I’m taking a graduate course in computer networking at Georgia Tech. The tools they are asking us to use are all open source and allow for some pretty interesting projects.
One such tool is the Mininet software that allows for building realistic virtual networks with real switches, routers and applications running on a single system. We are using a virtual machine that contains a copy of the Linux operating system and the virtual networking software. So far we are encountering minor issues with the OS and VM software.