Planning a 50-Person Office Network from Scratch

You've been tasked with designing the network for a new 50-person office. Where do you start? This guide walks through the complete process, from requirements gathering to final specifications.

Subnet Calculator Plan your IP addressing and VLANs

Step 1: Gather Requirements

Before drawing any diagrams, understand what the network needs to support:

• Users: 50 employees, expect 20% growth over 3 years
• Devices per user: Desktop/laptop, IP phone, personal mobile
• Shared devices: 4 printers, 5 conference rooms, 3 meeting pods
• Guest access: Required, must be isolated
• Applications: Cloud-based CRM, Office 365, video conferencing
• Special needs: 5 developers with higher bandwidth needs

Step 2: Calculate Bandwidth Needs

Estimate total internet bandwidth required:

User Type	Count	Average	Concurrent	Total
Standard users	45	2 Mbps	30%	27 Mbps
Developers	5	5 Mbps	50%	12.5 Mbps
Conference rooms	5	10 Mbps	60%	30 Mbps
Guests	10	2 Mbps	30%	6 Mbps

Baseline: 75.5 Mbps. Add 50% headroom: 113 Mbps. A 200 Mbps symmetric connection would be appropriate with room for growth. Consider a 500 Mbps or 1 Gbps connection if available at reasonable cost.

Step 3: Plan IP Addressing

Use VLSM to efficiently allocate a 10.10.0.0/16 block:

VLAN	Purpose	Subnet	Size
10	Corporate wired	10.10.10.0/25	126 hosts
20	Corporate WiFi	10.10.20.0/25	126 hosts
30	Voice	10.10.30.0/26	62 hosts
40	Printers/IoT	10.10.40.0/27	30 hosts
50	Servers	10.10.50.0/27	30 hosts
99	Guest WiFi	10.10.99.0/24	254 hosts
1	Management	10.10.1.0/28	14 hosts

Reserve 10.10.100.0/24 for future expansion.

Step 4: Design the Physical Layout

For a single-floor 50-person office (approximately 8,000-10,000 sq ft):

• MDF (Main Distribution Frame): One dedicated network closet, climate controlled
• Horizontal cabling: Cat6 to all desks, Cat6a to APs
• Wireless APs: 4-5 APs for proper coverage (one per 2,000 sq ft)
• Wall ports: 2 per workstation (data + spare or phone)

Step 5: Select Equipment

Firewall/Router

Mid-range business firewall with:

• 1 Gbps+ throughput with all services enabled
• VPN support for remote workers
• Content filtering and threat protection
• Multiple WAN ports for redundancy

Budget: $800-2,000 (Fortinet 60/80 series, Meraki MX68, Sophos XGS)

Core Switch

One or two stackable Layer 3 switches:

• 48 ports minimum (plan for 60+ with growth)
• PoE+ on all ports (for phones and APs)
• 10G uplinks for future server connections
• Layer 3 for inter-VLAN routing

Budget: $1,500-4,000 (Cisco Catalyst 9200, Aruba 6100/6200, Juniper EX3400)

Wireless Access Points

5 enterprise APs with controller (cloud or on-prem):

• WiFi 6 (802.11ax) minimum
• 2x2 or 4x4 MIMO
• Multiple SSIDs for corporate and guest
• Central management

Budget: $2,000-4,000 for 5 APs (Ubiquiti U6 Pro, Aruba InstantOn, Cisco Meraki MR36)

PoE Budget Calculation

Device Type	Count	Watts Each	Total
IP Phones	50	7W	350W
Access Points	5	25W	125W
Conference room devices	5	15W	75W
Cameras (if any)	4	15W	60W

Total: 610W. A 48-port PoE+ switch with 740W budget covers this with 20% headroom.

Step 6: Plan Security

• VLAN segmentation: Keep voice, data, and guest traffic separated
• Guest isolation: Guest VLAN goes directly to internet, no internal access
• 802.1X: Consider for wired and wireless authentication
• Firewall rules: Restrict inter-VLAN traffic appropriately
• DNS filtering: Block malicious domains at the firewall
• Network monitoring: SNMP, syslog, and alerting

Step 7: Document Everything

Create documentation including:

• Network diagram (logical and physical)
• IP address spreadsheet with all assignments
• VLAN and subnet summary
• Port mappings (switch port to wall jack to location)
• WiFi coverage map
• Equipment inventory with serial numbers
• Credentials (stored securely)
• Vendor support contacts

Budget Summary

Category	Low	Mid	High
Firewall	$800	$1,500	$3,000
Switch(es)	$1,500	$2,500	$5,000
Wireless (5 APs)	$1,500	$2,500	$4,000
Cabling	$3,000	$5,000	$8,000
Rack and accessories	$500	$1,000	$2,000
UPS	$400	$800	$1,500
Total Equipment	$7,700	$13,300	$23,500

Add installation labor (typically $3,000-8,000 depending on complexity) and ongoing support/licensing costs.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Undersizing the switch: Buy more ports than you think you need
• Forgetting PoE budget: Cheap switches often have insufficient PoE
• Skipping UPS: Network equipment needs clean, uninterrupted power
• Poor AP placement: More APs at lower power beats fewer at high power
• No management VLAN: Separate management traffic from user traffic
• Single point of failure: Dual WAN connections if uptime matters