MAADNET: Toward a Web-Distributed Tool for Teaching Networks and Information Assurance

There are rarely enough time, laboratory, or equipment resources available for students to explore network construction, provision of services, demand analysis, and information assurance issues. Students need a software tool in which they can rapidly construct networks to satisfy particular scenarios and get rapid feedback. The ability to represent defensive preparations and attacker behaviors raises awareness in the information assurance arena. Making the tool webdeliverable enables a new level of outreach to potential students of networking and information assurance. Faculty and research scientists at the United States Military Academy are developing the Military Academy Attack/Defense Network (MAADNET) to provide the network construction and evaluation tool, including the ability to model attack and defense, and to create a web-based competition format to reach out to prospective students at every level of expertise. Background and Motivation Teaching people how to design, build, and evaluate networks, whether for education and training or for industry, usually requires a significant investment in time, equipment, and other resources. Teaching them the specifics of installing and operating services (e-mail, web, file, etc.) and then generating realistic demands against those services is even harder. The desire to inculcate an awareness of information assurance concerns makes it even more complex and resource intensive. Many institutions do not have the laboratory facilities, computer/networking equipment, and the student and faculty time to allow thorough exploration of these areas. Even with great resources, students can’t take the laboratory hardware and software with them to practice network configuration and evaluation on their own. This also places practical limits on the ability to reach out to potential students. A web-delivered software tool is sorely needed that allows students and practitioners to virtually construct a range of simple to complex networks, install services, place demands on their configuration, secure it, and evaluate the results. The Military Academy Attack/Defense Network (MAADNET) is a multi-phase project addressing the problems of time, resources, and inability to reach out. The first phase is development of MAADNET NetBuilder to provide network construction, communication modeling, service and demand modeling, and an underlying simulation to support visualization and evaluation. The second phase will develop MAADNET Competitor to incorporate the modeling of attack behaviors and defense capabilities. The third phase will package MAADNET NetBuilder and MAADNET Competitor for web delivery beyond the classroom. This work is ongoing, with a prototype developed for the network construction, traffic modeling and simulation, and early efforts on device and demand modeling (MAADNET NetBuilder) and attack and defense modeling underway. The contributions of the MAADNET project will include an easy-to-use network construction interface, a less-detail oriented traffic model, a service and demand focus to network modeling, the ability to appropriately portray attacks and defenses over time, and a new way to reach out to potential students. The results of this research should be useful to others interested in networking and information assurance, particularly training and education.