Violet Mcdonald

DCOM 101
Lab 4

Case Project 4-2

1. XYZ Corp.s Nashua, NH, facilities are two office buildings 400 feet apart, each with its own LAN.
To connect the two networks, you plan to dig a trench and lay cable in conduit between the two
buildings. You want to use fiber-optic cable, but your budget-conscious facilities manager wants to use
100 Mbps Ethernet over twisted-pair. What reasons can you use to justify fiber-optic cable in this case,
and why?

a: Twisted pair wont span a 400-foot distance.

c: Twisted pair is a conductive cable and can, therefore, carry current based on the difference in
ground potential between the two buildings.
d: Fiber-optic cable leaves more room for growth and future needs for increased bandwidth than
twisted pair does.

A is true because ethernet has a attenuation distance of 100m max, which is ~328 feet, so it wont go far
enough, C is true because the ground potential can cause RFI/EMI, and D is true because fiber-optic
has been shown in tests to be capable of transmission speeds of several TERAbits per second, so theres
PLENTY of room for growth, instead of having to dig up the ethernet and replace it when it becomes to
slow to keep up with an upgraded system.

Case Project 4-3

TVBCA has just occupied a historic building in downtown Pittsburgh in which 15 employees will
work. Because of codes for historic buildings, TVBCA isn't permitted to run cables inside walls or
ceilings.
Required result: Employees must be able to share files and printers, as in a typical LAN environment,
without using cables.
Optional desired results: Employees must be able to use their laptops and move freely throughout the
offic while maintaining a network connection. Because of the size of some computer-aided design
(CAD) files employees use frequently, data transfer speeds should be more than 20 Mbps.
Proposed Solution: Install an 802.11n wireless access point and configure each computer and laptop
with a wireless network card. Which of the following results does the proposed solution deliver?
Explain your answer.

b: The proposed solution delivers the required result and only one of the two optional desired
results.

B is the correct answer because it will allow the employees to share files and printers without the need
for cables, which works withing the historic building codes. Because its wireless theyll also be able to
move freely thruout the office while still having a connection. However, they wont be able to achieve
their data transfer speeds of 20 Mbps over the 802.11n wireless connection. Narrowband wireless is
limited to 10 Mbps, and Spread spectrum to only 6 Mbps if using Direct-sequence modulation. If they
wanted to achieve the required result and BOTH of the optional desired results, they could go with an
infrared reflective or scatter based LAN, which can go up to 100 Mbps, but might require more access
points.