Virtualization in Education: Portable Network Laboratory

The goal of virtualization is the complete reproduction of physical computer networks in software, being able to work with logical devices and logical network services. To help the traditional teaching methodology through experimentation, the students can use a virtual and portable laboratory whenever and wherever they want. PNL (Portable Network Laboratory) is a tool for the deployment of a virtualized environment of computer networks allowing to connect, configure and communicate client and server applications. Its objective is to allow the student a suitable environment to verify the proper operation of the network services they are studying. This paper presents the main considerations of the design and the implementation of PNL, as well as the results obtained.