This section provides a brief description of the existing network and the proposed network. We give details of the current and proposed Local Area Network in Appendix I The appendix also provides necessary drawings.

Current Network Designs

The current SUA LAN was established in 1996... This involved both physical and logical layouts and implementations. The current network employed star topology and the active network components are inadequate due to technological advancement. Some buildings are connected using hubs instead of switches, resulting into poor network performance. Therefore, among the challenges faced in the current network designs incudes but not limited to;
i.    The current network installation lacks structured cabling standards, thus needs improvement
ii.     Fiber and UTP cables are ageing, thus life span is about to reach  its limit
iii.     Fiber-optic cables as well as UTP cables infrastructure in the current network design are obsolete and inadequate.
iv.    Current network infrastructure lacks proper equipment rooms/telecommunication closets design/setup and allocation. Some are located inside staff offices, this comprise security as well as delays in responding to network problem incidents.

 Proposed Network Designs

Despite limitations in the current network design, the technological advancements in the network designs has brought opportunities for acquiring a better and advanced network to accommodate the current challenges such as network speed, availability, efficiency as well as security of the network. Also there is increase of users and higher demand of bandwidth to accommodate the current need. Also University activities have increased that involves international organizations for research and learning, all these require reliable, scalable and efficient Local Area Network (LAN) in both physical and logical structure. The challenges outlined above have been addressed in the proposed network design.