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Initially (prior to my (Ben B) arrivial), the approach had been to place a large switch in the computer room and another in the Tech Booth, and a third on the third floor. All leaf-nodes would connect to those. This was beginning to exhaust ports on the computer room switch, but the others seldom expanded nor were expected to in any significant way.

With the growth in devices at this time and expected to continue, I decided to expand/design the wired layout differently. Rather than having a few clusters scattered around, I would also begin to expand from a 2 tier layout to a multi-tiered layout where a node may pass through 3 or more switches before getting to the gateway. This was to better isolate traffic (at least in theory), isolate problems, extend the wired footprint throughout the build(s), and reduce the overall cable budget (aggregate length of cat6 throughout the building(s)).

While the main clusters would be highend Cisco switches, the lower tiers would include smaller netgear switches.

You also have to keep in mind which switches need to support Dante, and only use Cisco or another complient switch in those cases.

Initially, the approach was to place a large switch in the computer room and another in the Tech Booth, and on the third floor. All leaf-nodes would connect to those. This was beginning to exhaust ports on the computer room switch, but the others seldom expanded nor were expected to in any significant way.

So, over time I began to build the infrastructure deeper. In the image to the left you see a 3-tier structure. We had been growing too much at the 2nd tier and needed to grow more actual tiers. So we began moving from a 3-tier structure to a multi-tier structure.

There are several limitations to keep in mind.

• each switch has a fixed number of ports
• there is a 300 foot limit to a single Ethernet cable
• we do not know where new network access will be required over time, so we want to plan for flexible expansion where it ends up being needed
• the 80/20 rule applies to each switch; 80 percent of it's traffic will remain on that switch. So clustering nodes on several switches significantly reduces the traffic on any given segment or path
• The farther out in the building from the computer room we place switches, the easier and less expensive it is to attach new devices further from the main switch. For example, if we need a drop (an Ethernet wall socket that provides network access via Ethernet cable and RJ-45) in an upper office behind the student center, we do not need to run individual a line from the main switch to that location, we only need to run from the Student Center switch.

In some cases (such as the Kiosks) we will install a 5-8 port switch to service the devices at that kiosk station. However, the intention is to have spare ports left open so that in the future we need only run from that switch to a new location.

There are several limitations to keep in mind.

• each switch has a fixed number of ports
• there is a 300 foot limit to a single Ethernet cable
• we do not know where new network access will be required over time, so we want to plan for flexible expansion where it ends up being needed
• the 80/20 rule applies to each switch; 80 percent of it's traffic will remain on that switch. So clustering nodes on several switches significantly reduces the traffic on any given segment or path
• The farther out in the building from the computer room we place switches, the easier and less expensive it is to attach new devices further from the main switch. For example, if we need a drop (an Ethernet wall socket that provides network access via Ethernet cable and RJ-45) in an upper office behind the student center, we do not need to run individual a line from the main switch to that location, we only need to run from the Student Center switch.

In some cases (such as the Kiosks) we will install a 5-8 port switch to service the devices at that kiosk station. However, the intention is to have spare ports left open so that in the future we need only run from that switch to a new location.