Title: Using cloud computing to support higher education in networks and systems

Authors: Jianwei Liu; Yunhui Fu; Jim Martin

Addresses: School of Computing, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, 29634, USA ' School of Computing, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, 29634, USA ' School of Computing, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, 29634, USA

Abstract: Virtual machine (VM) technology is widely used in higher education to support pedagogy and research. However, without a standard platform for managing VM technology, VM-based infrastructure is likely to be acquired and deployed in an ad-hoc manner. The virtual computing lab (VCL) system is an open source cloud computing platform developed specifically to support higher education. The main goal of VCL is to make available dedicated, custom compute environments to users. We built a small VCL cloud and trialed its use to support several networking courses offered in the School of Computing at Clemson University during the 2013/2014 academic year. In this paper, we summarise the trial and provide results and conclusions. We found that well provisioned PCs might support up to ten VMs however when subject to peak loads, the system is not able to support accurate and reproducible network experiments.

Keywords: Virtual Computing Lab; VCL; higher education; cloud computing; virtual machines; networking courses; computing education; peak loads; United States; USA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCC.2016.075095

International Journal of Cloud Computing, 2016 Vol.5 No.1/2, pp.57 - 78

Received: 09 Oct 2014
Accepted: 11 Mar 2015
Published online: 03 Mar 2016 *

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