Teaching guide

Networks
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© 2017 PG Online Limited

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Key Stage 3 Networks © 2017 PG Online Ltd 2

(Suggested for teaching in Year 9)

Teacher’s Guide
Introduction
This teacher’s guide contains detailed lesson plans to accompany the six sets of PowerPoint
slides and worksheets.
The lessons are designed to form a strong base for ideas for the teacher and should be
adapted to suit the teaching style and preferences of the individual teacher, and the
resources and nature of the individual school or Computing / ICT department.
The material supplied for this unit includes:
 5 PowerPoint presentations, each designed to cover one lesson
 5 worksheets
 5 homeworks
 Links to online resources mentioned in the Teacher’s Guide
 An end-of-unit test for assessment purposes
The answers to the test are also included and should be removed from the folder before
uploading to a file area with pupil access.

Summary
This is a theoretical unit covering the basic principles and architecture of local and wide area
networks. Pupils will learn that the World Wide Web is part of the Internet, and how web
addresses are constructed and stored as IP addresses. Client-server, peer-to-peer networks
and the concept of cloud computing are all described. Ways of keeping data secure and
simple encryption techniques are also covered. In the final lesson, pupils will sit a multiple
choice test which will form the Unit assessment.
This unit will form very good preparation on the topic of networks at GCSE level.

New Attainment Targets (partially covered in this Unit)

 Understand the hardware and software components that make up computer systems,
and how they communicate with one another and with other systems
 Understand a range of ways to use technology safely, respectfully, responsibly and
securely

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Learning Outcomes for the unit
At the end of this Unit all pupils should be able to:
 State that the Internet is a wide area network and the world wide web is part of the
Internet
 Define the meaning of the terms “domain name”, http protocol
 Explain the basic principle of packet switching
 Give examples of LANs and WANs
 State three different network topologies
 Describe what is meant by a client-server network and state some of its advantages
 State why some transmissions are encrypted, and use a simple algorithm to encrypt and
decrypt a message

Most pupils will be able to:

 Explain the meaning and significance of bandwidth
 Explain what is meant by buffering and why it is used
 State the advantages and disadvantages of different network topologies
 Design a simple network layout
 Identify some of the extra hardware components used in a LAN
 Compare the uses of peer-to-peer networks and client-server networks

Some pupils will be able to:

 Design a network layout for their school, using icons to represent server, hub, switch,
router, Internet, workstation, printer
 Describe the concept of cloud computing and some of the benefits it brings to individuals
and organisations

Previous Learning
No previous learning is necessary with this unit.

Suggested Resources
Worksheets 1 to 5, Homeworks 1 to 5, the Packet Switching Resource Sheet.

Vocabulary
Vocabulary associated with this Unit, such as:
Internet, World Wide Web, URL (Uniform Resources Locator), IP address, protocol, wide
area network, local area network, data packets, packet switching, domain name, client-
server network, peer-to-peer network, cloud computing, encryption, decryption, plaintext,
cipher text

Assessment
Pupils will sit an end-of-unit test. It is expected that teachers will map the results onto their
own school assessment structure for Computing and ICT.
The answers to the test are also included and should be removed from the folder before
uploading to a file area with pupil access.

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Lesson plans
Lesson 1 The Internet

Preparation:
 Print out the Packet Switching Resource Sheet, and absorb its contents. You may
like to print out two or three copies of the second page so that you can repeat the
exercise if necessary. Think up a suitable sentence which you can divide up into 8
packets. You can complete the packets and cut them out in class; don’t forget to bring
a pair of scissors …

Learning Objectives:
 Learn what the Internet and World Wide Web are
 Learn how web addresses are constructed
 Learn what a protocol is and why one is needed for data communication
 Understand how packet switching works
 Learn what the Domain Name Server (DNS) does

Content Resources

As a starter activity ask students to come up with a definition of PowerPoint Guide:

the Internet. Networks L1 The
Internet
Explain the world wide web is just a part of the Internet. VoIP,
Email and instant messaging, for example, may use the Internet
but not the world wide web.
Introduce pupils to the term ‘URL’. Discuss the various parts of a
web address and different domain names.
Give out Worksheet 1 Domain names or let the pupils access
a digital copy. They can complete Activity 1 and will complete Worksheet 1 Domain
the rest as the lesson progresses. names: Activity 1
Explain why HTTP is needed and introduce the concept of
splitting data for transmission into data ‘packets’. It’s fairly
remarkable that the whole world managed to agree on a single
set of rules! What if we could all use the same currency or
speak the same language?
Explain how packet switching works using the Packet Packet Switching
Switching Resource Sheet. Using this, you can role play the Resource Sheet
job of routers and the packet switching process from sender to
receiver. You can also explain that images are sent in the same
way as text; the image is split into chunks and sent as packets
too.
An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a numerical label assigned
to each device connected to the Internet. These used to be 32-

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bit numbers, giving a possible total of 232 different addresses
(about 4.3 billion), but we are running out! The enormous growth
of the Internet led to a new protocol being introduced (IPv6)
which allows 128 bit addresses, about 3.4x1038 addresses.
(About 340 billion billion billion billion unique addresses – more
than enough for everyone on the planet to have 50 billion billion
billion billion each!)
Explain that a Domain Name Server is used to convert each
URL into its unique IP address. URLs are only required because
we find it too difficult to remember web addresses as long Worksheet 1 Domain
strings of numbers. Demonstrate finding the IP address for names: Activity 2
Google using www.who.is or Link Who Is DNS Lookup. Copy Link Who Is DNS
the IP address you find into the address bar of a browser and Lookup
show the pupils what happens.
Pupils can test out the system themselves in Activity 2 of Link How the Internet
Worksheet 1 Domain Names. works
Videos: Link How the Internet Works provides a good Link DNS
summary of the lesson. Link DNS gives an animated overview
of how the DNS works.
Extension activity Worksheet 1 Domain
names: Activity 3
Ask pupils to complete Activity 3 of Worksheet 1 Domain
Names. Here they can use a website such as www.uk2.net Link UK2 Domain
to search for a domain name to check its availability. Names

Give out Homework 1. Networks Homework 1

Networks Homework 1
Answers

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Lesson 2 Connectivity

Learning Objectives:
 Learn the meaning and significance of bandwidth
 Compare different types of cable, and the relative speeds of data transmission
 Calculate time taken to download files of different sizes at different bandwidths
 Understand what is meant by buffering and why it is used

Content Resources

As a starter, you could ask the class how data is transmitted PowerPoint Guide:
across the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean. They may not realise Networks L2
that it is by under-sea cables. You could tell the class a little Connectivity
about the history of cable-laying:
 Each mile of cable required 7 miles of copper and 126
miles of iron wire. Link Undersea Internet
Cable Map
 The cable diameter was 5/8" (16mm)
 Today's fibre optic cables, which carry almost 100% of
worldwide Internet and phone traffic, are about 13-19mm in
diameter.
Show the class the map of under-sea cables. You could also
demonstrate this with an interactive version using Link
Undersea Internet Cable Map. Occasionally these cables are
damaged or severed, sometimes deliberately, cutting off large
parts of the world from the Internet. Divers were reportedly
caught cutting the cable off the coast of Egypt in 2013. Users of Link Internet Speed
the Internet in Egypt reported slower connection speeds Test
afterwards.
Explain the meaning of bandwidth. One analogy for bandwidth is
to compare it to the amount of water that can flow through
various sized pipes at any one time. The water (or data) flows
no faster, but more can flow at once.
Demonstrate an Internet speed test using Link Internet Speed
Test. Depending on timing, pupils may like to have a go at this
too. Ask them why the upload and download speeds are so
different? – Downloading is generally faster than uploading.
Internet providers give priority to downloading because most
users spend far more time downloading than they do uploading.
Explain broadband and fibre optic cable. Find some cables to
pass around.
Ask pupils to calculate the time it takes to download different
sized files at various speeds. (See “Calculating download
speed” on PP slide)

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Answers to questions:
1. 8 Megabits per second / 8 bits = 1 megabyte per second
= 1 second
2. 10 seconds
3. 700 seconds or 11m 40s
4. 2800 seconds or 46m 40s

Sending data: The graphic in the PP slide shows CAT5 cable,

fibre-optic, WiFi and Coaxial cable, which is now becoming
obsolete.
If there is time, you can ask pupils to find the transmission
speeds of various types of cable. E.g.
1. Fibre Optic Cable transmits data as pulses of light with
speeds of up to 10Gbs or more
2. Coaxial cable – max 100Mbs, sent as an electronic
signal
3. WiFi – typically 54Mbs, sent as a radio signal
4. CAT5 – 100-1000Mbs, sent as electronic signals
(http://www.ni.com/white-paper/13724/en/)
Before cables and internet technology, pigeons were frequently
used for carrying data. Paddy, an Irish WW2 (‘broadband’)
pigeon was even decorated with the Dickin Medal "For the best
recorded time with a message from the Normandy Operations,
while serving with the RAF in June, 1944"!
Pembroke House, a school in Kenya, used homing pigeons in
the 1950s to carry cricket scores back to the school during away
matches. When the team was playing away, say at Nakuru, 25
miles away, or even Nairobi, 50 miles, they would take a basket
of pigeons with them and at intervals during the match, scribble
a message, attach it to a pigeon and release it. Pigeons would
arrive back and messages such as 'Higgins out for duck' or ‘St
Brendan’s 46 for 7. Three overs left’ would be eagerly read. This
worked very well apart from the occasional bird going astray,
and also the hazard of Augur buzzards, which devoured some
of the birds along with their messages.
Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using a wireless
connection. Give out Worksheet 2 Connectivity and ask the Worksheet 2
pupils to complete it. Connectivity

Introduce ‘buffering’. Most pupils will have experienced delays

caused by buffering when watching videos online. What caused
it? What was their connection speed? What was the connection
type they were using? How large was the file? Networks Homework 2
Connectivity
Give out Homework 2.
Networks Homework 2
Answers

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 Lesson 3 Topologies

Learning Objectives:
 Understand the difference between LANs and WANs
 Be able to give an example of each type of network
 Know what extra hardware is needed for a LAN to operate
 Identify three different network topologies – bus, ring and star

Content Resources

As a starter, hold a class discussion about the advantages and PowerPoint Guide
disadvantages of standalone vs networked computers, say in a Networks L3
school. Advantages: can share devices such as printers, Topologies
scanners, external drives. Easy to share folders and files of
data. Backup is taken care of centrally.
Disadvantage: security is harder to control. If a network shares
one Internet connection this can slow down the speed of
downloading. More costly to run as the LAN needs to be on all
the time. It is more complex to maintain a network.
Explain the difference between a WAN and a LAN.
Discuss the extra hardware needed to operate a LAN. Show the
example of a Network Interface Card (NIC) and explain that all
computers need one to connect to any network. These include
desktop computers, laptops, tablets and mobile phones.
Identify the three common network topologies: bus, ring and
star and then ask pupils what they think might be the
advantages and disadvantages of each.
Explain that some networks will require additional pieces of
hardware such as routers, hubs and switches. Describe the
differences between them.
As an exercise, pupils can design the network layout for their
school, using icons to represent server, hub, switch, router,
Internet, workstation, printer etc. See Worksheet 3 Designing Worksheet 3 Designing
a network. a network
Recap the main network terms and vocabulary.
Give out Homework 3. Networks Homework 3
Networks Homework 3
Answers

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Lesson 4 Client-server networks

Learning Objectives:
 Understand what constitutes a client-server network
 Contrast a client-server network with a peer-to-peer network
 Be able to list advantages and disadvantages of each model
 Understand what is meant by cloud computing
 List the main advantages of cloud computing

Content Resources

Starter: discuss what is meant by a client/server network. Ask if PowerPoint Guide

pupils have ever used one. (Yes: school network!). Clarify what Networks L4 Client-
a server is, and that there may be different servers each with server networks
different functions, or in a smaller network, just one server doing
everything – acting as file server, email server, print server etc.
With reference to the last lesson, point out that star and bus
networks are both client-server networks. Client-server networks
could be either LANs or WANs.
Discuss the example of a computer network in a hospital – what
different types of user will there be? Will everyone on the
network be able to see all the data? How is this prevented?
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a client-server
network.
There are other advantages apart from those on the slides – for
example software licences can be controlled and software
updated centrally.
Peer-to-peer networks
Continue with a discussion of peer-to-peer networks. Do any of
the pupils have two linked computers at home?
Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks have been at the centre of the file-
sharing controversy, highlighting sites such as Napster and
Pirate Bay in recent news. These sites enable file sharing and
can encourage illegal sharing of copyright material such as
music and software applications. Several of these sites have
been ‘shut down’ after courts have ruled them illegal. Their
owners have even been sentenced to prison. However, they
keep springing back up since it is very difficult to control a P2P
network as there is no central store of data.
If time permits, pupils could research news articles online about
these file sharing or ‘torrent’ websites. The Pirate Bay was a
popular file sharing site that went offline in 2014 after the
website owners were found guilty of copyright infringement in
2009. This may be a valuable discussion point for pupils.

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Give out Worksheet 4 Client-server networks and let pupils Worksheet 4 Client-
work on it individually or in pairs. server networks
Cloud computing
In cloud computing, instead of software applications and data
being held on your computer or a LAN server, they are held on
the network of computers that make up the ‘cloud’.
The only thing a user’s computer needs is the cloud computing
system’s interface software – for example, a Web browser such
as Chrome or Internet Explorer.
To quote Bernadette Johnson at
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/5-factors-cloud-
data.htm,
“If you want to start a document on your laptop and revise it on
your phone, you can. If you'd like to listen to your music library
from either your tablet or your work computer, you can do that,
too. Gone are the days of being tethered to a single device. The
reason for this: the cloud.
Simply put, cloud computing involves storing data and
applications on remote servers and accessing them via the
Internet rather than saving or installing them on your personal
computer. You can use the cloud to house text files, photos,
videos, music and the like, either as primary storage or backup
storage, often for free or for a nominal price.
But the cloud isn't just about storage. In this age of Web mail,
social networking, online bill paying, automatic phone backups,
multiplayer online gaming and video streaming, a lot of us are
already performing a variety of personal and business activities
in the cloud, whether we realize it or not.”
Discuss the ability to remotely control the heating, lighting and
music in your home. (See screenshot of British Gas remote
control heating – simply turn up the heat when you land at the
airport in February at the end of your holiday!)
Ask pupils what they think are the disadvantages of Cloud
computing?
There are several impressive and high quality photographs of
Google’s server farms and cooling systems available at Link Link Google Data
Google Data Centres. These help give some scale to server Centres
use and the Cloud.
Plenary discussion: Why have your word processing and
spreadsheet software on your home computer? In the future, will
we have small hard disks and keep almost all data and
applications on the cloud?
As Cloud computing grows, will computer use and ownership Networks Homework 4
become cheaper?
Networks Homework 4
Give out Homework 4. Answers

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Lesson 5 Encryption

Learning Objectives:
 To identify some of the types of data that need to be kept secure
 To learn some of the ways in which data is kept secure
 To learn how unauthorised people can break ciphers and read encrypted data
 To learn some classical encryption techniques

Content Resources

Starter: Discuss the padlock symbol found on banking and PowerPoint Guide
shopping websites. When a small padlock appears in the Networks L5 Encryption
browser search bar, it means encryption is switched on. This is
one way that organisations can keep data transmitted over the
Internet secure from hackers.
Refer to the http protocol and ask what the ‘s’ of https might stand
for. Discuss the questions on security in the PowerPoint guide.
Encryption
Go over the terms used, i.e. plaintext, ciphertext, encryption,
algorithm, key.
How can a message be decrypted by someone who does not
know the key? Decoders at Bletchley Park in WW2 had the
difficult job of decoding messages, with a key that changed
every day.
Explain the two approaches to code breaking: the brute-force
attack and the cryptanalytic attack where a logical approach is
used to work it out.
Explain that using statistics, you can begin to guess which
letters may have been substituted with which others based on
the frequency of their occurrence.
Show how different ciphers work, e.g. the Caesar Shift cipher, or
substitution key depending on a key word – ‘jellybean’ is given
as an example. The key word or phrase could change with
every message, so even if one message is deciphered it will not
mean that the cipher is broken. For example, the message could
start with the page number of an agreed book, and the key word
could be the first n letters on that page.
Give out Worksheet 5 Encryption. Worksheet 5 Encryption

If there is time you can introduce the concept of using prime

numbers in modern cryptographic methods – the details are too
complex to cover. Can anyone find the two prime numbers that
make up a given number – say 21 (=3 x 7), 143 (= 11 x 13), or
217 (= 31 x 7)? It’s easy to see that with a number of several Networks Homework 5
million digits this would take even the fastest computer a very Encryption
long time! Networks Homework 5
Give out Homework 5. Answers

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Lesson 6 Assessment

Learning Outcomes:
 Be able to apply their knowledge in answers to a range of questions
 Be able to highlight areas of strength and any gaps in their understanding of
computers

Content Resources

Pupils should complete the Assessment Test. Answers are Networks Assessment
available in the Networks Assessment Answers sheet. Test
These tests may be printed or answered in the document at a Networks Assessment
computer by highlighting the correct answer or changing it to Test Answers
bold text.
Pupils might upload an offline test to an area for teacher
assessment online. This could be an MLE such as Fronter,
Frog, SharePoint or Moodle.

Key Stage 3 Networks © 2017 PG Online Ltd 13

Acknowledgements
Every effort has been made to trace the holders of copyright material used in the PowerPoint
Guides and we apologise in advance for any unintentional omissions. We would be pleased
to insert the appropriate acknowledgement in any subsequent edition of this publication.

With thanks to the following:

Network icons from www.icons8.com

Undersea cable map from Google Map Data, INEGI 2013

Server room image in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Google/Connie Zhou.

Remote Hive heating control © British Gas

Napster logo © Napster.co.uk

Vuze logo © Azereus Software Inc.

Google Drive logo © Google Inc.

Sky Drive logo © Microsoft Inc.

DropBox logo © DropBox Inc.

Caesar image © University of Texas www.utexas.edu

File sharing image © Vege - stock.adobe.com

All other images unless stated © Shutterstock.com

This material contains links to relevant websites featured in the teacher’s guide. Every effort
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Key Stage 3 Networks © 2017 PG Online Ltd 14