The Development and deployment of a remote virtual lab based on Amazon Cloud for networking courses

Remote virtual laboratories had been implemented using different approaches. Universities have adopted such model mostly for the distance learners. Furthermore, such systems have been implemented internally and used in conjunction with their physical hands-on labs. Nevertheless, the introduction of Cloud Computing and the virtual platform environment offered by it can serves for the creation of new type of services. This thesis aims to use this new technology and develop a remote virtual laboratory that can be used by students for doing their hands-on lab in the networking courses at PUCMM. For this purpose the services used were the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) as an infrastructure provider and the VMLogix Lab Manager as the management software for the use of the laboratory. The paper includes the development and deployment of two labs one in Windows and the other in Linux. Furthermore, the problems encountered and the outcomes are documented to serve as a base implementation guide for future laboratories using the Amazon Cloud Computing platform

To enhance collaborative learning and practice network knowledge with a virtualization laboratory and online synchronous discussion

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internatinal License.Recently, various computer networking courses have included additional laboratory classes in order to enhance students' learning achievement. However, these classes need to establish a suitable laboratory where each student can connect network devices to configure and test functions within different network topologies. In this case, the Linux operating system can be used to operate network devices and the virtualization technique can include multiple OSs for supporting a significant number of students. In previous research, the virtualization application was successfully applied in a laboratory, but focused only on individual assignments. The present study extends previous research by designing the Networking Virtualization-Based Laboratory (NVBLab), which requires collaborative learning among the experimental students. The students were divided into an experimental group and a control group for the experiment. The experimental group performed their laboratory assignments using NVBLab, whereas the control group completed them on virtual machines (VMs) that were installed on their personal computers. Moreover, students using NVBLab were provided with an online synchronous discussion (OSD) feature that enabled them to communicate with others. The laboratory assignments were divided into two parts: Basic Labs and Advanced Labs. The results show that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in two Advanced Labs and the post-test after Advanced Labs. Furthermore, the experimental group's activities were better than those of the control group based on the total average of the command count per laboratory. Finally, the findings of the interviews and questionnaires with the experimental group reveal that NVBLab was helpful during and after laboratory class

Creating local networks in the Cloud

The resources and services offered by cloud computing platforms have been opening new alternatives of expansion to several research areas. The cloud computing platform applications to the educative area have been creating interest in different educative organizations. This thesis proposes the use of the Amazon EC2 cloud computing platform to build networking laboratories for the computational and networking educative areas. Within this paper, several options are evaluated in order to fulfill this objective. The final proposed design introduces a practical scenario for networking laboratories. Future enhancements of the final design are proposed

Deliverable JRA1.1: Evaluation of current network control and management planes for multi-domain network infrastructure

This deliverable includes a compilation and evaluation of available control and management architectures and protocols applicable to a multilayer infrastructure in a multi-domain Virtual Network environment.The scope of this deliverable is mainly focused on the virtualisation of the resources within a network and at processing nodes. The virtualization of the FEDERICA infrastructure allows the provisioning of its available resources to users by means of FEDERICA slices. A slice is seen by the user as a real physical network under his/her domain, however it maps to a logical partition (a virtual instance) of the physical FEDERICA resources. A slice is built to exhibit to the highest degree all the principles applicable to a physical network (isolation, reproducibility, manageability, ...). Currently, there are no standard definitions available for network virtualization or its associated architectures. Therefore, this deliverable proposes the Virtual Network layer architecture and evaluates a set of Management- and Control Planes that can be used for the partitioning and virtualization of the FEDERICA network resources. This evaluation has been performed taking into account an initial set of FEDERICA requirements; a possible extension of the selected tools will be evaluated in future deliverables. The studies described in this deliverable define the virtual architecture of the FEDERICA infrastructure. During this activity, the need has been recognised to establish a new set of basic definitions (taxonomy) for the building blocks that compose the so-called slice, i.e. the virtual network instantiation (which is virtual with regard to the abstracted view made of the building blocks of the FEDERICA infrastructure) and its architectural plane representation. These definitions will be established as a common nomenclature for the FEDERICA project. Other important aspects when defining a new architecture are the user requirements. It is crucial that the resulting architecture fits the demands that users may have. Since this deliverable has been produced at the same time as the contact process with users, made by the project activities related to the Use Case definitions, JRA1 has proposed a set of basic Use Cases to be considered as starting point for its internal studies. When researchers want to experiment with their developments, they need not only network resources on their slices, but also a slice of the processing resources. These processing slice resources are understood as virtual machine instances that users can use to make them behave as software routers or end nodes, on which to download the software protocols or applications they have produced and want to assess in a realistic environment. Hence, this deliverable also studies the APIs of several virtual machine management software products in order to identify which best suits FEDERICA’s needs.Postprint (published version

Algorithms for advance bandwidth reservation in media production networks

Media production generally requires many geographically distributed actors (e.g., production houses, broadcasters, advertisers) to exchange huge amounts of raw video and audio data. Traditional distribution techniques, such as dedicated point-to-point optical links, are highly inefficient in terms of installation time and cost. To improve efficiency, shared media production networks that connect all involved actors over a large geographical area, are currently being deployed. The traffic in such networks is often predictable, as the timing and bandwidth requirements of data transfers are generally known hours or even days in advance. As such, the use of advance bandwidth reservation (AR) can greatly increase resource utilization and cost efficiency. In this paper, we propose an Integer Linear Programming formulation of the bandwidth scheduling problem, which takes into account the specific characteristics of media production networks, is presented. Two novel optimization algorithms based on this model are thoroughly evaluated and compared by means of in-depth simulation results

CyberLiveApp: a secure sharing and migration approach for live virtual desktop applications in a cloud environment

In recent years we have witnessed the rapid advent of cloud computing, in which the remote software is delivered as a service and accessed by users using a thin client over the Internet. In particular, the traditional desktop application can execute in the remote virtual machines without re-architecture providing a personal desktop experience to users through remote display technologies. However, existing cloud desktop applications mainly achieve isolation environments using virtual machines (VMs), which cannot adequately support application-oriented collaborations between multiple users and VMs. In this paper, we propose a flexible collaboration approach, named CyberLiveApp, to enable live virtual desktop applications sharing based on a cloud and virtualization infrastructure. The CyberLiveApp supports secure application sharing and on-demand migration among multiple users or equipment. To support VM desktop sharing among multiple users, a secure access mechanism is developed to distinguish view privileges allowing window operation events to be tracked to compute hidden window areas in real time. A proxy-based window filtering mechanism is also proposed to deliver desktops to different users. To support application sharing and migration between VMs, we use the presentation streaming redirection mechanism and VM cloning service. These approaches have been preliminary evaluated on an extended MetaVNC. Results of evaluations have verified that these approaches are effective and useful

Development of a virtualization systems architecture course for the information sciences and technologies department at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)

Virtualization is a revolutionary technology that has changed the way computing is performed in data centers. By converting traditionally siloed computing assets to shared pools of resources, virtualization provides a considerable number of advantages such as more efficient use of physical server resources, more efficient use of datacenter space, reduced energy consumption, simplified system administration, simplified backup and disaster recovery, and a host of other advantages. Due to the considerable number of advantages, companies and organizations of various sizes have either migrated their workloads to virtualized environments or are considering virtualization of their workloads. As per Gartner Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure 2013 , roughly two-third of x86 server workloads are virtualized [1]. The need for virtualization solutions by companies and organizations has increased the demand for qualified virtualization professionals for planning, designing, implementing, and maintaining virtualized infrastructure of different scales. Although universities are the main source for educating IT professionals, the field of information technology is so dynamic and changing so rapidly that not all universities can keep pace with the change. As a result, providing the latest technology that is being used in the information technology industry in the curriculums of universities is a big advantage for information technology universities. Taking into consideration the trend toward virtualization in computing environments and the great demand for virtualization professionals in the industry, the faculty of Information Sciences and Technologies department at RIT decided to prepare a graduate course in the master\u27s program in Networking and System Administration entitled Virtualization Systems Architecture , which better prepares students to a find a career in the field of enterprise computing. This research is composed of five chapters. It starts by briefly going through the history of computer virtualization and exploring when and why it came into existence and how it evolved. The second chapter of the research goes through the challenges in virtualization of the x86 platform architecture and the solutions used to overcome the challenges. In the third chapter, various types of hypervisors are discussed and the advantages and disadvantages of each one are discussed. In the fourth chapter, the architecture and features of the two leading virtualization solutions are explored. Then in the final chapter, the research goes through the contents of the Virtualization Systems Architecture course