Identifying Internet Connectivity Requirements

In order to implement an effective Internet connection strategy, there are a few factors that you need to consider and a few Internet connectivity requirements which you need to determine, including the following:

  • When defining any Internet connection design or strategy, one of the foremost factors which need to be determined, is the amount or quantity of bandwidth needed for users to perform their necessary tasks. To determine the bandwidth needed by users, you have to determine the following:
    • The number of users which will most likely be accessing the Internet concurrently.
    • The applications which will be used by these users
    • The tasks or functions which users will perform.

The amount of bandwidth required affects the following:

  • Which ISP you need to utilize.
  • What costs need to be met
  • Determining when the organization's peak Internet bandwidth usage times are, is another issue that needs to be determined. For instance, organizations that operate 24 hours a day would require more bandwidth than another organization running between 8am and 5pm. In addition, you have to remember to provide for non-Internet connection operations, such as off-site backups, that could require a large quantity of bandwidth as well.
  • Another important requirement that needs to be determined when you define your Internet connectivity strategy is to determine the number of users which will need Internet connections. This can be broken into a number of factors:
  • How many employees within the company who use computers connected to the private network need connections to the Internet.
  • How many of the Internet connections required would be concurrent connections.
  • How long will users need to be connected to the Internet.
  • Where routers and other Internet connection devices should be placed.
  • Whether the router should be connected to the backbone network.
  • Whether Internet connection devices should be located within a single area.
  • The manner in which users will use Internet applications.
  • Determine the functions users will perform using Internet applications, and then attach bandwidth requirements to each of these functions.
  • Determining the locations of computers that need Internet connectivity is also important. The location of computers has an impact on the following:
  • The next important factor pertains to the applications that users will run. Factors to include under this requirement are listed here: