LDP 540: Final Project Theoretical Application Stage 2 Interconnection of private networks over a public Network

 Copley EDT 540: Theoretical Application Assignment Stage 2

• Problem Statement:

Adult learning students are having problems relating real-world scenarios to lab practice scenarios.  The challenge is to give them a real world scenario that they then have to develop a solution.  This section is regarding strategies and approaches to the interconnection between a branch office and a core office location, as part of an architecture for deploying private networks over a public network.

• Target Learners:

This learning module is for learners who are interested in acquiring additional knowledge on the Interconnection of multi-location branch sites over a public network.  This module could be incorporated into a train the trainer program, that is also open for those working in the industry, and are interested in learning and expanding their knowledge.  This training module is targeted towards those who have already completed courses and have a  basic understanding of components.  The prerequisite knowledge should include coursework in basic route/switch, firewall methodology, IPSec and IP tunneling theories,

• List of Instructional Objectives:

At the end of the course, the objectives are to apply learned knowledge from previous coursework and apply the different components into a complete solution for this particular subject.  Developing private networks over a public network, requires  proper application of routing traffic between the two locations, isolation and security of the traffic flowing between the two locations, as well as strategies to  incorporate these approaches into a larger more complex network.  It will help them work within a team and across multiple teams within an organization, with the  ultimate goal is to help the students develop an interconnection architecture that can be applied to a complete organization.  It will provide learners with project management components that will allow them to collaborate with other departments within the organization.

• Selected learning theories and/or instructional strategies:

“Problem-based learning.  Situated cognition, constructivism, social learning, and
communities of practice are assumed theories of learning and cognition in problem-based inquiry environments.” (Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology
Michael Orey).  The goal is to provide a scenario in which students apply prior learned knowledge of topics to create a solution to an existing problem, allowing them to learn the proper application of these topics in a given scenario.

• Details of Lesson Plan/Training Module:

Problem based Scenario:
The San Francisco Sheriff's Office is providing wireless Tablets to inmates and wishes to be able to gather information on usage, application, Security violations and the like.  The interconnection would allow Sheriff personal access to resources within all networks without allowing inmates access to any resources other than an explicit list of applications allowed for continued education, or legal resources.  The primary location for the Jail system resides in CJ2 (County Jail 2) downtown San Francisco and the remote location is located in San Mateo CJ3.


Process for Scenario
Divide the class up into teams of 4 students per team.  Working in a team of 4 members should allow the project to be broken into the different components.  Have the learners develop a network interconnection strategy between CJ2 and CJ3 over the standard Internet connection provided at both locations.  

Since all members of the class should have the requisite knowledge, it shouldn’t matter how the students are grouped.  Have the students break the problem into the 4 major components and have each student present ideas to the group of how to solve the individual problem.  Then the teacher will have all the students work on their individual component.  Finally the teacher will have them come together as a team to incorporate the different strategies into a holistic approach for the solution.

After all 4 major components have been identified, have each student pick a topic and develop the requirements and procedures for providing that component to the entire solution.  
This should include the 4 following Topics

• Routing and Switching
• Security
• WLAN
• IP Tunneling

At the end of the exercise the team will come together as a group and combine the components into a working solution for the Sheriff’s Office into a presentation that can be submitted for review to the Sheriff's Office. They should select a leader (project manager) for the presentation of the solution to the Sheriff's department, which will be represented by the rest of the class.

The teacher will help coach the students to make sure they have chosen the four different topics which should include something close to the following depending on how the team members break down the problem.

• Individual components of the project.

Architecture of Routing and Switching of the traffic
The architecture of the routing and switching should include Local VLAN and IP subnet allocation with design for a larger organization.  This student should have the following components included in their solution.  

• IP Addressing Schema, including assigned blocks that allow for varied sizes of inmate populations.  Allowing for additional locations to be added to the network.  The design should include Local networks for Wireless, Management and Locally attached devices as well as networks for staff and visitors.  The given population of inmates must scale to 1,000 inmates at a given location with a minimum of 25 locations.
• VLAN Schema for a variety of local private and public networks.  This should include methodologies for unique network identifiers as well as expansion for additional networks in the future.  As well as integration of additional enterprise locations in the future.  It should scale to 25 locations.
• Routing table: Given the IP Addressing Schema above and the private and public networks from the private networks.  Is there any overlapping addressing and does their CIDR comply with standard addressing models?  It should also include NAT requirements.

Security of Traffic flows

• The security of the traffic should identify required applications and traffic flows to be incorporated into the Architecture.  The student  should include the following topics
• Firewalls and where they should be applied.  Where should applications be inspected and a what layer
•  Applications and associated traffic for the applications to include TCP / UDP traffic flows and associated conversations, which ports and IP addresses should be open or passable through a given firewall.
• Isolation of Staff versus Inmate traffic throughout the whole system.  The student should be able to detail the Inmates can communicate with available resources while the staff can communicate without these networks being allowed to talk to each other.

Wireless Traffic

• The student working on the Wireless solution should be able to account for all of the traffic between the Inmates tablet and the network.  The student examining Wireless traffic should include the following topics in their solution.
• Access points and required number of access points to allow for optimal communication between the tablet and the access point.  Care should be given to restrict band flows to given ranges, sizes of channels, number of channels and interference between tablets and access points.
• Radio Profile to include 2.4GHz 5.0GHz and 6.0GHz.  Channel width, bandwidth size and throughput policies to allow for optimal traffic flows.
• Modeling of coverage for signal strength, Signal to noise and channel Interference.  Modeling of the traffic should include maps for each of these and optimal coverage.  Does their recommended model work properly given their access points?

Tunneling VPN Methodology

• The tunneling and VPN Methodology student should include the method for the traffic to transit the public network.  How does the private network information cross the public network?  The student working on the Tunnelling / VPN Method should include the following topics.
• IPSec or tunnel Methodology.  The student should be able to make recommendations on the best way to implement traffic between the two locations.  Does their proposed solution allow private information to cross a public network without a security issue?
• Phase 1 negotiation to include private or shared key encryption algorithm .   This part of the process is to identify where VPN tunnels are tied and how the different devices can establish an encrypted tunnel between the peers.
• Phase 2 negotiation and registration of traffic between the peers.  What traffic is allowed into the tunnel, what part of the traffic is sent outside the tunnel.

Conclusion of project
After the students come back together to discuss the project.  They should work through the following process:  With coaching from the Instructor.

Project Management of Solution.
Have the students answer the question: How do the different solutions tie together to form a complete solution?  The elected leader of the project will become the Project manager for the solution.  With input from the other students and their different solutions to the individual project on how to tie the different solutions together into a solution that will work for the Sheriff's department.

The Final Solution will combine the individual components of the students into a total solution for the problem-based learning project.  It should include components that tie the whole exercise together.  These components should be worked together as a group and should include the following items.

• Network Diagram, depicting the major components as they relate to the total Solution
• Architecture guidelines for sizing of the exercise as it relates to this particular network and additionally how other locations or other networks could be added to the design
• Guidelines for deployments to allow for simplicity of troubleshooting including Naming conventions and labeling of components.
• Common areas for troubleshooting and standardization.

Conclusion of Exercise.

Peer review:  At the end of the exercise and presentation, the class should be allowed to ask questions to the team on how traffic will be isolated and secured from end to end.  Has the team of students met the requirements of the problem and will this solution be workable for the Sheriff's department?  This could be used as a grading exercise to simplify the teachers role in the whole process by having the students grade each other.

Assessments:

The solution presented by the group should encompass all aspects of good network design and proper security protocols.  This should give the group a good real-world example of using network VPN between two locations.

The main detriment to the exercise is the group would provide either too little security or too much security which either violates legal laws or provides an unusable solution.  Help them to understand if their proposed solution allows for people that come after them to work on their solution without having been involved in the initial design of the solution.

It's assumed all members of the group have in-depth knowledge  and are familiar with IPSec, Routing protocols, Firewall Rule sets, Wireless Protocols.  However members or groups without the necessary background knowledge would not be successful with the exercise and might become discouraged with the exercise.  

There should be some sort of collaboration between the different students, because the information from one part of the project could impact how a student does their part of the project.  For example the Student doing the IP Addressing scheme should be working with the person doing the IP Tunneling in order to determine endpoints for their Tunnels, they would also need to be working with the Wireless student so the Wireless Student knows ranges and sizes of networks that will be routed.  Lastly the Route switch student should be working with the Security guy to communicate the subnets that will be sending and receiving traffic through the different networks.  All of the different components will be closely tied together.

Coaching should happen at the development of the Major components and at the combination of the scenarios into the presentation.  The Coach should be able to work with each student as they develop the different parts of their component to the solution and guide them towards solutions that scale to larger deployments as well as a solution that is supportable.  

Assessment of the project by the class at the end of the project will provide the student with other points of view and other methods of solving the problem.  Did one group provide a unique solution that the other groups think of?  Was one solution eloquent in how the architecture was developed that allows for much larger scaling?  Can the solution provided be turned into a template for use with other organizations or other networks?  Can the given solution be re-used for other scenarios than just the Sheriff's department?

Elaboration of selected learning theories and instructional strategies:

The selected learning theories of using problem-based learning to help the student develop a solution to a problem in a group of 4 people and collaborate with the other participants of the team to come up with a complete solution to the given scenario.  It encourages communication between the students because the solution to their problem won’t work if it’s not communicated between the individual components.  No single part of the problem can be developed in isolation.  Each individual component will require information from the other students and information on how they are solving the problem.

It also uses connectivism in the process of communication between the different members of the team.  What information is important?  What information is not important? How do the decisions I make on my part of the project relate to the other parts of the project?  From the students perspective they should be asking themselves.  How does my opinion on how a particular problem might affect how somebody else is working on their part of the project or make a difference on how they were planning to solve the whole problem.  If the student  doing switch and routing properly identifies and isolates the network properly then the security guy only needs to provide minimal firewall rules between the isolated networks.  The student doesn’t need to develop a complete list of applications and rule sets between two management networks.  The student only needs to make sure that extraneous information from other networks isn’t allowed into those given networks.  Conversely, the student doing the security section should be helping and giving information to the Router / Switch student so that student knows what needs isolation and what doesn’t.  Conversation between the different students of their opinions on what justifies how and what should be qualified and what should be unqualified should help nurture continual learning and the ability to see the different ideas and how the inter relate to each other.





Explanation of the relationship between the design and the chosen learning theories and instructional strategies:

The design of this instructional application is using a problem-based learning scenario to relate knowledge to a new problem, because it promotes the development of critical thinking skills through the exercise.  Problem based Learning helps promote problem solving abilities directly related to the topic, and through the group exercise will help develop  communication skills.   All skills that will help new network engineers.

Problem based learning allows the student to create a connection between what they know and how to apply that knowledge to a given situation.  The student must be able to bridge the theory between what is known and how to apply that information to a given problem.  They are presented with a problem that requires a combination of different technologies and is required to make the different components work together.  The main question being can they translate Theory into a practical solution?

“ “translating principles of learning and instruction into specifications for instructional materials and activities” (Smith & Ragan, 1993, p. 12). To achieve this goal, two sets of skills and knowledge are needed. First, the designer must understand the position of the practitioner. In this regard, the following questions would be relevant: What are the situational and contextual constraints of the application? What is the degree of individual differences among the learners? What form of solutions will or will not be accepted by the learners as well as by those actually teaching the materials? The designer must have the ability to diagnose and analyze practical learning problems. Just as a doctor cannot prescribe an effective remedy without a proper diagnosis, the instructional designer cannot properly recommend an effective prescriptive solution without an accurate analysis of the instructional problem.”  (Introduction to instructional design, PressBooks https://pressbooks.pub/itec51602/chapter/learning-theories/ Page 2)
Through proper collaboration between the different team members on their specific technologies and the combination of these technologies into a single solution the student will learn to collaborate effectively within a team to develop the solution they will also learn to effectively learn a combination of these technologies to develop a single solution to a complex problem.  Finally they will learn through review in the group and in the larger classroom setting refinement of solutions and perhaps multiple ways in which they can develop a solution to a problem.  There are multiple ways to solve each of these problems and the solution that one group comes up with might be better than the other teams.
Problem based learning excels in the the faucet of learning application of knowledge versus learning new knowledge where a case-based learning technique might excel.  Case based learning could form an easier method of teaching this course by using this application as a single case and comparing and contrasting the solution to other scenarios.  However it’s felt that leading the student to a great solution outweighs the rote learning method of giving the student the solution and having them memorize the application of the scenario.

Cognitive apprenticeship is another type of learning model that could potentially work with this application if there is a disparate level of knowledge in the class and perhaps some of the students don’t have the prerequisite knowledge for the class.  In this model the teacher would want to pair one of the advanced students with students that aren’t familiar enough with the technology to complete the course on their own.  However, given the target audience,  it would probably not function in this method.  The recommendation would be to move the student into remedial classes to keep within the time constraints for this exercise.  In a cognitive apprenticeship the exercise could be extended into something twice or thrice as long.

• Justification/Evaluation of how the chosen learning theories and instructional strategies addresses the problem Statement:

The Justification and evaluation of the chosen learning theories basically boils down to the best way to teach a group of students the integration of disparate  technologies.  Given a problem, how would they solve this problem given this set of constraints?
 

Advantages of problem-based learning
 

If the students involved in this activity improves their abilities to work within a group and uses that knowledge to better understand the subject as it relates to how the problem is solved and how to apply that knowledge, “by sharing facts and ideas through discussion and answering questions …  making it easier to remember.”  ( Advantages and disadvantages of problem based learning http://surl.li/dvktm ) By using diverse instructional techniques to work within smaller groups and larger groups to solve problems by working together as well as sharing their different ideas and opinions on how a problem could be solved by learning that information and applying it to the given situation.
 

Through continuous engagement and collaboration between the students on the different parts of the problem solving situation will keep the student actively engaged in the whole process of solving the problem.  Pieces of the problem being solved by another student will impact the work that they are actively working on.  Without engagement in the process their solution might not work.
 

Through the development of transferable Skills, “The tangible contexts and consequences presented in a problem-based learning activity… students should be able to apply learnings if they eventually face similar issues.”  ( Advantages and disadvantages of problem based learning http://surl.li/dvktm.  Through “Improvement of Teamwork and Interpersonal Skills  Successful completion of a problem-based learning challenge hinges on interaction and communication, meaning students should also build transferable skills based on teamwork and collaboration.”  ( Advantages and disadvantages of problem based learning http://surl.li/dvktm)

Disadvantages of Problem-Based Learning

Student Unpreparedness  Some students may Lack of Prerequisite Knowledge.  Although the exercise is using standards based technology and Standards based exercises, the student needs to be at an expert level in all portions of the exercise.  Lacking the skills in one particular topic could cause the whole exercise to fail, because they will not have the knowledge to understand how the technologies interrelate, which is the goal of this whole exercise.  

Teacher Unpreparedness:  Many of the topics are quite complex, if the teacher doesn’t understand just one of the topics or is “A little rusty” on how the technology relates to each other, they should probably pick a different topic or way of teaching the subject.  Perhaps just teach refresher courses on each individual topic.

It’s going to take a lot of the teacher's time.  Even though problem-based learning is student centric, with a scenario of this complexity, It’s going to be tough to grade and if the students are creative it could take even longer.  With some advanced students, they could present methods for solving the problem that perhaps the teacher was unfamiliar with, creating a problem for the teacher.  They would have to learn the method being presented as well as potential problems that it could create for the students for their coaching.