Abstract
This paper describes a sophomore/junior-level laboratory course on network administration. The course aims to introduce networking concepts while emphasizing observation and measurement of network traffic. It utilizes an isolated laboratory of PCs running Linux along with numerous hubs, switches, and routers that can be rewired into multiple configurations. Being isolated from the campus network allows students complete administrative access without compromising campus security. Groups of students assemble their own LAN, attach it to the lab's "internet" backbone via a router, and then provide numerous common services like HTTP, DNS, and remote access to the rest of the lab. Once the room has a functioning internet, students examine various issues like encryption with TLS and ssh, as well as caching and load issues in retrieving different types of data from a web server. This paper covers the goals of the course, the laboratory setup, the exercises used in the course, and our experiences teaching the course.
- Burroughs, Ann, Laboratory Course Presentation, ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Computer Networking: Curriculum Designs and Educational Challenges, 2002. Online. Internet. {August 20, 2002}. Available http://www-et.cs.umass.edu/education_workshop/lab_burroughs.pptGoogle Scholar
- Comer, D. Hands-on Networking with Internet Applications, Prentice-Hall, 2002. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Comer, D. and Lin, J., A Laboratory Environment For Experimenting with Xinu, Purdue Technical Report CSD-TR 96-47, August, 1996.Google Scholar
- Hill, J., Carver C., Humphries, J. and Pooch, U. Using an Isolated Network Laboratory to Teach Advanced Networks and Security, Proceedings of the 32nd SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, February 2001. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Liebeherr, J. Internet Teaching Laboratory, 2002. Online. Internet. {September 4, 2002}. Available http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~itlabGoogle Scholar
- Report from the Undergraduate Curriculum Working Group, ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Computer Networking: Curriculum Designs and Educational Challenges, 2002. Online. Internet. {August 20, 2002}. Available http://www-net.cs.umass.edu/workshop1.htmlGoogle Scholar
- White, B., Lepreau, J., et.al. An Integrated Experimental Environment for Distributed Systems and Networks, to appear in Proceedings of the Fifth Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (December, 2002), USENIX. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- An introductory course in network administration
Recommendations
An introductory course in network administration
SIGCSE '03: Proceedings of the 34th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science educationThis paper describes a sophomore/junior-level laboratory course on network administration. The course aims to introduce networking concepts while emphasizing observation and measurement of network traffic. It utilizes an isolated laboratory of PCs ...
TCP tunnels: avoiding congestion collapse
LCN '00: Proceedings of the 25th Annual IEEE Conference on Local Computer NetworksThis paper examines the attributes of TCP tunnels which are TCP circuits that carry IP packets and benefit from the congestion control mechanism of TCP/IP. The deployment of TCP tunnels reduces the many flows situation on the Internet to that of a few ...
Domain Constrained Multicast: A New Approach for IP Multicast Routing
One of major reasons why IP multicast has not been well deployed is the complexity of IP multicast routing. Since existing IP multicast routing protocols have been designed independently of IP unicast routing protocols, a router must maintain routing ...
Comments