The Evaluation of Local Area Network Designs Through Simulation
Richard G. Born · Journal of Organizational and End User Computing · 1992
The widespread growth in the use of local area networks (LANs) is not surprising when considering that three-quarters of the traditional information distribution needs of an organization are within departments or shared among departments. Current LANs even demand access beyond department boundaries and are reaching into the factory and process control applications. Therefore, the managerial analysis of the capabilities of proposed LANs as well as the analysis of competing LAN designs is becoming more complex. As a result, many organizations are finding that it is advantageous to simulate a proposed LAN or internetwork of several LANs prior to implementation. This paper addresses how a special-purpose LAN simulation and modeling tool, LANNET II.5, can be used by data communications management to answer a variety of questions that frequently arise when considering decisions related to the implementation of LANs in an organization. Such a tool would also be appropriate for use by management information systems (MIS) students in a business data communications course, as it allows concentration on the nature of the activities of LAN users without the need for programmingRequest access from your librarian to read this article's full text.