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The number of hosts requiring IP connectivity
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The number of host IP addresses you require will determine how you subnet your network, and might influence whether you use public or private IP addresses. When designing an IP solution for your network, you must always keep in mind the number of IP addresses required and the number of IP hosts desired on each logical subnet.
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| The requirement for public and/or private IP addressing |
You will likely need to use private IP addresses for any network larger than just a few hosts. This is because of the present shortage of public
IP addresses. If you require a large number of host IP addresses for a new network, you will invariably be required to use private IP addresses.
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The number of physical subnets and routers
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When planning your network design, you need to consider how and where your physical subnets will be located. Typically, your physical subnets will coincide with your logical subnets, although this certainly is not a requirement. When designing your TCP/IP solution, consider how many computers will be in a single collision domain and how you will segment broadcast traffic in order to optimize your IP network configuration.
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| The OSI layer 1 and 2 network configuration |
This continues with the concepts mentioned above. OSI layer 1 is the physical layer and OSI layer 2 is the datalink later. You need to consider what networking architectures you want to use. For example, you will need to consider if you should use ATM, Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit
Ethernet, or Token Ring in your TCP/IP solution. In many cases, however, you will inherit a network infrastructure that will define the answers to these questions.
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