Teaching Software Defined Networking: It's not just coding

The current distributed networking model is the basis for applied network management courses all over the world, at all levels of adult education. This is because the one model has become dominant in the established networks throughout the world. There is evidence this domination is lessening. Software Defined Networking (SDN) has been in use in datacentres and private networks for over 10 years and is slowly emerging from the datacentre towards becoming an option for any TCP/IP network. There are numerous potential advantages to an organisation that chooses to adopt SDN. It is a key part of securing our future in the changing world of network infrastructure. This paper presents a case study describing the introduction of SDN to Whitireia New Zealand applied networking students, with a strong focus on development and implementation of SDN infrastructure. While there is much information available to support teaching of programming of an SDN, there is little help to be found with teaching the concepts, operation, and support of this new paradigm of networking. The potential of this research work is to encourage others to see how SDN can be included into their curricular, so that a growing body of networking infrastructure graduates will be ready to support this new networking model for the 21st Century. This paper will discuss the importance of SDN as a new focus in an applied networking course. In addition, it will describe the academic and physical requirements to enable adoption into the curricular at Whitireia School of IT. Some procedures will be presented, suggesting how implementation pains can be eased.