The institute network spans Ground Floor, 1st Floor, 2nd Floor, and 3rd Floor, each using dedicated switches, PCs, and printers. All network segments interconnect via a four-router topology (R1, R2, R3, R4) located on the 3rd floor. The 3rd floor also hosts the internet gateway and server infrastructure.
See the demo video below for a quick visual explanation of how the system works.
Full system description referenced from project documentation.
Reference: Ground Floor Diagram
- 1 × 24/48-port switch
- User PCs (4)
- Printers (3)
- Uplink to R1 on the 3rd floor
- Used for administrative or general-purpose access
Reference: 1st Floor Diagram
- IT Lab environment
- Contains ~20–25 PCs arranged in rows
- Switch and router uplink section on the top-right of the lab
- Lab traffic uplinks to R1
Reference: 2nd Floor Diagram
- Another IT Lab with PCs
- Switch positioned to distribute traffic in multiple rows
- Connects upward to R2 using vertical riser cable
Reference: 3rd Floor Diagram and Server Room
- Server Room with:
- 3 Servers
- 1 Switch
- Connection to Router Cluster
- Staff Section (Teachers, Marketing/Admin, Managers) with PCs and printers
- Switch + Router backbone connecting to R3 and R4
- Internet connection enters here
Routers:
- R1 – handles Ground + 1st Floor traffic
- R2 – handles 2nd Floor
- R3, R4 – form backbone redundancy (connected to each other and to R1/R2)
Routing:
- Uses RIPv2
- Supports:
- VLSM
- Multicast updates
- Triggered updates
- Discontinuous networks
- Chosen because of a low number of routers and cost-effective design
Devices used:
| Device Type | Quantity | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Routers | 4 | Core inter-floor backbone |
| Switches | 4 | Includes 48-port & 8-port |
| Servers | 3 | Located on 3rd floor |
| Lab PCs | 50 | Two IT labs |
| Staff PCs | 35 | Teachers, Admin, Managers |
| Printers | 3 | Distributed on floors |
Security section:
- Port security enabled on all switches
- Unused ports disabled
- Router & switch passwords protected via:
- Console password
- Enable password
- Encryption enabled
- Antivirus installed on all user devices
- DHCP assigns IPs to all floors
- VLANs for separation (Teachers, Admin, IT Labs, etc.)
Maintenance schedule:
- Weekly:
- Software updates
- Router, switch, and server health checks
- Documentation updates
- Security review
- Monthly:
- Hardware inspection
- Testing:
- Inter-VLAN pings
- Floor-to-floor connectivity checks
- DHCP address validation
- Redundancy path verification (R3-R4 link)
According to validation steps:
- Ping from Ground → 2nd Floor
- Ping from 1st Floor → 3rd Floor (Server 2)
- Ping across VLANs
- Ping from 1st Floor → Printer on Ground
All tests validated successful routing and VLAN communication.
- Ground Floor Layout (
Ground_Floor.pdf) - First Floor Layout (
1 st floor.pdf) - Second Floor Layout (
2 nd floor.pdf) - Third Floor Layout (
3 rd floor.pdf) - Main Topology Design (
Drawing3.jpeg) - AIN Presentation (
AIN.pptx)
This design provides:
- Redundancy using 4-router backbone
- Segregation using VLANs
- DHCP-based IP automation
- Security hardening with port security and encrypted passwords
- Scalable IT Lab configuration
- Centralized server infrastructure on the 3rd floor
The network is optimized for education environments, offering reliability, cost-efficiency, and scalability for future expansion.
This project is licensed under the MIT License.
See the LICENSE file for details.
If you use or reference this work, please cite:
Kasthuriarachchi, S.D., Perera, H.A.K.D., Jayasekera, P.Y.R., & Liyanage, R.S.H. (2020). Prototype Network design for Multi-Floor Educational Institute. [Online] Available at: https://github.com/sadeep654/Prototype-Network-design (Accessed: date-you-accessed).
- Perera H.A.K.D
- Jayasekera P.Y.R
- Kasthuriarachchi S.D
- Liyanage R.S.H
Copyright (c) 2020 Sadeep Dilshan Kasthuriarachchi