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Welcome to the iLab 2023ss!

The iLab: Build your own Internet is a lab course offered by the Network Architectures and Services group at Technische Universität München.

In the iLab you learn to build networks equipped with all the important network protocols making up the Internet of today. When you finish the course, you will be able to build up a working Internet with all required technologies on your own!

Course outline

The theoretical contents of the networking lectures are explored in practical exercises. You will set up all these services (and more) by yourself and learn how they work in detail:

We will see how machines can be provisioned with network configuration (e.g. SLAAC). With dynamic routing protocols, such as OSPF, networks are made resilient against failures. DNS and DNSSEC are set up to provide name resolution from the root zone downwards.
We will look at security protocols and see how TLS can be used securely in the popular combination with HTTP. To look into modern protocols, we will have a look into QUIC, the new basic technology for the Internet with enforced encryption. We break popular WLAN encryption and set up more secure protocols instead. For link layer authentication, we use 802.1X and RADIUS.

In a team of two, you have 6 Xeon GNU/Linux machines and 2 Cisco routers to set up the network topologies and work on the tasks. We offer a lecture as well as preparatory materials with quizzes.

The course is in English, which means you can practice your English skills. If you don't know it already, you will also become familiar with GNU/Linux, which is used extensively in the exercises.

The lab room where you work.

Who is the expected audience?

The intended audience of this course is everyone who wants to understand how computer networks work.
Basic knowledge in computer networks is expected.
Knowledge of the GNU/Linux operating system is an advantage, but not required. You will get all required information during the course.
As you will use Linux throughout the whole practical exercise, getting along with this operating system will be another benefit for you in the course.

What is the workflow?

The course consists of ten exercises.
You will normally have one week for an exercise; for longer exercises, two weeks will be scheduled.

The practical exercises are performed in teams of two students.
You should try to find a team partner on a similar level regarding the networking background, as well as the Linux operating system.

An exercise consists of three parts:

• A weekly meeting where you get an introduction into the theoretical background for the upcoming exercise.
• A “prelab” where you make yourself familiar with the theoretical background of the current exercise.
  This is done by each team member separately on their own.
  The prelab is done before the practical exercise.
• The practical exercise is called "lab".
  This part is done in your two-person team. You will have your lab environment for one whole day of the week on which you can decide freely when to be in the lab and perform your practical exercise together. This gives you the freedom to attend lectures in between, etc.

The course is held entirely in English. You are expected to answer the questions in English as well. This is a good opportunity to exercise and improve your language skills!

In contrast to many other practical exercises the course is entirely based on a web system. You will have access to this web system from anywhere on the Internet.
This allows you to freely choose when to do the prelab or final adjustments to your answers.

To which modules does this course belong?

• IN0012: Bachelor-Praktikum (Projekt: Systementwicklung) (10 ECTS)
• IN2106: Master-Praktikum (10 ECTS)
• IN8903: Praktikum im Bereich Technische Informatik (10 ECTS)
• and many more, check TUMonline