Summary for Part I

At this point in the network design process, you have identified a customer's network applications and the technical requirements for a network design that can support the applications. You should take another look at Table 4–4, "Network Applications Traffic Characteristics," and Table 2–3, "Network Applications Technical Requirements," to make sure you understand your customer's application requirements. If you want, you can merge these two tables so there is one row for each application.

A top-down methodology for network design focuses on applications. Chapter 1 covered identifying applications and business goals. Chapter 2 analyzed technical goals for applications and the network as a whole, such as availability, performance, and manageability. Chapter 3 concentrated on techniques for characterizing the existing network, and Chapter 4 refocused on technical requirements in terms of the network traffic characteristics of applications and protocols.