3.3 Networks
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)