Question: Suggested Networking Projects for Students
High school and university students of computer networking are sometimes asked to complete class projects as part of their course work. Networking projects may be created by the instructor or ones that the students choose for themselves.
Answer: If you're looking for ideas, consider the following types of networking projects:
Network Design
You can propose new layouts and specifications for large computer networks such as those used by schools, businesses, Internet Service Providers, and datacenters. You can also study the design of existing networks (such as those of your school) and find ways to improve them.Network Performance
You can measure the performance characteristics of local area network (LAN) and Internet connections under varying conditions:- creating and/or using software tools that measure average and maximum bandwidth and latency of connections
- measuring performance differences between different types of network hardware (such as routers from different manufacturers) or operating systems (such as between Windows and Linux clients)
- comparing / contrasting the performance of software applications like Web servers
- modifying open source software applications to utilize parallel programming and distributed systems
Network Security
You can propose methods to measure the security level of a computer network setup and/or demonstrate ways that security can be breached:- creating and/or using network sniffers
- testing the effectiveness of antivirus software to detect network worms (and the performance of this software)
