V-Lab: A Mobile, Cloud-Based Virtual Laboratory Platform for Hands-On Networking Courses

In computer and network security education, hands-on laboratories are essential to help students understand the course content. However, hands-on laboratories are difficult to implement due to the complicated setup and location restrictions of a physical laboratory, which limits their use in online education. Using a remotely accessible, physically unconstrained virtual laboratory is a natural solution. Existing laboratory solutions are usually expensive to build, configure and maintain, while still lacking reusability, flexibility, and scalability. The authors propose a remote, virtual laboratory that provides cloud resources to both desktop and mobile users, called V-Lab. By using a flexible and reconfigurable design, V-Lab greatly reduces the effort needed to establish and maintain a physical laboratory, while providing a secure, reliable, and physically unrestricted environment that allows students to use resources based on their own schedule. Preliminary results show that students report that V- Lab system is intuitive, reliable, and helps them solve real-world problems.