AN IMPLEMENTATION OF MULTIPROTOCOL LABEL SWITCHING VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORKS AND INTERNET PROTOCOL SECURITY USING GRAPHICAL NETWORK SIMULATOR 3 AS AN EDUCATIONAL TOOL

Graphical network simulator (GNS) 3 is an excellent complementary tool that allows simulation of complex networks like implementation of real labs for network engineers, administrators, and researchers. The primary objective of this paper is to evaluate GNS3 as an educational tool by implementing Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Virtual private Networks (VPN) and Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) VPN. A Client Server model is created using FileZilla Server and Client, then a file of 11,057,507 bytes is transferred and monitored by network tool OpManager. The result obtained shows that Round-trip time (RTT) value is high for both protocols in GNS3 as compare to real networks. So it is concluded that network topology used can be implemented in GNS3, and could be used as an educational tool, but it requires a system like Intel Core 2 Duo or higher processor, having at least 4GB of RAM, as it utilizes considerable system resources. Index Terms: Graphical Network Simulator (GNS3), Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), Virtual Private Network (VPN), Internet Protocol Security (IPsec), Round-trip Time (RTT).