Emerging high-speed networking and data communication techniques are having a profound impact on daily life and on the ways that people interact with each other. Teaching these emerging techniques in an undergraduate curriculum has been difficult for two main reasons: the complexity of these new techniques and the cost of hardware needed. This project establishes a lab of UNIX workstations that may be used to develop and teach emerging high-speed networking techniques. The lab enables this department to take a software-simulation approach to teaching these techniques. The department is developing several simulation programs that visualize key concepts and protocols in areas such as broadband ISDN, asynchronous transmission mode, and other high-speed networking and data communication techniques. The new simulation programs provide a stimulating, interactive, and effective teaching tool that is helpful to students tackling the complex concepts and protocols. The software approach is also financially more sensible. New networking techniques are constantly evolving and changing. For a hardware-based approach, keeping the hardware up-to-date presents a high financial demand which is unbearable for most undergraduate institutions. The software simulation tools can be easily modified and revised to reflect any changes and evolutions. Two new courses are being developed out of this project. Several other courses related to computer networks and UNIX programming in the undergraduate curriculum may also directly benefit from the new lab. The simulation programs are jointly implemented by faculty members and undergraduate students. A significant number of undergraduate computer science majors gain invaluable programming experiences while implementing the simulation packages.
