Virtualization of VoIP laboratories

The traditional telephony has been replaced by digital communications and the most used at the moment are VoIP services because of Ethernet evolution. To work in this area, the user must have solid knowledge about networking and telephony. As the technology evolves, the implementation of higher education laboratories needs to evolve at the same rate. In this paper is proposed a VoIP laboratory with a very flexible configuration to permit the implementation for many applications. The students are initiated in that kind of services that require cautions because of the internet vulnerability. Through this laboratory, the students also learn how to design a VoIP network reducing the cost and implementing the optimal solution to obtain a reliable system. Introducing virtualization in a laboratory at undergraduate level can be a difficult task as the students need to understand not only the ideas related to the laboratory, but also the concepts related to virtualization, such as the operation mode, advantages and disadvantages. This paper presents the implementation based on Asterisk software of a VoIP laboratory at undergraduate level, the advantages of this implementation and the challenges that are brought with it. The laboratory can be used in engineering classes at Communications and Computer Science specializations.