University:   Mercer University, Macon, GA
 Name of Sponsoring Professor:  Dr. Donald U. Ekong
 Department:  Electrical and Computer Engineering
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Integration of OPNET Modules in an Undergraduate Computer Networks Class at Mercer University

ECE 455 (Computer Networks) is an introductory computer networks class that is taught at the undergraduate (senior) level in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department program at Mercer University. This course is aimed at introducing the students to various aspects of networks, such as protocols, implementation, and quality of service. Beginning in the fall semester of 2003, OPNET Modeler (version 9.1.A) will be used to enhance the teaching of computer networks concepts.

Three OPNET modules will be used in this course. The OPNET version used is OPNET Modeler 9.1.A; this is installed on a Sun Microsystems Sunblade 2000 server and nineteen Sunblade 150 workstations. The modules will be described in the following paragraphs.

1. Introduction to OPNET

This lab will introduce the students to OPNET, and how to build and analyze network models. In this lab, OPNET will be used to model a company that has a network on a first floor office building, and plans to add an additional network on another floor.

The students will build and test network models to ensure that the load added by the second network will not cause the final network to fail. The network models will simulate traffic caused by workstations accessing a database at a low rate. Statistics will be collected that will help in answering the following questions:

    • Will the server be able to handle the additional load of the second network?
    • Will the total delay across the final network be acceptable once the second network is installed?

2. WAN Modeling

In this lab, the students will model an east coast company’s wide area network (WAN). The company has offices in Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Washington D.C. All offices are connected to a central network in Washington D.C. The students will utilize models that simulate the following profiles of multiple clients and servers:

  • Engineers – Web browsing (light use), e-mail (light use), telnet (light use), and file transfer (light use).
  • Researcher – Web browsing (heavy use), and e-mail (light use).
  • E-Commerce Customer – Web browsing (light use).
  • Sales Person – Database (light use), e-mail (light use), web browsing (light use), and file print (light use).

The applications (e.g. web browsing) defined in the profiles will be supported by server(s) located at the Washington D.C. office.

The students will model two WANs; one will have a server that supports all the applications, while the other WAN will have three servers – a file server for file print and file transfer, a web server for web browsing and e-mail, and a database server.

The students will simulate the CPU utilization of the servers and use the results to decide whether one or more servers can meet the computing needs of the company.

3. Background Link Utilization

Simulations in the previous labs did not take into consideration the existence of background traffic in the network links. In real networks, the links usually have some background traffic, and this can be modeled by background link utilization.

In this lab, the students will replicate the networks of the previous lab, and add background link utilization to the new networks. The background traffic will be in three phases: low initial bandwidth use, an increase in band use, and finally a leveling off to moderate use.

The students will study and compare the performance of the networks with and without background utilization. Statistics that will be collected in this lab include CPU utilization of the servers, and HTTP page response times.

Acknowledgement

We acknowledge with thanks the assistance of the Keck Foundation through the provision of funds for the purchase of OPNET software and computer equipment.