Investigating the firewall security and network performance relationship in a distributed system

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2014-11-20
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This research work investigated the firewall security and performance relationship for distributed systems. Internet connectivity is growing with most enterprises shitting to the use of web based services for services provision. As enterprises take on the Internet as a new business tool whether to sell, to collaborate or to communicate - web applications have become the new weakest link in the organization's security strategy. Firewalls provide a mechanism for protecting these enterprises from the less secure internet over which customers or collaborating partners transfer packets destined for the corporate network. The relation between the security and performance efficiency is presented through different scenarios and the relationship between security and performance in firewalls is evaluated. We modeled networks with and without firewalls and different firewall functionality and simulated such networks with an eye on their performances. The simulation was done for 300 work stations and simulated in a way that all the 300 work stations access a database, ftp, email and web application under three different scenarios. Emphasis is on the relationship between network security and performance; the effects of firewalls on network performance. Various scenarios were evaluated through simulations using OPNET IT Guru Academic Edition 9.1 to show the effects of firewalls on network performance. The result shows that the security is inversely related to network performance. AKCNOWLEDGEMENT I thank the Almighty God for granting me this opportunity and seeing me through the academic work. I also thank my supervisor Dr. Michael Asante for his supervision and technical guidance throughout the study. May God reward him abundantly I also express my profound gratitude to the staff and management of Kpando Mutual Health Insurance Scheme especially the IT department. Last but not the least I would like to thank my brother Samuel Agbenyegah for his insightful, encouragement and dedication to the course of my studies. To my mum Grace Okyerewa Agbenyegah for her support and prayers and to my siblings Christine, Francisca and Richard for their prayers
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Computer Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fufillment of the requirement for the degree of M.Phil information technology
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