A UML and MLN based approach to implementing a networking laboratory on a scalable Linux cluster
William D. Armitage, Alessio Gaspar, Matt Rideout · Journal of computing sciences in colleges · 2007
The teaching of a practical laboratory component of certain computer science courses such as networking has, in the past, required dedicated laboratories, isolated from the campus networking infrastructure. During the past few years, virtualization has emerged as a practical alternative to this resource-intensive and very limiting solution. User-Mode Linux (UML) is a virtualization technology that offers many advantages; MLN is an application that allows implementation of predefined or student-designed virtual networks of arbitrary complexity. We discuss the use of these tools on a low-cost, scalable load-balancing Linux cluster, illustrating how our implementation fulfills necessary and desirable goals for an effective networking lab.