Assignment #6 in MISIf you were hired by the university president as an IT consultant, what would you suggest (technology, infrastructure, innovations

If I were hired as an IT consul;tant i would like to suggest the following for a benefits of the University..

• The Information Technology Consultant works with user groups to solve business problems with available technology including hardware,
software, databases, and peripherals. Services may include studying and analyzing systems needs; systems development; systems
process analysis, design, and re-engineering; feasibility studies; developing requests for proposals; evaluating vendor products and
making recommendations on selection. Enterprise support may require knowledge of business management, systems engineering operations research, and management engineering. Duties are performed at various levels within the defined category

• Probably focus your technical skills on predictable technologies: Microsoft server and desktop OSs, Microsoft Office software, e-mail platforms, and TCP/IP. Particularly ambitious IT consultants might add VoIP, Cisco, SonicWALL, and other network technologies to their plate, too.
But you may be missing a cash cow if you overlook Intuit products. The company recently reported a 9 percent increase in quarterly revenue vs. the third quarter 2008. With third quarter 2009 revenue of $1.4 billion, someone is buying Intuit products, and many of those people could be your clients.

• A consultant is a professional that provides expert advice in a particular domain or area of expertise such as accountancy, information technology, the law, human resources, marketing, medicine, finance or more esoteric areas of knowledge, for example engineering and scientific specialties such as materials science, instrumentation, avionics, and stress analysis. See related Certified Management Consultant and MBA.
• An expert in a specialized field brought in to provide independent professional advice to an organization on some aspect of its activities. A consultant may advise on the overall management of an organization or on a specific project, such as the introduction of a new computer system. Consultants are usually retained by a client for a set period of time, during which they will investigate the matter in hand and produce a report detailing their recommendations. Consultants may be established in business independently or be employed by a large consulting firm. Specific types of consultants include management consultants and internal consultants.

I would like to suggest the following for the Infrastructure which is the computer hardware and sofware infrastructure: Computers should be running at least Pentium-2.0Ghz w/48.8K modem. Computer technician would use different "internet software" ( pick and choose what works better ). Network technician would also use different operating systems ( WinXP or WinVista or Linux ). Host computers should upgrade to faster hardware ( Pentium 4, Dual Core, Core 2 Duo, AMD Sempron, AMD Athlon ) and upgrade to faster connection ( DSL or Full T1,T2 ).

University internet server needs to have a 24 hour dedicated connection to the internet and it should be internet server == a "unix machine" + firewall + router + phone lines to ISP. Another suggestion is to switch to a "better/faster/larger" ISP ( not the slow commercial online services ).

I would suggest the innovations in cable modem/router tweaking to improve university internet connection speed. All modems make it possible for established communications channels to support a wide variety of data communication. Similar to other modems, a cable modem receives and sends data by modulating and demodulating signals. However, cable modems differ from other modems because they also function like routers. Broadband Internet data is delivered into the home or office over a coaxial cable line that also carries television signals. The information travels like a TV channel through the coaxial cable line. The cable modem separates the data from the television signals and directs the data to the PC and video to the television.

Local traffic is the biggest speed cap that plagues cable modems or a source of a slow cable internet connection. Cable modems work on a network/grid that connects to a T3 router running at 45 Megabits per second. Depending on where computers placed, they could have a busy grid, or a not-so-busy one. Then there is Internet traffic. Network administrator’s best bet if he really needs the speed is to pick a time where not as many people are on. There is a noticeable difference in traffic between 2 AM and 6 PM.

There are a number of ways to improve the performance of university cable modem/router. Unlike old fashioned dial-up modems, there isn't a whole lot he can do to increase the speed of computer cable connection. He can tweak the way the broadband Internet cable connection sends the data/packets back and forth. If he is new to this whole thing, there are a number of programs that will automatically set the best values for the connection. Some of the most popular programs are EasyMTU, I-Speed, Intelli Dial-Up, Smartalec, Smartplay.

There’s also Web browser called Voyager 5000 made by Smartalec that’s much faster than regular Internet Explorer. Updating the drivers on computer’s (Network Interface Card) can give the most noticeable speed boost above everything else. Some good places to check for drivers would be: www.drivershq.com, www.download.com, and even www.altavista.com.

Improving university cable internet speeds with connection teaming is also an option. Midpoint has a feature called connection teaming. Connection teaming combines multiple connections to the Internet for increased bandwidth. Along with connection teaming, the software splits large files being downloaded into multiple smaller parts and downloads each part at the same time along each connection. Cable modem companies sometimes allow network technician to purchase additional IP address for a monthly fee. @Home does this for $5 per IP address. @Home caps the bandwidth per account, not IP address - but at the very least, it might increase the efficiency of internet connection and allow the throughput to closer reach the capped maximum speed.
On a very basic level, host computer’s performance also affects the Internet performance as well. If university computer isn't running at its best, neither will the broadband Internet connection.

VOICE OVER IP-INTERNET TELEPHONY

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a technology used for sending sound via network based on IP protocol, which is e.g. Internet. It allows for integration of telephony and data transmission into one net thanks to treating sound as an ordinary stream of data. This technology is more and more often perceived as an alternative to casual telephone networks due to its numerous advantages. VoIP enables making phone calls also to subscribers who do not have Internet and use traditional telephone network or a mobile.

The basic principle of the technology\'s operation is relatively simple, namely the speech signal is transferred to digital representation, it undergoes compression with a proper codec and then it is divided into packets and sent via IP protocol. Many new technologies are used here, including logical elements and special protocols. Logical elements are necessary for, among others, managing notifications and storing information on it, routing packets etc. New protocols are mainly signal protocols, which means that they are used for making connections and multimedia sessions, determining user\'s location, translation of addresses, negotiations of parameters of the notification link, disconnecting and managing notifications, billings and realizations of safety mechanisms. At present two main protocols are used for VoIP, namely H.323 and SIP.

H.323 Protocol
The first version of the protocol was adopted over 10 tears ago, namely in 1996, the second one in 1998. It belongs to the family of H.32x protocols, which describe multimedia connections inside various networks:
H.320 - narrow-band digital networks ISDN
H.321 - broad-band digital networks ISDN and ATM
H.322 - packet networks with guaranteed band
H.323 - packet networks with no guaranteed band
H.324 - analogue POTS networks

All of these protocols support various sets of audio and video codecs, depending on the band made available in the network. They can operate with transmission control (TCP) or without it (UDP), where in VoIP connections no control protocols are used due to additional delays. H.323 supervises the process of sending multimedia data in packet networks, performing this task in real time. Components of H.323 precisely define how particular components of the system, operating according to the protocol, initiate multimedia sessions and how working posts exchange compressed audio and video data between themselves. H.323 supervises processes of sending multimedia data in packet networks, performing this task in real time. Architecture of telephone IP network, base on H.323 standard, consists of four basic elements: terminals, gatekeepers, gateways and MCU (Multipoint Control Units).
Terminals are clients who have the possibility of initiation and receiving notifications. They are also used for sending and receiving two-way stream of data. A terminal can be both, software operating on a PC and a special device designed for this purpose. All terminals should make carrying out a telephone conversation possible, while data or video service is optional.
Gatekeepers manage the so-called zone, which is a collection of terminals, gateways and MCU. H.323 standard divides the net into these zones. Notifications inside a net are managed by a gatekeeper. Inter-zone notifications can engaged many gatekeepers. A gatekeeper, when present in the net, supervises the course of all telephone conversations carried out in a zone. Its basic tasks are the following: control of the available band, routing notifications, receiving, refusing notifications in a zone, translation of addresses and user authorization. Gatekeeper is also an interface to other H.323 networks. A \"gatekeeper\" is an optional element of the network but if it is present in a given subnetwork, then the terminals can use it.
A gateway is responsible for connecting the telephone IP network to other types of network. For example, a gateway can connect H.323 network with SIP, PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) or ISDN networks. The gateway must provide an interface of real time between various transmission formats and communication procedures. Moreover, it is responsible for establishing and disconnecting connections in both connected networks. The gateway must therefore have mechanisms converting various formats at its disposal and it must operate networks based on various technologies. MCU runs conferences in which at least three end points participate. An MCU unit manages conference resources, runs negotiations between end points (agreeing on, for instance, the method of encoding audio and video data) and it can steer streams of packets containing multimedia data. MCU consists of two basic elements: Multipoint Controller (MC) and optionally a few Multipoint Processors (MP). MC is responsible for exchange of information and for negotiation of communication parameters between the end points, it runs H.255.0 signaling MP is among others responsible for mixing various multimedia data, format translations and eventual redistribution of streams from users.

What is very often possible is integration of network elements in one physical device. For example, functionality of a gatekeeper can be combined with functionality of a gateway and an MCU or an MCU can be built into the terminal so as to make conference connections possible without additional devices.


LINUX ROUTER
Everything takes place in Linux environment (distribution practically does not matter but personally I recommend Slackware). I presume that people reading this article are equipped with basic knowledge on compilations, patching and software installation in Linux systems and that they are familiar with basic principles of working with packet filter iptables and a tool for queuing tc. The following elements influence the system so that it manages the band properly:

- linux kernel in version 2.6.15.x
- patch to linux kernel -2.6.14-imq6.diff
- patch to kernel esfq-kernel.patch
- latest iptables (1.3.5 currently)
- patch for the iptables iptables-1.3.0-imq1.diff
- ipp2p module for iptables
- packet iproute2
- patch for iproute2 esfq-iproute2.patch

I suggest installation of the software in the above-stated order. Kernel 2.6.x is much more stable than series 2.4.x. The above configuration was tested by me on a big group of routers (10 ) and it has been working perfectly well. Needles to say, in Linux, you can only limit the output movement from a given interface with tc (Traffic Control). What we need then is a virtual mediation interface (the so-called IMQ) to which the Input movement should be redirected (the so-called Input). Thanks to such an operation, the input movement could be limited as output movement from a virtual IMQ. Obviously, queuing of solutions can be done without IMQ but I do not recommend this method because it is based up feigning packets, which makes later classification and prioritization impossible. I need to say a few more words on the interfaces. No network card based on Realtek\'s chipset should be used (especially RTL 8319), as they are devices designed for working posts and they lose work stability when there are more connections, which is manifested in an increase of the \'pings\' and in many other awkward phenomena. Instead of them I recommend cards based upon Intel Pro or 3com.
Another aspect is the ESFQ mechanism (Enhanced Stochastic Fair Queuing) for the WAN router. In comparison to the traditionally used SFQ mechanism, it enables just division of links with a view to connections from the source and target address (hash src, hash dst - upload, download to WAN). Thanks to this, we are able to make WAN interfaces totally independent from LAN interfaces. Briefly speaking - no queuing is necessary for LAN, the whole movement will be justly separated between them. All of the above solutions refer obviously to HTB mechanism (Hierarchic Token Bucket).

The University must ensure that the networks are maintained by their IT personnel and or technicians and the connection is monitored from time to time.

Today's networks have a significant impact on our lives - changing the way we live, work, and play. Computer networks - and in a larger context the Internet - allow people to communicate, collaborate, and interact in ways they never did before. We use the network in a variety of ways, including web applications, IP telephony, video conferencing, interactive gaming, electronic commerce, education, and more.

What are the benefits of networking? In a network, information and resources can be shared. This brings a number of advantages: You can share expensive peripherals, such as printers. In a network, all the computers can access the same printer. You can pass data between users without using floppy disks. Transferring files over the network eliminates time wasted copying files onto a floppy disk and then onto another PC. Also, there is less restriction on the size of file that can be transferred over a network. You can centralize key computer programs, such as finance and accounting. Often users need to access the same program so they can work on it simultaneously. One example would be a ticket booking office system where it would important to prevent a ticket being sold twice. You can institute automatic file backup. A computer program can be used to back up key files automatically, saving time and ensuring that all your work is safe.

In a Wide Area Network, information and resources can be shared over a greater geographical area. This brings a number of advantages: You can send and receive e-mail from all over the world, communicating messages and announcements to many people, in many different areas, quickly and inexpensively. You can transfer files to and from colleagues in other locations, or access the company network from home. You can access the vast resources of the Internet and the World Wide Web.

Internet has great effects in every people on earth that makes the people saw the as the useful tool for basically information for news, events, browsing for people and for history and many more. Internet has changed the way we communicate with our loved ones across the country because it offers more benefit than the old communication technologies. In education Internet has become a virtual assistant for students who wants research be done easily and hassle free.

http://www.cio.com/article/131600/The_Role_of_IT_in_Innovation_Friend_or_Foe_/4