Computer Networking and Cloud-Based Learning/Teaching Environment Using Virtual Labs Tools: A Review and Future Aspirations

Physical laboratories for practical classrooms in computer networks can be prohibitively expensive, as well as requiring regular hardware/software upgrades. With Netkit and similar software, network laboratories can be set up in a computer lab, but the setup is complicated and each student still needs their own computer. Thanks to the Cloud-based infrastructure, Netkit is now available in pre-configured Amazon elastic compute Cloud (EC2) instances. This research reviews and introduces educational computer networks. Furthermore, a web interface is used to allow remote access to numerous lab scripts instantiated on the Cloud. This study also describes how to use the Cloud to set up and access Netkit, which is open-source and free, but only supports Linux computers. By hosting Netkit in the Cloud, where it can be accessed from any Internet-connected device regardless of the user’s device or operating system (OS), we have made Netkit portable. It was shown how the Cloud architecture of Amazon web services (AWS) holds NetKit-capable virtual machines that instructors and students can create on demand. This eliminates the need to set up specialised labs and enables students to gain practi