Week 9, Chapter 9

What types of networks do you have at your place of business? What are the topologies? What are the networks used for? How is telephony integrated with data communication? What additional experience do you have in this area?

I'm not too familiar with the networks of the Air Force at Ramstein Air Base, but from what I've heard and learned from watching and listening, it appears that they use the star network topography. Typically some units have their own server which is connected to the base backbone. Within each unit the star topography seems to be prevalent. Each unit server in turn is connected to a wider, base wide server. From the base server, each user on the base can access the internet and the rest of the world. This system utilizes a multitude of classified systems and unclassified systems. depending on your point of view the Ramstein server could be seen as the central system for a WAN. With thousands of users on Ramstein, and dozens of unit level servers. I consider the unit level servers the central point for the unit LAN. On an even wider scale, if you add the internet into that equation, the Air Force and Departments within the DoD form a massive network of interconnect computers and systems. Additionally, if you added in pagers, cell phones, PDAs and the many other forms of satellite communications the Air Force uses daily, we have an Enterprise Level network. After all, we are global in every sense of the word.

In my workplace, we use our LAN daily for completing reports, assisting management in all facets of daily activities, and of course e-mail. Without our LAN we would be considerable less efficient. One thing to keep in mind is that with so much information floating around many security issues arise. Additionally, there is the downside of information overload. With so much info moving from office to office, and person to person, it is easy for people to lose track of what they are actually trying to accomplish. Since we don't have dial-up capability to the outside world telephony from my viewpoint isn't present.

Which applications-voice mail, EDI, groupware-does your organization use? If you work in an organization that uses communication systems, how did the organization plan the communication systems?

For e-mail the base is set up using MS Exchange server. Personally I've used Outlook since it made its debut in the mid 90's. I like it for it's ease of use and all inclusive capabilities. It is able to keep my address book, calendar, e-mail, and journal together in one place. I also use it as my windows explorer.

I am unaware how the Air Force or my unit uses or plans it's communication systems.

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