Supporting Hands-on Networking Lab Exercises for On-Line Students

1. Supporting Hands-on Networking Lab Exercises for On-Line Students James T. Yu, Ph.D. DePaul University jyu@cdm.depaul.edu EEE'16

2. Growing Demands for On-Line Education Source: US Department of Education, June 2014 EEE'16

3. Enrollment in Networking Courses The data is based on 2013-2014 enrollment. EEE'16

4. Networking Education Hands-on lab exercises are essential to support Networking Education. • Network Theories • Hands-on Practice • Protocol Analysis • Network Design and Configuration • Performance Analysis EEE'16

5. Example: Learning Protocols • Protocols: rules of communications • Learning goals: • Functions (what) and processes (how) of the protocol under study • Messages: syntax and semantics • Message flow • Hands-on Approach: • Generate the traffic • Capture the traffic • Analyze the traffic EEE'16

6. Needs and Challenges • Hands-on networking exercises are important for students learning. The hands-on labs confirm their understanding of the theories. • The school needs a networking environment that is available to the students 24×7. • The school has a growing number of on-line students who cannot be physically at the loop campus, but they also need hands-on experience. • Any time, any place, and always available. EEE'16

7. Networking Lab Environment Physical Labs Emulation Labs Simulation Labs EEE'16

8. PhysicalLabs EEE'16

9. Physical Labs (cont.) EEE'16

10. Example of Five Router Configuration (I) R1 R4 R5 R3 R2 S2 S3 Linux03 Linux02 EEE'16

11. Example of Five Router Configuration (II) Linux02 eth1 S1 fa0/23 R1 fa0/2 R4 S2 fa0/1 fa0/1 fa0/4 fa0/1 fa0/0 fa0/1 fa0/0 S2 fa0/2 fa0/0 R2 fa0/1 Linux03 fa0/6 S2 eth1 fa0/3 fa0/23 S2 R5 S3 fa0/0 fa0/19 fa0/1 fa0/5 fa0/0 fa0/1 fa0/20 fa0/2 fa0/1 R3 S3 EEE'16

12. Scheduling Tool for Lab Reservation EEE'16

13. Pros and Cons of Physical Labs • Pros • Authentic network environment • Effective protocol analysis • Realistic performance analysis • Cons • High Cost: Equipment + Support • Low Reliability and Availability • Not scalable for network design • Vendor specific EEE'16

14. Network Emulation • Network emulation is a software tool to emulate network devices from a specific vendor, and to build a virtual network to test real applications on it. • Examples: • Cisco PacketTracer • Juniper Junos • GNS3 EEE'16

15. Emulation Labs Network Design and configuration Network Cabling EEE'16

16. Pros and Cons of Network Emulation • Pros • Scalable Network Design • Effective and realistic configuration • No equipment cost and low tech support • Environment: high availability & reliability • Cons • Vendor specific • Limited functions and protocol analysis • Poor performance analysis EEE'16

17. Network Simulation • Network simulation is a programming environment to simulate the behavior of a network. • Examples: • ns2/ns3 • Mininet • Opnet EEE'16

18. Network SimulationHighly Scalable Building a network of 1,000 nodes. EEE'16

19. Pros and Cons of Network Simulation • Pros • Highly scalable for network design • Protocol analysis • Performance analysis – useful for comparison (e.g., design and protocol improvement) • No equipment cost and low support cost • Cons • No support for device configuration • Network design is like programming. • Relatively steep learning curve EEE'16

20. Summary EEE'16

21. Conclusion: all are needed • Introductory courses • Basics of network design and cabling • Simple network configuration • Functions of protocols • Mostly emulation lab exercises • Personal environment (wireshark and VMWare) • Instructor demo on physical labs EEE'16

22. Conclusion (cont.) • Advanced courses • In-depth protocol analysis • Performance analysis • Advanced design and configuration • Mostly on the physical labs • The network design course uses the simulation environment. • Research: extensively on network simulation. EEE'16