CO2222: A New Provider is Planning to Enter the Cycle Hire Market: Data Communications and Enterprise Networking Assignment, SIM, Singapore

Tasks

A new provider is planning to enter the cycle hire market in a major city. The service available from the existing provider has become old and dated, and there is an opportunity to compete with them on improved technology and/or price. The new entrant has conducted a user survey and has identified the top four user requirements as:

User Requirements:

• Easy to locate the closest available cycle.
• Simple to use.
• Flexible methods for payment.
• Only pay for the actual time the cycle is used.

The new entrant has commissioned you to conduct a feasibility study and propose a specification and design for a network to implement the User Requirements. Additionally, the new provider has identified four key requirements of their own that your proposed solution must satisfy:

Provider Requirements:

• Ability to unlock and lock remotely.
• Real-time location tracking of all cycles.
• Simple, secure payments.
• Scalable up to 500,000 bicycles.

Task 1: Draw up a Network Requirements Analysis based on the above User and Provider Requirements, using the standard headings:

• Functionality
• Performance
• Cost
• Reliability

Task 2: Using your Network Requirements Analysis, develop a design proposal for the network stating clearly how it satisfies each of the four criteria in Task 1 and meets each of the User and Provider Requirements. Ideally, this should be presented in the form of a table with each of the 8 requirements clearly identified.

Task 3: Produce a reasonably detailed design of your proposed network. You should specify the technology to be used and the main components/suppliers to be used (e.g. hubs, routers, mobile providers), but you do not need to specify actual branded products (e.g. Cisco model xx).