Paper Info
Title
Developing a multifunctional network laboratory for teaching and research
Abstract
Adequate hands-on experience on networking and computing is becoming vital and necessary for students majored in programs such as Information Technology and Computer Science. However, building a hands-on experimental lab environment turns out to be challenging for many institutions, particularly for a new-born program or an urban university, due to space constraints, budget limitations, maintenance difficulty and so on. This paper presents and explores the design of a multifunctional lab environment for both teaching and research while taking the cost and space challenges into consideration. On one hand, the lab utilizes a number of industrial-strength Cisco routers, switches and wireless access points to setup a practical platform that allows students to configure and administrate their network design by applying the knowledge learned in the classroom. On the other hand, the lab is equipped with useful (and mostly free) software packages such as OPNET, Network Simulator (NS-2), Virtual PC, and CPLEX, which enable students to conduct various network modeling, simulation, optimization, and emulation together with their research projects. Accordingly, each iteration for the lab design and implementation as well as experiences learned and future integration with additional curriculum, are presented in this paper.
Year
DOI
Venue
2009
10.1145/1631728.1631770
SIGITE Conference
Keywords
Field
DocType
lab design,multifunctional network laboratory,space constraint,research project,various network modeling,hands-on experimental lab environment,adequate hands-on experience,network design,multifunctional lab environment,paper present,space challenge,topology,network,network topology,network model,information technology,network simulator
Wireless,Software engineering,Systems engineering,Network planning and design,Information technology,Computer science,Knowledge management,Network simulation,Curriculum,Software,Emulation,Intelligent computer network
Conference
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
4
0.48
13
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Xiaojun Cao153074.55
Yang Wang210212.48
Adrian Caciula3224.51
Yichuan Wang43510.08