Computer Network Redesign through Clusters Consolidation and OPNET Modeler

The performance of the existing network topology may be improved through various redesign techniques, which involves relocating customers and consolidation of clusters (sub-networks). Since the simulation study provides a virtual environment for assorting desirable features and analyzing the performance of the network under various scenarios, it is beneficial to go for a simulation study before the deployment of redesign techniques. Here we assume an existing enterprise network with N clusters as a fluid infrastructure to be redesigned; moreover, we have proposed a number of redesign techniques to reduce the extra-traffic and maximize the intra-traffic within the clusters. We have utilized simulated annealing to search for good solutions for each redesign operation. We have simulated a network scenario, which might be employed in government sectors, and analyzed the performance of the network before and after implementing the redesign at node (customer) level using OPNET modeler. Our simulation study using OPNET shows a better trade-off by increasing the overall utilization of the redesigned network around 8%, thereby reducing the network maintenance cost.