Design of an introductory networking subject in advance of the European Higher Education Area: Challenges, experiences and open issues

The field of Computer Networks has evolved quickly during the last years. In this paper we consider different aspects of those changes that condition the design of a subject in Networking; specifically, we discuss social, technological and economic aspects. Additionally, the changes proposed in the University studies for the European Higher Education Area condition the design of any current subject. Altogether, these changes condition the design and implementation of a subject on Computer Networks. Considering the presented changes we sketch the design of an introductory subject on Computer Networking. The subject is part of a pre-Bologna course, but is designed with the transition on mind. On the paper, we sketch the implementation of the course, designed to simplify the transition to conform the recommendations of the European Higher Education Area. We detail what contents were part of the theoretical or lab sessions, and how we managed to make most lab sessions with mid-class real hardware, introducing relatively complex concepts such as Quality of Service.