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Difficulty: Very hardNetwork Types and Topologies

An enterprise organization is deploying infrastructure across three adjacent corporate buildings located within a high-speed campus fiber ring. The storage team requires a specialized, isolated network designed exclusively for block-level data access connecting host servers directly to high-performance storage arrays without competing for bandwidth on the internal Ethernet LAN. Simultaneously, the network engineering team must interconnect the switches across all three buildings such that if any single physical cabling segment between two sites is cut, communications between all sites will automatically persist without loss of connectivity. Which network classification best describes the storage infrastructure, and which physical topology should be implemented between the building interconnects to meet the redundancy requirement?

  1. Storage Area Network (SAN) for storage infrastructure; Mesh topology for building interconnectsAnswer
  2. B
    Personal Area Network (PAN) for storage infrastructure; Bus topology for building interconnects
  3. C
    Local Area Network (LAN) for storage infrastructure; Ring topology for building interconnects
  4. D
    Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) for storage infrastructure; Star topology for building interconnects

Answer

Storage Area Network (SAN) for the storage infrastructure and Mesh topology for the building interconnects.
A Storage Area Network (SAN) is specifically designed to provide high-speed, low-latency, block-level storage access between servers and storage devices across a dedicated infrastructure isolated from general local area network (LAN) traffic. To guarantee uninterrupted connectivity between multiple buildings if a cable is cut, a mesh topology is required because it provides redundant physical pathways between network nodes, automatically rerouting traffic if one link breaks.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the storage network requirement
Identified high-speed, block-level data transfer over dedicated isolated infrastructure separate from standard LAN traffic.
Dedicated block-level storage access networks are classified specifically as Storage Area Networks (SANs).
2
Analyze the topology fault-tolerance requirement
Identified the requirement for continuous connection even if any physical link between building sites is severed.
A mesh topology provides multiple redundant interconnections between nodes, ensuring alternative data paths exist if a cable fails.
3
Synthesize the correct network classification and topology pair
Selected the combination of Storage Area Network (SAN) and Mesh topology.
This combination satisfies both the dedicated block-level storage requirement and the strict fault-tolerance requirement.

Key Concept

Storage Area Network (SAN) scope definition and Mesh topology fault tolerance
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Topics

Network Types and Topologies

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