Senior Design Project Final Report

“The Interactive Classroom”

Group #17

December 10, 2001

Advisor

Professor Hongbin Li

Group Members

Oscar Rodriguez

Henry Rivera

Diego Cevallos

Juan Guzman

Randy Slater

Jonathan Lugtu

“We pledge our Honor that we have abided by the Stevens Honor System.”

I. Abstract 2

I-1. Acknowledgement 3

II. Project Final Design Plan

II-1. Introduction 4

II-2. Design Requirements 6

II-3. System Design (Approaches & Final Design) 9

II-4. Financial Budget 13

II-5. Project Schedule 13

III. Summary 14

IV. References 15

V. Appendices 16

Abstract:

"Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today."
-- Malcolm X

One of the most influential technologies of the last century has been the development of the computer. Computers were initially built for Corporate America for business purposes. As time progressed, computers made their way into our educational system serving as a teaching aid. The main purpose of integrating computers and schools is to make classrooms more conducive to learning, make instructors more efficient, and allow for more attention to individual students.

In this day and age computers have certainly aided the classroom. Preparing our children for a lifetime of computer use is now just as essential as teaching them to read and write and do math. Yes, research shows that computers in the classroom are a benefit to the educational system. We must ask ourselves one question, have we been using computers to their maximum capabilities? We at Educational Computer Networks (EDCN) feel that the current educational system has not utilized the computer to its full potential. Our product “The Interactive Classroom” is a computer network that will bridge the gap from making the computer an occasional teaching tool to an indispensable part of the classroom. With our product in the classroom we will make students learn faster and better. Our product will make the computer an essential and integral part of the classroom. It will forever change the face of traditional education. .

Acknowledgments:

We would like to give special thanks to those who have helped us during this project:

· Professor Hongbin Li - Technical Advisor

· Professor Fred Bruno

· Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

· La Cordaire Academy - Juanito Merene (Client)

Introduction:

The whole computers in schools issue began in the early 1970s, with the introduction of special purpose terminals connected to central mainframes. This model gave rise to the concept that a computer is a sort of teaching machine, that a computer could help the teacher do the same job, only better, faster, and with more attention to individual students. As time progressed the idea of computers being integrated into schools gained a lot of popularity. Schools all over the United States have made an effort to have as many computers as possible in their classrooms. The educational system believes that computers and technical advancements affect more and more of our daily lives. Jobs that used to take hours now take just seconds. Projects that used to go on for days or weeks can now be completed with a click of a mouse. Our group still believes that computers in the classroom have not reached their maximum potential. This is the main reason why we have chosen this topic.

Our project consists of a number of major goals that we eventually expect to meet successively. We will be designing, implementing, and managing a small computer lab for a school. We expect initially to be facilitating connectivity for 80 users. Our eventual goals will be to build a secure, scalable, reliable, and cost efficient network that will assist in the school’s needs, as well as provide remote access over the Internet. The proposed design that we have engineered will be very scalable and can support well over 750 users.

Our group has decided on building the network from the ground up using Cisco equipment. We will develop a computer network which we are calling “The Interactive Classroom” that will use the technology of computers to its fullest, in order to make teaching more efficient and learning easier. Why should a student miss a lecture because the night before he got injured and has a cast in his legs and can’t walk to the classroom? Why should a professor wait until the next day of class to see if the students understood the material that was given, when he could know in real time, just by the click of the mouse? Our product will allow teachers and students to have greater flexibility and a more enjoyable learning experience. This will result in an overall better quality of education.

Design Requirements:

The acquisition of a client has brought our proposed design goals to a realization. Our group found a client located in Montclair, NJ. A high school called LaCordaire Academy has allowed for our group to implement our project over their current infrastructure. Our contact at this location is Juanito Merene, the Director of Information Technology at the school. They currently have 200 high school students and 150 grammar school students. Currently, about 80 computers are in place.

Upon meeting with the client contact, we were able to gather particular statistics, standards, and requirements for the client’s infrastructure. The requirements include scalability for future expansion, security from unwanted traffic, reliability, redundancy, and remote access capabilities.

Equipment made by Cisco Systems would be ideal for our clients needs. The reason why we are using Cisco equipment is because of the hardware’s reliability, scalability, and wide array of configuration capacity. Automatic redundancy can also be implemented with the utilization of Cisco IOS features such as HSRP (Hot Standby Routing Protocol). Dynamic routing would also be enabled through the use of a Cisco proprietary protocol called EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol). The specific equipment we’ll be using is meant for a remote office, and not meant for enterprise scalability.

The group also looked at other hardware options for this project from Linksys and D-Link. However, we found that these hardware devices did not fulfill the client’s requirements. For example, these devices only support a maximum of 253 users, which doesn’t meet the scalability requirements of the client. Redundancy would also have to be performed manually for physical removal of the devices.

Security will be a major issue in this design. With the use of Cisco equipment, we’ll be able to permit or deny specific traffic traversing outbound or inbound from the Internet. The security model that we have devised will also protect the school’s internal network infrastructure from outside attacks from hackers through the Internet.

Remote Access connectivity through the Internet will be accomplished by using Virtual Private Networking. This method of access can be accomplished by configuring a Windows 2000 Advanced Server as a VPN server to accept users. An example of how our group plans to implement VPN connectivity is Appendix E. To access the network remotely as a remote node, a prospective user would need access to the Internet via Dial-Up or any other methods. The user would also need a user name and password to gain access to the internal network.

Network management software will also be in place so that easy administration of the network will be established through the installation of CiscoWorks 2000. CiscoWorks 2000 is a comprehensive web-based network management solution. It will also facilitate the use of wired or wireless users with laptops. Simplicity of the network addressing schemes will be provided by means of the Cisco routers acting as DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol) Servers.

Once the network infrastructure is in place, this computer lab will allow us to test the different features of our “Interactive Classroom”. All students will be given a unique username and password to which will provide security and at the same time a way to keep track of individual records.

In our initial project proposal we planned on using a UNIX machine running Apache HTTP Server version 1.3. The UNIX server was going to have a 100-megabit Ethernet card to provide the high speed connection between itself and the computers in the classroom that was going to connect to it. We were going to use Perl 5.0 as the scripting language that would have been used to create common gateway interfaces (CGI). After two months of intensive research we determined that the combination of UNIX and Perl 5.0 would not be able to meet our clients requirements due to the following reasons. CGI programs take more time to write and debug, thus frequent down time for Web sites. Also, CGI Web pages are non-dynamic, thus continuous changes cannot be made on the fly. For these and other reasons we have chose to use Windows Advanced Server 2000 in conjunction with Active Server Pages (ASP).

ASP will give us the ability to create dynamic web pages that will be able to provide the interaction in the classroom. ASP programming consistently outperforms CGI. In most cases it is five times faster. Also, ASP is inherently multi-threaded which allows us to have a greater amount of concurrent users.

The main reasoning behind using Windows 2000 Advanced Server and ASP is that these products do not require the need of a high performance machine, and there are large support groups for the products throughout the Internet. We feel that it is important to minimize the cost of our product to our customers.

Please see Appendix D for a drawing of the client’s current infrastructure.
Design Approaches & Final Design:

The design approaches that our group has created can be viewed on the following pages. All three drawings were being considered as a possible final design to implement this project. A listing of advantages and disadvantages of these proposed design models are below. Our design proposals are on Appendix A.

The group’s first design was found to have a few flaws with respect to the client’s requirements. One was the fact that both the VPN Server and Web Server were logically located outside the client’s infrastructure. We then realized that Web Server to User performance would be degraded. Another reason why we decided the Web Server should be located within the client’s LAN is because we only want the client’s users to access the server. We also felt that the use of four routers in this design would be too much. We wouldn’t we utilizing all four devices to their full potential. Another issue was the proposition of enabling OSPF (Open Shortest Path First), a dynamic routing protocol, on the routers. In hindsight, OSPF would be unnecessary as it is meant for a more corporate and complex scenario.

Our second design was a more viable solution, but not necessarily the best solution. The VPN server is now connected via VPN standards as per our research. The web server is now located within the client’s infrastructure, as we desired. One issue with this design was the continued use of Hubs interconnecting users. We felt that the utilization of switched would be a better approach. The reason for this would be the elimination of collision domains associated with Hubs. Switching would further enhance overall performance within the LAN in terms of User to User or User to Server connectivity.

Our third design shows the integration of a DMZ (De-militarized Zone). A DMZ is meant for servers, such as mail and web, to be accessed by both internal and external users. However, we found this solution to be unnecessary as we only want internal users to access the Web Server. The same issue of eliminating collision domains through the utilization of switches also applies in this design.

Our final design was decided upon after careful re-evaluation of the client’s needs and requirements. We decided on the utilization of four routers and three 24-port switches. We carefully placed the Web server on the client’s internal LAN as previously described. Switches, instead of hubs, were also decided upon, since the client will desire support for audio and video. Redundancy and fault-tolerance were also considered in the design as all three switches have dual uplinks to two separate routers. Dynamic routing between the four routers would be enabled through EIGRP. This provides for multiple fault-tolerant paths into and out of the network. The design also illustrates two separate cable modem uplinks to the Internet. Two access points would also be added for wireless support. The drawing also illustrates a hierarchical design for ease of implementing additional PC’s to the infrastructure in the future. A logical layer drawing of our design is also included, as these will be the IP addresses assigned to the internetworking devices for the project.

One possible constraint of this final design will be the VPN Server being a “back-door” into the client’s LAN. This security issue will further be researched as we’ll be utilizing Microsoft Advanced Server’s full VPN capabilities. Another possible constraint of the project would be the streaming video capabilities over a VPN connection. For example, a user using a 56K dial-up connection would not benefit from streaming video.

Advantages/Disadvantages of the Proposed Designs & Final Design

Design 1

Advantages:

Full redundancy and reliability amongst all devices.
Increased security of unwanted traffic.
Scalability for future expansion.
VPN (Virtual Private Networking) for remote users.
Provides full functionality for wired or wireless users.
Excellent support for traffic-intensive users (i.e. streaming video or graphical applications).

Disadvantages:

Very Expensive.
Complex Configuration.

Design 2

Advantages:

Provides redundancy, but very minimal.
Inexpensive.
Simple Configuration.
VPN (Virtual Private Networking) for remote users.
Provides full functionality for wired or wireless users.

Disadvantages:

Not scalable for future expansion.
Limited support for traffic-intensive users.
Minimal redundancy.
Reliability is questionable.

Design 3

Advantages:

Least inexpensive of the three design models.
Provides full functionality for wired or wireless users.
VPN (Virtual Private Networking) for remote users.
DMZ (De-militarized Zone) functionality is added for security measures.
Simple Configuration.

Disadvantages:

No redundancy.
Security becomes a risk.
No scalability.
Limited support for traffic-intensive users.

Not reliable.

Final Design

Advantages:

Full redundancy and reliability.
Enhanced security from unwanted traffic.
Scalability for future expansion.
Elimination of collision domains in relation to CSMA/CD.
Excellent support for traffic-intensive users (i.e. graphical apps or streaming video).
Provides full functionality for wired or wireless users.
VPN (Virtual Private Network) for remote users.
Centralization of support for Internetworking devices.

Disadvantages:

Expensive equipment.
Complex configuration.

Financial Budget:

This will be provided on Appendix B.

Project Schedule:

For a complete project schedule, please see Appendix C.

Summary:

We firmly believe in the ability of our product to change the foundation of education. The “Interactive Classroom” will provide the teacher a way to gauge if the students understand the material being taught. If the data coming back from the “Interactive Classroom” gives the teacher the impression that the students are not quite grasping the information, the teacher will be able to go over the material until he is satisfied with the data coming back from the “Interactive Classroom”. We feel this will force the students to pay more attention in class.

The “Interactive Classroom” will also stream audio and video of the teacher’s lecture allowing persons who are unable to get to class to participate fully from the comfort of their own home. We will provide a secure link to the classroom network by establishing a virtual private network. This will ensure that only those who are given access to the network can connect to it.

The network portion of the “Interactive Classroom” is primarily based on Cisco equipment. It will be a system that can be maintained with minimal knowledge of the products. It will be set up so that it is fully redundant and easily upgradeable. We are confident that our “Interactive Classroom” will be in high demand because of its easy of use, stability, and potential as a learning tool.

References: