An Implementation of a Software Defined Network Based Virtual Laboratory

Abstract

The cost of adequately equipping laboratories with required laboratory equipment has been found to be prohibitively expensive. This has made teaching of practical oriented courses very challenging in educational institutions. Virtualization is a technology that can create the impression of having dedicated hardware resources in place of physical laboratory equipment thereby reducing this prohibitive cost. In this paper, the development of a virtual laboratory using software defined networking approach is presented. The developed system was tested using a network penetration testing laboratory session. The results derived show that the virtual laboratory has the potential of enhancing learning in practical oriented courses because of the ease of conducting practical sessions and the elimination of procurement cost of laboratory equipments.