For internal use of KMB students only

networks

Strand 3: IT systems

Introduction

This topic addresses the role of networks in a range of different scenarios. Almost all businesses, institutions and organizations, and an increasing number of households, are linked by networks.

The increasing use of networks raises a range of social impacts and ethical issues such as unauthorized access, intrusive software (viruses, worms and Trojan horses), spam, phishing, pharming, spoofing and identity theft. Students are expected to discuss possible solutions and evaluate their effectiveness.

Possible scenario

An organization is considering developing a network to facilitate the sharing and transfer of information. The student must use their knowledge to demonstrate an understanding of:

the types of networks that exist and the specific scenarios where they are used
the development of an acceptable-use policy for a network
the protocols that exist to ensure compatibility within and between networks
the ways in which the effectiveness of a network may be measured
the impacts that the ineffective management and network failure can have for many organizations.

IT concepts to address in this topic

Network technologies

Client, host, server
Mainframe, supercomputers
Grid computing, distributed processing
Ethernet, peer-to-peer (P2P)
Local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), virtual LAN (VLAN), wireless LAN (WLAN), home network
Internet, intranet, extranet, virtual private network (VPN)
Routers, switches, hubs
Connection types: optical fibre, cable, wireless technologies such as wireless fidelity (WiFi), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMax), Bluetooth, microwave
Network operating systems and utility software
Cloud computing
Storage technologies: for example, SAN (storage area network), RAID (redundant array of inexpensive
disks)

Network functionality

Protocols
Synchronous, asynchronous
Remote access
Bandwidth, broadband
Bit rates

Network administration

Electronic security: for example, authorized access, levels of access, biometrics, login, password, firewalls, proxy server, encryption, secure socket layer (SSL), audit trails
Licences: single-user, multi-user, concurrent, network, site
Physical security: for example, locks
Monitoring: for example, keystroke monitoring, system performance, surveillance
Network policies: for example, backup, archiving, disaster recovery, usage, redundancy, failover
Codes of ethics and professional conduct: for example, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)
Data centres
Energy usage, uninterruptable power supply (UPS)

teaching slides

Network - Teaching Slides ver 3.0.pdf

ASSESSMENT PRACTICE

Assessment objective 1: Knowledge and Understanding

Identify four advantages of using a home local area network (LAN) rather than several stand alone computers.

hardware resources may be shared (e.g. printers, hard disks)
internet connection may be cheaper for a LAN than for a number of standalone computers
computers can connect to the resources wirelessly and avoid having cables around the house
software resources may be shared (e.g. antivirus)
files may be shared between computers without the need of external memory devices to transfer them from one computer to the other
internet security is easier to take care of if only one internet connection is available to be shared between home users
backups can be made using different computers as copying files between them is simple.

Award [1 mark] for each advantage identified up to a maximum of [4 marks].

Describe the role of the ISP.

ISP provides internet access to the LAN
ISP has access to an internet backbone to provide its user with internet access
ISP provides bandwidth to users for internet access.

Award [1 mark] for the role identified and award [1 mark] for the description of the role. Award a maximum of [2 marks] for the answer.

Assessment objective 2: Application and analysis

The Perez family have chosen to have a combination of wireless and wired networks. Explain the decision of the Perez family to install a mixed network.

Reasons to have a wired component

family may already have a standalone computer with no possibility of wireless access
family may want a computer with wired access to the LAN to guarantee faster connection to transfer large files
some peripherals are more reliable when wired.

Reasons to have a wireless component

new computers can be added without the need to add cabling
allows mobility around the house
visitors may use their laptops/palm/ipods when visiting.

Reasons to have a mixed network

users may choose to use wired or wireless computers depending on the type of
work they need to do (e.g. for extensive backups the use of a wired connection
may allow faster transfer)
they may have one central area for the wired computer and main peripherals
(e.g. printers) and allow other users to choose where to work in the house.

The response must explain the need for both wireless components/network and wired components/network. If only one type of component/wired have been addressed, the maximum that can be awarded is [3 marks].

Assessment objective 3: Synthesis and evaluation

When the system was purchased it was possible to include a Virtual Private Network (VPN), giving remote access to teachers to this database, which is stored on the school’s server.

Discuss the impact for the school of the decision to allow teachers remote access to the school server.

Positive impacts for the school – “school includes teachers, administrators and students”

school may bring deadlines forward because teachers will be able to work after school from home
school will provide a better service for students if teachers can access students’ records from home to do follow-ups, upload homework, update the calendar etc.

Negative impacts for the school – “school includes teachers, administrators and students”

some teachers may have difficulty meeting deadlines because their connection from home may not be as good as needed to work with the software
teacher dissatisfaction – there may be more expectation on teachers to work in the evenings on school-related tasks
teachers may request extra compensation because they are expected to work from home
teachers may not feel comfortable with the use of IT and may need training
school will now have the responsibility to have the system running after school hours and provide some support / provision for failure; IT support available after school, robust servers, hacker protection
school will have to provide teachers with the hardware such as laptops and, additional software to use the VPN from outside of school
some teachers may not log out of the network when away from school which may present security issues.

In part (c) of this question it is expected there will be a balance in the ITGS terminology between IT technical terminology and the terminology related to social and ethical impacts.

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