Proposal of cloud-based online laboratory model for practical training in the telecoms and networking fields

The acquisition of practical skills has been recognized for a long time ago as a crucial point in the STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics). In case of e-learning, it becomes even more difficult because the learners are physically distant from the laboratories that they must use to get these skills. This paper presents a cloud-based laboratory model that provides learners a way to achieve practical work in the telecoms and networking fields in e-Learning context. This cloud technology offers many advantages exploitable by virtual laboratories. The proposed type of laboratory is mainly based on the virtual machines. It is also dynamic which means that the laboratory instances are created on demand, and destroyed at the end of the lab. To offer remote access we use the SPICE protocol. For implementation of the laboratory, in this paper we use Open Source technologies such as OpenStack, SPICE, asterisk, OpenIMScore. The laboratory was named TLaaS (Telecom Laboratory as a Service).