Design Review Template - NETS

About The Document
Document Purpose
This network design review document is intended to provide an overall assessment of the design aspects of
the network and select operational functions. The comments presented in this document are a result of
information learned about the network from customer-documentation as well as the weekly discussions.
This assessment is part of the Performance Engineering and Optimization services provided by the
Central Engineering Team. This service will give a best practice assessment of the network as a complete
system. It uses data collected about individual devices or interfaces to generate an assessment of “Campus
Best Practices”. This assessment would consider network Availability, Scalability, Convergence,
Modularity, Hierarchical Design and other network stability aspects.
Business Profile
Understanding the business goals of a company or institution is very important when analyzing a network
design. The goal of a good network design is to empower users in meeting company objectives. The
network should provide an acceptable level of performance and reliability while not wasting capital and
other resources in the process of over-engineering the network. Nor should a network be under-engineered
such that it fails to meet the service levels necessary to meet the business objectives. Many design
decisions are a result of thoughtful risk/benefit analysis.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research, NCAR, was established in 1960 to serve as a focus for
research on atmospheric and related science problems and is recognized for its scientific contributions to
our understanding of the earth system, including climate change, changes in atmospheric composition,
Earth-Sun interactions, weather formation and forecasting, and the impacts of all of these components on
human societies.
With two major sites in Boulder, I.M. Pei's Mesa Laboratory and a newer Foothills Laboratory, NCAR's
research is conducted in several principal disciplinary areas: atmospheric chemistry; mesoscale and
microscale meteorology; solar and solar-terrestrial physics; and climate and the linking of climate with
other environmental systems. Focused contributions are also made to national scientific initiatives. There
are multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary efforts aimed at the development of a coupled climate system
model which will simulate the complex interrelations between climate, weather, the sun, and the biosphere
and oceans. Research on the societal interactions with atmospheric processes is an integral part of NCAR's
program.
NCAR Design Review and Recommendations v1.2 5