Networking Lab Simulation using Virtual Technologies

摘要

Rapid advances in technologies and the limited budgets always hinder the universities from upgrading their networking lab equipment to a state-of-the-art level. As one of the regional Cisco Networking Academies, East Carolina University spends a large amount of funding purchasing new equipment for the ever changing Cisco networking academy curriculums. Reducing the demand for real lab equipment and deploying simulation based labs can effectively mitigate the current conflicts between the budgets and the requirement of lab availability. The purposes of this paper are 1. comparing Cisco networking simulation software applications that are available on the market, 2. highlighting the advantages of the novel virtual technology based simulation software over the traditional simulation software, 3. providing a complete solution for teaching networking labs using virtual technology including hardware setup and connection, remote access configuration and software installation, and 4. designing lab topology using DynampisGUI to simulate a full rack of Cisco equipment on a single PC.