Matchday Network Console

What this tab shows: the 15 promises our design makes. "Plan says" is what should happen, "Result" is what the simulator actually did. Click any row to watch that test travel on the map, or press Run all tests.

Planned tests

#	Test	Plan says	Result	Match?

What this tab shows: every device needs an address, like a house needs a street address. Each zone has its own street (192.168.10.x for Ticketing, 192.168.20.x for Payments and so on). Most devices get an address automatically from the Main Switch (DHCP); servers keep a fixed one.

Zones and their address ranges

Every zone uses a /24 range, meaning 254 usable addresses. Addresses .1 to .20 are kept for fixed devices: .1 is always the zone's exit door (gateway), servers use .10 and .11, the WiFi access point uses .5. Automatic addresses start at .21. A real stadium would give fans a much larger range, or several WiFi zones; one /24 keeps this lab model simple.

Every device and its address

Press a button, then look at the Address conversation box at the bottom of this tab.

Address conversation (DHCP)

What this tab shows: two kinds of protection. Rule lists (ACLs) sit at each zone's exit door and decide which messages may leave the zone. Port security makes each switch socket remember its device and lock itself if a stranger plugs in.

Who can reach whom

Read across: the row is the sender, the column is the receiver. Worked out live from the rule lists below, using pings, secure web, web and name lookups.

Rule lists at each exit door

Show Cisco commands

Rules are read top to bottom and the first one that matches wins. Anything that matches no rule is blocked. Replies are checked on their way back too. "Matches" counts how often each rule was used.

Socket locks (port security)

Try an attack:

Switch event log

What this tab shows: the stadium's Internet link carries 100 Mbps. When a goal is scored, thousands of fans upload at once and the link fills up. Without a fast lane the live TV feed gets stuck in the same queue and breaks up. With the fast lane (QoS) the TV feed always goes first, payments get a reserved share, and fans use what is left.

Fast lane on Fans using WiFi:

Each fan adds about 0.01 Mbps of traffic, so 40,000 fans want 400 Mbps: four times what the link can carry.

Live TV feed

Target: delay under 30 ms, under 0.5% lost

Delay (how late messages arrive)

TV feedFan WiFi30 ms target

What the Internet link carries

TV feedTickets and paymentsFan WiFiWhat everyone wants to send

Each traffic group right now

The fast-lane settings on the Main Switch

What this tab shows: the exact commands you would type into real Cisco equipment (or Packet Tracer) to build this network. Lines starting with ! are plain-English notes; the device ignores them. Everything here is generated from the same data the simulator uses, so it always matches the map.

What this tab shows: how the network is organised, what each zone needs, and the limits of this simulator.

Three layers

Layer	Device	Job
Centre	Main Switch	Moves messages between zones, holds every zone's exit door and rule list, hands out addresses, runs the fast lane.
Way out	Internet Router	Connects the stadium to the Internet and swaps private addresses for a public one (NAT).
Zones	Ticketing, Payments, Press & TV, Cameras, Fan WiFi switches	One switch per zone. Devices plug in here. Each socket is locked to its device.
Devices	Gates, tills, TV encoder, cameras, WiFi access point	Get an address automatically, or a fixed one for servers.

What each zone needs

Limits of this simulator

It models zones, routing between zones, automatic addresses, rule lists (including replies), socket locks and a queue model for the fast lane. It does not run real Cisco software, spanning tree or routing protocols. Delay and loss figures come from a simple model, so they show the effect rather than exact numbers. The Device setup tab lets the same design be built on real equipment.

New to networking? Think of the stadium as a town. Devices are houses, messages are letters, zones are separate neighbourhoods, and each neighbourhood has one exit door with a guard holding a rule list.

How a message travels

A device writes a message to an address.
Same zone? The zone's switch passes it straight across. No guard involved.
Different zone? It goes to the zone's exit door (gateway) on the Main Switch.
The guard reads the zone's rule list from the top. First matching rule decides: allow or block.
If allowed, the Main Switch delivers it, and the reply is checked by the other zone's guard on the way back.

Five zones. One stadium network.

Network map

Send a message

Message log