Methods and Materials - Andrea Finardi Iot simulations with Cisco Packet Tracer

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Methods and Materials
The purpose of this chapter is to describe the method on how this thesis work was con-
ducted, explaining the process, the methodologies and the practical steps achieved.
The second part of the chapter is focusing on how the IoT simulations were built and
how they were explained to the students. Technical explanations of the exercises are
included in the chapter 4.
As earlier mentioned the original necessity for this thesis works came from the need to
build a practical section for the Internet of Things course taught in Helsinki Metropolia
University of Applied Science starting from January 2018.
The course lecturer had in fact already the structure for the theoretical classes, however
practical sessions were also required in order to give the students a possibility to famil-
iarize with the IoT components.
Due to the extra complexity in having real hardware such as microcontrollers, sensors
and actuators, it was decided to utilize an IoT simulator. A choice was made to use Cisco
Packet Tracer simulation tool.
Once the needs and the tool were clarified and agreed, the next step was to decide how
to structure the practical classes that, due to time limitation in the study course, were
agreed to be diluted in two sessions.
From this step onwards the thesis work was conducted following typical IT project meth-
odologies.
The work was in fact divided in five main sub categories and periodical check-up ses-
sions were organized in order to steer the contents of the deliverables.
As one can see in the below Figure 4 below the four main categories were: requirement
gathering, analysis of the tool, development of the simulation environment, roll-out of the
simulation during the classes and last the feedback collection.
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Figure 4 - Thesis work process
Gathering of the requirements was done by having few meetings with the IoT course
lecturer and details shared were quite simple. The need was to build pre-defined simu-
lations to be used in the practical class sessions. Exercises needed to be simple enough
for students to understand the basic concepts of the simulations, yet challenging them
for future developments.
The cases also required to have most of the basic configurations done, so students could
effectively concentrate on the IoT aspect and not spend too much time on the networking
side. Simulations also needed to be flexible enough in order to be expanded by students
in the future implementations of the course.
Contents and themes of the simulations were left open, however ideas were suggested
to represent both home and industrial IoT applications.
Due to the number of the student it was decided to build a maximum of four exercises.
A deadline for the readiness of the practical cases was also clear as classes needed to
fit in a particular timeline within the study course.
At this stage of the project, even though the outcomes and needs were clear, quite many
other issues were left open regarding the technical aspects of the simulations. The big-
gest concern was in fact if Cisco Packet Tracer was the correct IoT simulator to use, but
also what could be achieved with it. Historically the tool had been in fact utilized only for
networking exercises purpose, but never for IoT cases.
Reasons however why Cisco Packet Tracer was believed to be the correct choice were
mostly because tool was also used in few Cisco NetAcad IoT courses but also because
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it had the big advantage to have already proven networking features utilized by many
students worldwide.
Once the requirements were fixed the real development of the exercise started. This
work was mostly divided in two phases: first to familiarize with the tool and understand
what were its IoT capabilities and second to prepare the IoT automations.
As briefly introduced in the chapter 2, Cisco Packet Tracer is a Cisco proprietary tool
utilized in many Cisco NetAcad courses. Even though the tool is quite popular there were
not extensive guides or instructions publicly shared in the internet. There were however
few blogs and Youtube videos that helped for some specific aspects.
When accessing to the Cisco NetAcad portal, however, there were many excellent online
courses that explained the functioning of the tool. Along with specific Cisco Packet Trace
classes, the tool was also utilized in many other networking courses, helping students to
gain knowledge in steps.
Specifically for this thesis work, the knowledge of the simulator was built by following:
Introduction of Cisco Packet Tracer (0118), Introduction of Cisco Packet Tracer (1217),
Packet Tracer 1o1 (2016-11) and Intro to IoT
– English – 2016.
Online classes were usually structured by both viewing some theoretical material and
also via more step-by-step videos on how to use the tool. The biggest sections of the
classes were however the practical exercises. For each session in fact detailed exercises
were required and only when the setup was correct the exercise was passed.
The last part of the courses was usually regarding a quiz exam both including theoretical
and practical questions on the exercises.
While attending the online studies one could observe, however, that most of contents
were related to the basic function of the tool and on the networking part. Only basic IoT
components were introduced by building simple IoT automations.
When the four IoT simulations for the students were build a lot of time was spent in order
to understand the logic on how the more complex devices functioned.
Also microcontroller programming part was not included in the Cisco classes when the
above courses were attended in early 2018.
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By spending time working with the tool it came clear the fact that most of the require-
ments for the Internet of Thing course could be met by creating simulations with Cisco
Packet Tracer.
The second sub-part of this project phase continued by creating the four simulations.
For all the cases the methodology was similar: firstly a basic connectivity layer was build,
making sure that connectivity between all the networking components were established,
then IoT devices were added and last the simulations were created.
Originally the microcontroller examples were not part of the requirements, however, one
example of interaction between an SBC and a sensors was added to each IoT simulation
in order to give a more comprehensive IoT experience to the students.
Before completing to the final version of the IoT automations few basic simulation were
shared with the IoT course lecturer in order to make sure that they were following the
requirements. The only open point at this stage was how complex and complete these
simulations needed to be.
Temporary versions were more simple compared the finished product however they al-
ready included most of the network parts and some of the IoT simulations. The major
difference was regarding the Smart-Industrial case. This was not in fact a part of the
original example bundle but it had been added in later phases in order to deliver an extra,
more complex, simulation.
After few iterations and adjustments the IoT exercises were ready and approved by the
course lecturer. A small guide was also built for each case to be used as a reference
document for the students. The guide included a generic overview of the network and
the IoT layout, information about used IP addresses and IoT credentials and also few
suggestions how to expand the simulation further. The main content of this document is
described in the chapter 4 in this thesis work.
Once the development of the exercises was completed the next step of the project was
to introduce them to the students. Arrangements done by the IoT course lecturer con-
sisted two practical classes planned a week apart in the Helsinki Metropolia premises.
The first class was split into three sections: a brief overview of Cisco Packet Tracer, a
small practical networking exercise for the students to familiarize with the tool and for
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last the introduction of the IoT components within the tool. Apart from the first section,
the rest of the classes were held in the PC laboratory of Metropolia.
As discussed further in the chapter 5 few delays happened before starting with the net-
working exercise, mostly due to the fact that not all the students had a valid NetAcad
account open, necessary when logging into Cisco Packet Tracer.
Also some comments on the tight schedule are shared in the chapter 5.
The second class, organized a week apart, started by introducing the four IoT simulations
to the students. While giving an overview of the exercise, mostly explaining the IoT sce-
narios and not focusing on the networking part, also tips and deeper aspects of the tool
were shared with the students.
Once introductions were completed the students gathered in the original groups, defined
at the beginning of the IoT course, in order to adapt the own IoT business case to the
IoT simulations.
Idea was that they could utilize the pre-configured four IoT simulations to adapt them to
follow their own cases. Unfortunately few groups could not achieve that as Cisco Packet
Tracer did not have the IoT sensors required by the business cases, mostly medical,
automotive and wearable sensors.
These groups were asked to expand one of the four simulations and practice by adding
more IoT components and the backend simulation intelligence.
During the class constant support to the students was provided by sharing tips on how
to configure the devices, helping them in setting up network connections and also build-
ing microcontrollers programming logic.
Classes were very effective and at the end of the second session most of the groups
achieved a very good level of IoT simulations utilizing basic networking components.
More advance groups also experimented with basic microcontroller programming.
As discussed deeper in the chapter 5 the time spent for students practicing on the sim-
ulations was unfortunately not enough in order to gain a full understanding of complex
IoT simulations using automations, sensor variables or microcontroller programming.
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Last part of the project was to gather feedback from students on the two classes and on
the four IoT simulations. A feedback from was distributed in paper form and by mail to
the students, unfortunately only seven forms were returned.
Feedback document can be found in the Appendix 3 and conclusions are formulated in
the chapter 5.
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