ProNA: A Virtual Lab Framework to Teach Network Automation and SDN in Undergraduate Courses

As SDN and network automation techniques became more and more relevant for real-world networks, their benefits and challenges should be included in bachelor’s introductory computer networking courses. However, due to still being advanced networking topics, like data plane programmability, undergrad students are often overwhelmed by the complexity and required testbed environments. The paper demonstrates a virtual lab framework addressing these issues by gradually abstracting the complexity using easy entry web-based access while still allowing a step by step deep dive into advanced learning material and tools running below the web-based lab environment based on successively gained learning experience by the students. A web application for virtual lab environments, an image for lab instances and templates for assignments and data and control plane code are offered as Open Source. Lessons learned while using them in existing courses are discussed in the paper.