Using the IaC Approach for Building a Distributed Laboratory Complex for Modern Communication Infrastructures Investigation

Intensive implementation of virtualization technologies forces transition from traditional command-line (CLI-based) to software-oriented approaches in the communications infrastructures management. The modern “Infrastructure as Code” (IaC) approach is based on unified program-based control processes for components of the communication and computing infrastructures which makes comprehensive automation of these processes possible. Crucial changes, that have occurred in the field of telecommunications over the past decade, present lots of brand new requirements for the educational process organization, which, at first glance, forces doubts on the fruitfulness of traditional laboratory facilities using, that are available today in educational institutions. These changes, however, make it possible to change existed approaches for network disciplines studying and to expand laboratory complexes’ abilities in educational institutions to provide developing and consolidating corresponding skills and knowledges for students. Our work presents results of using the IaC approach to combine disparate laboratory resources of an educational institution into a single software-controlled automated system to provide modern methodologies introduction in telecommunication system’s studying area.