Harriet's Fruit and Chocolate Company was established in 1935 in the Pacific Northwest of the United States to ship gift baskets of locally grown peaches and pears to customers in the United States. The company also makes chocolates and baked goods to include in the gift baskets. It has grown extensively over the years and is currently one of the biggest companies in the Pacific Northwest.
Recently, Harriet's descendants, who still run the company, have identified a need to immediately report when fruit is starting to ripen and should be picked and placed in cold storage. Employees in the marketing department have identified a need to access inventory data for the fruit in the orchards and in cold storage. With this data, they can design and sell gift-basket products that take advantage of the ripe fruit. This data must also be fed into e-commerce applications so that web orders can correctly specify product availability.
In addition, the company recently hired an ambitious programmer who is anxious to use her knowledge of SAS programming, SQL, and DB2 to design reporting applications for senior management. She calls you every day with new ideas on what she could accomplish if the network were upgraded so that she could reach up-to-date data from the orchards and cold storage buildings.
As the network designer for this company, you have been charged with selecting network technologies to reach the orchards and cold storage buildings. Each of the six orchards has a shack with one or two standalone PCs and a printer. The three cold storage buildings are huge warehouses that include a few standalone PCs and printers. The local telephone company has suggested that you lease fractional T1 links, but these links are expensive and possibly beyond your budget. Wireless technologies are also possible, but you have heard that fruit trees, especially full-grown trees that are tall and leafy, can absorb a wireless radio frequency (RF) signal. You have also heard that the cold storage buildings have ice hazards, making it hard to install equipment. But you will not let these challenges faze you.
1. What investigation will you do with regard to the physical infrastructure of the orchards, the orchard shacks, and the cold storage buildings?
2. Make a list of business goals for Harriet's Fruit and Chocolate Company. What are some constraints that will affect these goals?
3. Make a list of technical goals for Harriet's Fruit and Chocolate Company. What tradeoffs might you need to make to meet these goals?
4. Will a wireless solution support the low delay that will be needed to meet the needs of the applications? Defend your answer.
5. What security concerns should you bring up as you design the network upgrade?
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Outcomes Assessed
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Summarize among scalability, availability, performance security, manageability, usability, adaptability, and affordability as they relate to internetworking product selection.
Use technology and information resources to research issues in network architecture and analysis.
Write clearly and concisely about issues in network architecture and analysis using proper writing mechanics.
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Grading Rubric for Case Study 1 - Harriet's Fruit and Chocolate Company
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Criteria
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Unacceptable
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Developing
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Competent
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Exemplary
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1. Determine what investigation you will do with regard to the physical infrastructure of the orchards, orchard shacks, and the cold storage building.
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Did not complete the assignment or did not determine what investigation you will do with regard to the physical infrastructure of the orchards, orchard shacks, and the cold storage building; omitted key information and/or included irrelevant information.
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Partially determined what investigation you will do with regard to the physical infrastructure of the orchards, orchard shacks, and the cold storage building; omitted some key information.
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Sufficiently determined what investigation you will do with regard to the physical infrastructure of the orchards, orchard shacks, and the cold storage building.
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Fully determined what investigation you will do with regard to the physical infrastructure of the orchards, orchard shacks, and the cold storage building.
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2. Make a list of business goals for Harriet's Fruit and Chocolate Company and determine some constraints that will affect these goals.
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Did not complete the assignment or did not make a list of business goals for Harriet's Fruit and Chocolate Company and determine some constraints that will affect these goals; omitted key information and/or included irrelevant information.
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Partially made a list of business goals for Harriet's Fruit and Chocolate Company and determined some constraints that will affect these goals; omitted some key information.
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Sufficiently made a list of business goals for Harriet's Fruit and Chocolate Company and determined some constraints that will affect these goals.
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Fully made a list of business goals for Harriet's Fruit and Chocolate Company and determined some constraints that will affect these goals.
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3. Make a list of technical goals for Harriet's Fruit and Chocolate Company and determine what tradeoffs you might need to make to meet these goals.
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Did not complete the assignment or did not make a list of technical goals for Harriet's Fruit and Chocolate Company and determine what tradeoffs you might need to make to meet these goals; omitted key information and/or included irrelevant information.
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Partially made a list of technical goals for Harriet's Fruit and Chocolate Company and determined what tradeoffs you might need to make to meet these goals; omitted some key information.
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Sufficiently made a list of technical goals for Harriet's Fruit and Chocolate Company and determined what tradeoffs you might need to make to meet these goals.
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Fully made a list of technical goals for Harriet's Fruit and Chocolate Company and determined what tradeoffs you might need to make to meet these goals.
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4. Determine if a wireless solution will support the low delay that will be needed to meet the needs of the applications. Defend your answer.
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Did not complete the assignment or did not determine if a wireless solution will support the low delay that will be needed to meet the needs of the applications. Did not defend your answer; omitted key information and/or included irrelevant information.
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Partially determined if a wireless solution will support the low delay that will be needed to meet the needs of the applications and defended your answer; omitted some key information.
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Sufficiently determined if a wireless solution will support the low delay that will be needed to meet the needs of the applications and defended your answer.
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Fully determined if a wireless solution will support the low delay that will be needed to meet the needs of the applications and defended your answer.
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5. Determine what security concerns you should bring up as you design the network upgrade.
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Did not complete the assignment or did not determine what security concerns you should bring up as you design the network upgrade; omitted key information and/or included irrelevant information.
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Partially determined what security concerns you should bring up as you design the network upgrade; omitted some key information.
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Sufficiently determined what security concerns you should bring up as you design the network upgrade.
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Fully determined what security concerns you should bring up as you design the network upgrade.
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6. Clarity
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Did not complete the assignment, or explanations are unclear and not organized.
(Major issues)
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Explanations generally unclear and not well organized.
(Many issues)
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Explanations generally clear and/or organized. (Minor issues)
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Explanations very clear and well organized.
(Added helpful details)
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7. Writing - Grammar, sentence structure, paragraph structure, spelling, punctuation, APA usage.
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Did not complete the assignment or had 8 or more different errors in grammar, sentence structure, paragraph structure, spelling, punctuation, or APA usage. (Major issues)
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Had 6-7 different errors in grammar, sentence structure, paragraph structure, spelling, punctuation, or APA usage. (Many issues)
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Had 4-5 different errors in grammar, sentence structure, paragraph structure, spelling, punctuation, or APA usage. (Minor issues)
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Had 0-3 different errors in grammar, sentence structure, paragraph structure, spelling, punctuation, or APA usage.
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