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The first step in designing a Local Area Network (LAN) is to establish and document the goals of the design. These goals are particular to each organization or situation. However, the following requirements tend to show up in most network designs:

• Functionality-The network must work, it must allow users to meet their job requirements. The network must provide user-to-user and user-to-application connectivity with reasonable speed and reliability.
• Scalability-The network must be able to grow. That is, the initial design should allow growth without any major changes to the overall design.
• Adaptability-The network must be designed with an eye toward future technologies. It should include no element that would limit implementation of new technologies as they become available.
• Manageability-The network should be designed to facilitate network monitoring and management to ensure ongoing stability of operation.

These requirements are specific to certain types of networks and more general in other types of networks.