Designing and Building a Virtual Cyber Security Range; Analyzing the Competition Between Internet Protocol Versions 4 and 6

The primary focus of both my technical and research work this year has been on computer networking. Compared to many aspects of computer science, computer networking is a field that is used by almost everyone in their everyday lives, yet very few people in today’s age actually have to understand how it functions. For this reason, I used these two papers to deepen my understanding of computer networks by focusing on two different goals that both relate to the future of computer networking. In my technical project, I designed a computer virtualization cluster and built an array of modular tools to automate building virtual networks on the cluster. With this project, I hoped to understand the future of how computer networking is starting to be abstracted away by software and automation tools to simplify and quicken the steps needed to build a functioning network with legitimate services running. In my research project, I examined the competition between the two predominant Internet Protocols: version 4 and version 6. During this research, I worked to answer the question of why Internet Protocol version 6 is taking so long to replace Internet Protocol version 4, despite its superior technical design. This question examines a larger trend in engineering to identify the impact nontechnical factors can have in the competitiveness of a technology.

School of Engineering and Applied Science
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Technical Advisor: Yonghwi Kwon
STS Advisor: Joshua Earle
Technical Team Members: Emil Baggs