FICT - Foundation for promoting Information and Comunication Technology

Advanced Networking Research at

Foundation for promoting Information and Communication Technology

Constantza, Romania

Name of Sponsoring Professor: Assoc.Professor: Eugen PETAC, Ph.D

Department: Computer Science, "Ovidius" University of Constantza,

President of ICT Foundation, Constanta

OPNET Headquarters
OPNET Technologies, Inc.
7255 Woodmont Avenue
Bethesda, MD 20814
240-497-3000
info@opnet.com

www.opnet.com

OPNET is a registered
trademark of OPNET Technologies
© 2004 OPNET Technologies

Teaching with OPNET

"OPNET software adds a new dimension to textbook theory when integrated into the curriculum. OPNET solutions incorporate a high fidelity software model that accurately simulates the behavior of a real-world network. By changing the configuration, link capacity, traffic volumes, and characteristics of this virtual network model, professors and students can accurately predict the impact of these changes on the real network. This capability enables a broad range of studies including:

Studying various wired and wireless routing protocols Visualizing TCP/IP mechanisms and variations Understanding LAN/WAN/MAN network architectures Designing reliable wireless networks Implementing efficient network security"

Research with OPNET

"OPNET solutions model communications devices, protocols, technologies, and architectures, and simulate their performance in a dynamic virtual network environment. Integrated code debugging and data analysis features facilitate the design process. OPNET Network R&D solutions enable a broad range of academic research including:

Evaluating and enhancing wireless protocols i.e., WiMAX, WiFi, UMTS, etc.
Designing MANET routing protocols
Studying new power management schemes for sensor networks
Researching new enhancements to core network technologies i.e., IPv6, MPLS, etc.
Analyzing optical network designs "

We are using OPNET for the following topics:

1. Routing Protocols Simulation - The following global statistics will be collated and compared:

Throughput - number of packets received by a host per second.
End-to-End Delay - how long it takes for a packet to travel from the source to the destination.
Utilisation - percentage consumption of a channel bandwidth where 100% equals full usage.
RIP Traffic Received (bits/sec) - provides the total number of RIP update traffic received by all nodes on the network.
OSPF Traffic Sent (bits/sec) - total amount of traffic generated by OSPF for all OSPF nodes on the network.
IGRP Traffic Received (bits/sec) - total number of bits in the IGRP routing updates received by all nodes on the network across all IP interfaces.
EIGRP Convergence Time (secs) - duration of the convergence of the entire EIGRP network in seconds.
EIGRP Traffic Received (bits/sec) - total number of bits in all EIGRP messages received by al nodes on the network.
EIGRP Traffic Sent (bits/sec) - total number of bits in the EIGRP messages sent by all nodes on the network.

2. Capacity Planning in a Campus/Company/Organisation-wide Network:

Documentation of network infrastructure
Modelling of major changes prior to implementation
Verification of Design of Resilience infrastructure
Modeling Impact of p2p and multi-point H.323 Video Conferenceinfrastructure (Loadings etc)
Modeling Impact of VoIP implementation (QoS etc)
Modeling service risk scenarios for the above (Bus ContinuityPlanning)
Assistance/documentation in the development of SLAs

3. Advanced LAN/WAN Integration:

IP routing (Single Area OSPF, EIGRP and RIP version 2);
Layer 2 switching and VLANs;
Wide Area Network services (T-1, Frame Relay, ISDN, and Dial On-Demand Routing), and Wide Area Network protocols (HDLC and PPP).
Variable Length Subnet Masking (VLSM), a key to designing complex IP networks, and reviews basic network security, using router access lists.
Opnet software is used by our Cisco training Academy to study various aspects of network optimization and performance. ICT Foundation networking course incorporates both the third and fourth courses in the four-course CCNA Cisco Networking Academy curriculum, as well as additional material. The course culminates with the final project, in which the students design and test a multi-site corporation's network meeting specific requirements. The final project emphasizes the integration of LAN/WAN equipments from several vendors,. The final project incorporates the layer 2 and layer 3 topics covered in the course, as well as other protocols, such as IPSEC, SNMP, and NAT. The OPNET IT Guru is used for some of the course labs, as well as a design and diagnostic tool in the final project.