Utilizing Open Source Tools In The Networking Laboratory

Hands-on engineering applications bring real world experiences to students as well as reinforce the basic concepts. Computer networking is a challenging yet fun subject to teach as well as to learn. Primary reasons for this include its conceptual complexity and ever-changing technical jargon. Mastering its fundamental concepts from textbooks alone is difficult for students, particularly in introductory classes. Practical laboratory exercises provide students with opportunities to apply what they have learned into realworld settings. This helps underscore important concepts and aids in fortifying concept applicability in various settings leading to more active and more participative learning experiences. In this paper we show the evolving set of networking laboratory exercises using open-source software packages. Open source is affordable, real-world, evolutionary, and made for networking. It is also shown that these exercises will be competency-based and mapped to ABET 2000 a-k criteria.