mechanism which should cope with a highly dynamic environment and indeterminate network construction. A better IP address automatic configuration protocol should configure a terminal with an IP address while keeping the following features: low dormancy for address assignment, low communication overhead on the address obligation and low echelons of IP address struggles.

Issues in Address Allocation

Mobile Adhoc networks aid as temporary wireless networks, whereby the client changes their IP addresses with the aid of an intelligent automatic configuration decorum.  The procedure should be allowed allocation of a unique network address. Some of the issues related to addressing structure in MANET are: when adhoc networks are divided into two or more MANETs, the personal MANETS are merged to form a single Networkand division of a network into sub-networks cause leaks.

An algorithm for automatic configuration of IPs was developed by Li Ru, and they also investigated a solution for amalgamation and partition of the network. Abdellatif has also done research and proposed an automatic configuration procedure.  The limitation of their works is that the protocols could not accommodate a large number of clients (Younes 2016). Another scheme which he developed was the one which required a proxy agent which acted as an identical address detection resolver, which aims at caching and servicing duplicate address assignments. He says that his group’s research helps in reducing the traffic overhead for the detection of duplicate addresses, detection period and helps in saving energy of many nodes and also provided management of mobility using the OLSR protocol for the 4G mobile networks. However, the scheme does not offer a solution on how to overcome the effects of mobility.

M.U Saleem proposed a method for network dividing and amalgamation with OLSR protocol. His contract lacks security measures and session management. He furthermore investigated a structure which enhanced secure host auto-configuration in mobile ad hoc networks. His algorithm suggested for jointly authenticating clients, protecting the exhaustion of IP address spaces by use of a threshold authorization scheme and binding reference procedure. However, his scheme does not work as it does not optimize space when a client leaves a network abruptly which is a common case among the ad hoc networks. Saleem also presented a project for secure dynamic internet protocol address configuration for Ad hoc networks. His method described how a user accesses a network and is able to get IP an address automatically without having to configure it manually;however, his solution does not work when used in merging different MANETs (Saleem 2005).

R Lacuestaprovided an authentication scheme which will enhance secure address auto configuration which aimed at reducing the latency occurring during IP address assignment and reduced overhead control. She also suggested a scheme which was intended to authenticate the clients but his work remains invalidated (Lacuesta 2014).

MajidTaghiloo invented an approach for IP address automatic configuration procedure for portable adhoc networks. His system uses the virtual address space for new nodes joining the network. It is not effective for amalgamating and joining of the network. His work does not give a way of converting virtual IP address to global IP addresses since mobile and ad hoc net is a multiple wireless network capable of independent operation hence the mobility of MANET nodes leads to recurrent and unpredictable topology changes (Taghiloo 2008). Most mobile ad hoc networks assume that the client’s IP address is statically assigned before the user joins the network, however, not all network user who have IP addresses permanently assigned to them as you find some are using a centralized server and use the DHCP server to acquire IP addresses. The problem with his work is that his algorithm is unable to deal with hardware issues automatically add a new node joining the system, furthermore, it has the problem of concurrent initiation of address allocation.

Yousef et al. projected an algorithm which is created to determine the number of hops needed to assign an internet protocol address. Another member of Yousef’s group suggested a new scheme which would enhance new IP address automatic configuration for both mobile and ad hoc networks. The arrangement assigns an IP address to the joining clients without having to broadcast to the entire network. The scheme divides IP addresses space into blocks with each a fair use of the available addresses. However, the outcomes of his work still have not been validated for the realistic simulation environment.

Project Rationale

The main purpose of this project is to initiate the review of all the organization’s services to determine the problems which the networking sector faces. The concern is after the realization of the difficulties both the users and workers experience in accessing services provided by the network, like sending emails, printing documents and VOIP calls. Since one of the main missions of networks is to provide a reliant and sound IP addressing scheme, it is important for them to have a stable and easy to configure network. The network involves different workstations, multifunctional devices, printers, VOIP phones and media devices. The aim of all these is to provide a strategic communication and specialized resource to different people over different geographical locations. The growth of the operations in the network causes the management of IP addresses to become tiresome and burdensome, and there is an increased error rate for the networks team. The errors are caused by the situations whereby some computers are sharing the same IP addresses which cause the systems to be unable to distinguish between its clients. Another aim is to reduce the errors associated with improper mapping of networking devices and assignment of IP addresses. Poor mapping of IP addresses causes some clients not to obtain IP addresses easily.

The increase of IP ranges has caused IP overlapping;this has complicated the capacity of maintaining the ever-increasing network scale. The implementation of the DHCP server will bring an end to all these problems as all clients will be assigned their IP addresses automatically. They will be allocated these IP addresses depending on availability. Additionally, the project aims at eliminating the manual configuration of IP addresses hence reducing the act of network administrators moving from one office to another to configure IP addresses for both new computers in the network and also even when changes are made to the network system itself. The implementation of the DHCP server will reduce the number of workers required in the configuration of the network as the majority of work will be taken over by the DHCP server. Also, the project aims at reducing IP conflicts, and authentication issues which have made it difficult for users to be unable to access network services as this implementation will reduce the burden put on the network administrator of authenticating users manually. The implementation also aims at reducing the time needed to configure and troubleshoot networks and systems between departments. Additionally the outcomes of the project will ensure that the security of the system will be enhanced since only those computers which are authorized to use the network are the ones who will be communicating to each other. The automatic IP addressing will bring to an end the act of having to record IP addresses and its associated computer after manually assigning them since the DHCP server will be assigning them automatically to clients.

Other additional parameters the server will provide involve the default gateway, DNS (domain name servers), and time servers which enable the storage of IP addresses in a central database with their respective configuration information. The implementation will enable an improved monitoring and reporting system because the DHCP server is a perilous network service which must be kept running to avoid problems from occurring. Additionally, the implementation will provide custom DHCP option classes which will enable the network administrator to distribute specific options to the users that want them. For example, you can use the option to allocate a specific default gateway or paternal domain name to a single group of users on the network.

The dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) provides all the important confirmation details to all its customers hence most of the difficulties for tracing problems are eliminated through the use of the DHCP protocol. Configuration restrictions offered by the DHCP server to the TCP/IP network model include internet protocol for each net adapter of the client computer, subnet masks, default gateways like the routers which are used to link a single system unit to others and other configuration restrictions that can beto assigned to users.  (Gao et al., 2015).

Systems Analysis and Methodology

System Analysis

            Currently for the network, statically assigning IP addresses is the method used when bringing devices onto the network. Once the image is placed on a workstation it is then deployed to its location and the admin logs in locally to modify the settings. The networks team previously maintained the IP address table but it was eventually passed down to the local service desk level in order to be maintained locally. Once a valid IP address is assigned the domain is manually changed on the workstation. At this point utilizing sticky mac, the networks team must allow access via port security and during this process they save the running-config to the startup-config allowing the MAC of the new machine to be dynamically saved in the configuration file. The port is locked down to allowing only two MAC address assignments for added security.

In a small environment this system of IP address assignment workswell, however; as the network grows in scale this process proves to be tedious and error prone. The networks team did not properly maintain the log for IP address assignment and the service desk has struggled to keep up with assignment as well due largely in part to the rapid scaling of the network. Duplicate assignments and IP ranges out of scope are two examples of the ongoing issues. Coordination with the systems and networks team have also proven burdensome with new workstations migrating and new ones coming online daily. Requesting extended scopes and added VLANs have also slowed production along with leaving more room for error when considering IP address management.

Methodology

A system is a collection of dependent items that frequently interact to do a task. Any high-tech system is established through a procedure called system development life cycle (SDLC). SDLC is a rational process used by system analysts to come up with a proper and functional system plus its necessities, validation, training and user possession. Any SDLC should enhance the development of a high-quality system that meets user and customer requirements, and the task should be completed within the scheduled time.

In an effort to increase efficiency and provide a more reliable network infrastructure, changes to the current system need to be made. After doing a site survey and speaking with the clients and stakeholders, specified requirements have been identified. Network management and IP assignment must be centrally managed. Subnet management, IP ranges and redistribution of unused IP addresses must also be automated/centrally managed. The current network capabilities need to be maintained as well as the ability to sustain a 50% increase in utilization to meet projected scalability requirements. A total of eight subnets housing a maximum of 450 workstations and 40 multifunction devices across multiple sites must be managed locally and remotely when needed. Manpower utilization is a determining factor, the desired affect being an increase in productivity all while reducing man hours and resource utilization due to manual configurations, network troubleshooting and resolution.

The obvious solution here will be to implement a DHCP managed network. The implementation of a DHCP server will be done on the organization’s current server infrastructure to enable the business change from manual configuration and allocation of IP address to automatic IP addressing. Subsequently, since the server will knob a large amount of data and IP addresses for the clients, it will require a large storage database. Whereby the database will store interrelated data, configurations and IP addresses. The database will use software called Database Management System to manage the information stored in it.

Utilizing the roles and features of a DHCP server will provide the needed, centrally managed IP addressing scheme. DHCP will automate this process effectively reducing overhead and increasing productivity. Subnets will be identified and assigned with the desired ranges and will be broken down into separate VLANs. This service will also provide time frames for leases in an effort to reduce the occurrence of unused IP assignments. Authentication of the client will now be leveraged through the server, eliminating the need to use sticky mac via port security.

Active Directory tools…

The proposal research was done by conducting an observation and experimental approach on the organization’s servers to see how it allocated its customers IP addresses and found out that they used manual configuration which was tedious to the network administrator and proved to be error prone resulting in frequent IP address issues. Hence, the idea of using the DHCP server as the mechanism which will assign IP addresses to clients will be a good idea to implement.Utilizing the findings from the observations, the systems team will process this data and use it to streamline specific guidelines to follow when developing the services for the server and the AD tools utilized for management.

The networks team will play a key factor by identifying crucial requirements involving the multiple sections, number and type of devices and also site locations. Their primary function during the development stage will be to provide subnets and their ranges based on sections and device requirement, VLAN association and also routing schemes. Once identified this will be forwarded to the systems to be applied to the server in Active Directory.

Once complete the systems team will coordinate with the local admin to go over testing and implementation procedures. The local admin will prep a limited number of devices and configure them for DHCP removing all static IP assignments. This will be done on a scheduled basis per directorate and in a limited environment in order to protect the integrity of the production network. The local admin will be responsible for assigning VLANs based on section and location. IP reservations will be assigned to all multifunction devices in order to maintain current mapping schemes already in place. After all changes have been implemented, server management will be co-pilotedby the local admin team in order to become familiar with the new system.

They implementation team will monitor the server and devices which were modified for DHCP access. Ensuring automatic IP lease assignment, authentication negotiation with the switch and DNS functionality will all be monitored for operability. Packet tracer will be used to monitor the traffic, scope integrity and routing integrity. During this evaluation period, load testing and scenario based testing to include security and IP reservation assignment will also be conducted for added assurance.

Once the testing and evaluation stage are complete the local admins will take ownership rights of the DHCP server and convert the remaining systems to DHCP. IP reservations will be established for the remaining multifunction devices. As the network increases, the admins have the capability of adding and configuring additional DHCP scopes and implementing new VLAN assignments based off requirements.

Flowcharts will be employed to visualize the steps which will be used to implement the project. The purpose of the model is to give an understanding of how the flow of activities will occur starting from planning, designing, and implementation.

Feasibility study

Feasibility is the measure of the effect the system will cause to the target group, people and environment of use more so the organization which the use is intended for. The impact on the implementation of the new servers includes if it will be usable, whether the system will help solve the problems facing the users and whether the process of execution will be cost effective. First, the implementation of the DHCP servers should be tested to ensure that the servers work correctly before any proceedings s are made (palm 2017).

Technical feasibility

For the enactment to be possible, I will have to engage the leadershipof each directorate and network management section to identify all the devices currently on the network to include those that have fallen off the network due to IP conflicts.The implementation will be technically feasible if the organization has the necessary resources for the development and implementation of the new server. Regarding IP allocation, the process will be friendly and easy to use upon implementation for both the network manager and IT admins of the organization. Lastly, a study needs to be done to identify the needs of future requirements, which will force the changes to be done on the servers and new hardware to be added to the network.

Economic feasibility

A system is said to be economically feasible if it is possible to develop, install, purchase, operate and maintain. The proposed project on implementation of the DHCP servers will meet all these factors including testing and deployment.

Operational feasibility

Here the implementation is supposed to meet all its proposed functions which are assigning IP addresses dynamically instead if the traditional way of resolving IP addresses manually, which means it would have achieved the intended purpose. For my proposed project the problem of manual configuration of IP addresses will be a forgotten case.

System constraints

After the implementation of the DHCP server, the system is likely to face security issues, such as a rogue device connecting to the network whereby two devices can have the same name, hence convincing a user to connect to it. To prevent these security threats, users and devices will be required to use authentication keys before they are allowed to join the network. This can include login passwords, pins, PKI cards and other means which will be implemented by the system administrator and will be given to each worker of the organization to help him or her access network services. Failure to give the correct details the user will be prevented from accessing the network of the company. Through this malicious users will be prevented from accessing the system.

Goals and Objectives

Goals

The first goal is to conduct a needs analysis in order to document current system requirements and conduct a survey for future scalability. Another important realization is developing a solution to centrally manage IP address allocation; network authentication and management. Finally, we need to implement a solution which is not only secure and stable but also scalable.

Objectives

Needs Analysis

To initiate the project the service desk will engage all directives and identify all devices currently on the network. Secondly identify devices that have fallen off the network due to IP conflicts, inactivity or other reasons. Lastly a survey will be done for each directive identifying needs and future requirements for additional services which require additional hardware and devices to be added to the network in order to have a sound picture for scaling.

Development

Building of DHCP Server:

By use of the requirements that have been identified, the administrator of the system will configure the server so that they can be able to accommodate all the network devices and will manage to house all address pools. The configuration will be ableto sustain scalability that is mainly based on the major requirements of the organization. The configuration will also incorporate negotiation for authentication.

Authorizing Server in Active Directory:

For security reasons, a new DHCP should be authorized in active directory before being assigned an IP address by a given administrator. Such a move helps in the prevention of unauthorized DHCP servers from having access to the network. Multiple features are readily built in to help from unauthorized systems that could potentially compromise the network.  The presence of an active directory assists in the management of network access and has additional tools used to assist with the management of the DHCP server. Additionally, the DHCP server is given the task of periodically checking to see if the authorization has changed, thus giving the system a chance of giving services to clients (Yoo et al..2016).

Implementation

The main objective in carrying out DHCP implementation is managing, maintaining and implementing IP addresses. DHCP is one of the main network services that can be configured in the deployment and production of windows servers. To make the system effectively work, DHCP is accurately configured with both dynamic DNS and Active Directory services that are aimed at trying to improve the way through which the service works.

Management of DHCP Databases:

Completing the installation and configuration of DHCP does not relieve one from the task of carrying out continuous monitoring and management of the system over a given period. The ability of effective monitoring and troubleshooting of DHCP managed networks is critical because of the ongoing updates to the database when changes are made to the network. All available tools should be applied so that one can ensure that the server can operate in an optimal and secure environment providing the required services to network clients (Dwijaksara 2017).

The main objective of implementing Active Directory is the ability of the system to automatically register DNS. The server has the default behaviour of registering and updating information with the help of authoritative DNS. The client has the task of providing the system with instructions that are aimed at performing updates according to the updates of the host. The request of the client will require updates according to its host name as well as the inclusion of IP address and accurate information from the DNS.

Server Monitoring and Management by DHCP:

The administrator will take control of main reservations and clients that have been reserved. When DHCP has been installed the main function is to monitor all activities that are carried out by various servers that have been set up. The system should have the capacity of preventing unauthorized entry of rogue devices, thus maintaining the integrity of information from various sections of the system (palm, 2017).

Project Deliverables

The main aim of the project is to eliminate the working of IP assignments manually and give crucial management of the networking system. The move will be able to increase the level of productivity and reduce possible overhead due to IP conflicts. There are various forms of conflicts that are realized when installing the system such as the occurrence of configuration errors and the varying level of unused IPs. By the use of DHCP, network management will be centrally managed.

The deliverables of the project include:

Building of DHCP Server

Authorizing the DHCP Server in Active Directory

Management of DHCP Databases

Server Monitoring and Management by DHCP

Project Plan and Timelines

References

Gao, F., Guo, M., Wang, X., & Wang, Y. (2015). On the Design and Implementation of a Tailored DHCP Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks based on FreeOS.

Raquel Lacuesta, Jaime Lloret, Sandra Sendra, Lourdes Peñalver, (2014) “Spontaneous Ad Hoc Mobile Cloud Computing Network”, The Scientific World Journal, vol. 2014.

Yoo, K. J., & Kim, E. G. (2016). Design and Implementation of DHCP Supporting Network Attack Prevention. Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering, 20(4), 747-754.

Palm, S. R. (2017). U.S. Patent No. 9,628,393. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Younes, O. S. (2016). A Secure DHCP Protocol to Mitigate LAN Attacks. Journal of Computer and Communications, 4(01), 39.

Saleem, M.U. (2005). Address Auto-configuration in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks using OSLR. In Information and Communication Technologies, 2005.

Dwijaksara, M. H., Hwang, M., Jeon, W. S., &Jeong, D. G. (2017, April). Design and implementation of a fast handoff scheme supporting vehicular mobility over IEEE 802.11 WLAN. In Proceedings of the Symposium on Applied Computing (pp. 634-641). ACM.

JamshidTaghiloo, Reza Berangi, Majid Taghiloo, MarziehGholami (2008). An anti-storm approach for IP address auto-configuration in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks. In 5^th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad Hoc Sensor Systems (pp. 583-588).

Appendix 1:

Keywords

IP – Internet Protocol

DHCP- Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

UDP- User Datagram Protocol

BOOTP- Boot protocol