remote access internetworking laboratory
College students in computer networking courses are very interested in Internet technology because of the rapid growth in that area. Of particular interest is the need for practical experience in network design and configuration. A typical computer networking class curriculum includes the study of theory and the laboratory projects. The laboratory projects are designed to give students a better understanding of computer networks. Most of the laboratory projects are software projects. Furthermore it is common to find projects in the area of implementing an application layer protocol and protocol observations in many computer network course textbooks [7,11,12]. However, having a networking laboratory with the proper hardware facilities to teach real networking has several difficulties. These difficulties include funding for the hardware facility, physical space limitations, and physical accessibility of the lab facility [6,10]. We have designed a networking lab that can solve these problems. Old PCs have been converted to IP routers with the free router software Zebra [5]. The proposed laboratory system can be accessed through the Internet, and the network topology can be changed remotely.
access internetworking internet network laboratory student computation computer networking technologies practical experience network design configurability class curriculum theory project understandability software applications layer observability hardware physical space router systems network topologies remote access lab internetworking lab