# Network design question **URL:** \ **Category:** Chatting over the Back Fence\ **Created:** [May 12, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/network-design-question/25569 "2014-05-12T19:06:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![System1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@System1](https://forums.suse.com/u/System1)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/network-design-question/25569/1 "2014-05-12T19:06:01Z")
I’m not sure where best to place is for this post, so I’ll start here and see where I end up. I’m the admin for a school system - elementary, middle, and high schools, and well as the local board of education. Our current network is broken into subnets, with each school residing in their own subnet. We’re want to change the ip address scheme that we’re currently on, so my helper has suggested that we drop the subnets and run everybody through one subnet. His theory is ease of operation, with possibly some performance gain, since not as many routers and switches would be needed. I still hold the idea that subnets give us an extra layer of protection, since everyone would not be under one big broadcast domain. If someone out there has any ideas, or suggestions, I would welcome the input. Thank you, Jim ## – jfolmar01 jfolmar01’s Profile: [https://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=5258](https://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=5258) View this thread: [https://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=476942](https://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=476942) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 8:14pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/network-design-question/25569/2 "2014-05-12T20:14:04Z")
Just no way you should have less subnets than you currently have. Perhaps more, but that would be a more in-depth question. On 5/12/2014 12:06 PM, jfolmar01 wrote:[color=blue] > I’m not sure where best to place is for this post, so I’ll start here > and see where I end up. > I’m the admin for a school system - elementary, middle, and high > schools, and well as the local board of education. Our current network > is broken into subnets, with each school residing in their own subnet. > We’re want to change the ip address scheme that we’re currently on, so > my helper has suggested that we drop the subnets and run everybody > through one subnet. His theory is ease of operation, with possibly some > performance gain, since not as many routers and switches would be > needed. > I still hold the idea that subnets give us an extra layer of protection, > since everyone would not be under one big broadcast domain. > If someone out there has any ideas, or suggestions, I would welcome the > input. > Thank you, > Jim > > [/color] – Craig Wilson - MCNE, MCSE, CCNA Novell Technical Support Engineer Novell does not officially monitor these forums. Suggestions/Opinions/Statements made by me are solely my own. These thoughts may not be shared by either Novell or any rational human. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 10:17pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/network-design-question/25569/3 "2014-05-12T22:17:55Z")
Jfolmar01,[color=blue] > I still hold the idea that subnets give us an extra layer of protection, > since everyone would not be under one big broadcast domain.[/color] Wholeheartedly agree. Subnetting gives you an extra lever of control. – Anders Gustafsson (NKP) The Aaland Islands (N60 E20) Have an idea for a product enhancement? Please visit: [http://www.novell.com/rms](http://www.novell.com/rms) ---
**Author:** ![Jens-U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d78d45/32.png) [@Jens-U](https://forums.suse.com/u/Jens-U)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/network-design-question/25569/4 "2014-05-20T15:30:06Z")
Hi Jim, [QUOTE=jfolmar01;21303]I still hold the idea that subnets give us an extra layer of protection, since everyone would not be under one big broadcast domain.[/QUOTE] while I can fully follow that statement, there may be conditions where slicing the network topology in a different fashion might be more appropriate. Some questions you might have to ask yourself are - What level of isolation (of traffic) do you need? I.e., separate clients from servers, and/or separate students from teachers, and/or keep each organizational unit separate,… Will you have to control access across such boundaries, i.e. per packet filters and/or firewalls? - What is the typical traffic flow? Do you have applications that might run much easier if you have everything in a single network (think of multicast traffic - when contained in an isolated (sub-)network, you won’t need multicast routing) - What room for growth do you need (number of IP addresses required in a year)? - How’s your network hardware, feature-/power-wise? Will it support the ideal structure per the previous questions? (I.e. if you’d like to put the servers in a separate network, but have only slow separate routers, that would perform much worse than putting clients and servers in the same switch…) I’m sure you’ll be much better of segmenting your network, rather than creating a single large IP subnet - but not for the reason of broadcasts alone. Regards, Jens