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2.4 Cisco Packet Tracer Overview
Cisco Packet Tracer is a Cisco proprietary multi-platform tool that enables possibility for
students to create networking and IoT simulations without need of a hardware or pre-
existing network.
The tool is free of charge, runs on the major operating systems and it is downloadable
from Cisco NetAcad page for all students and teachers having a valid NetAcad account.
The tool has been available through the years for all the students participating in Cisco
courses and, originally, was designed to support practical exercises for students attend-
ing the Certified Cisco Network Associated (CCNA) Academy courses.
At the time when this thesis work was written the latest release available was the 7.1.1.
According to 2017 Corporate Social Responsibility report [24] Cisco Networking Acad-
emy, also referred as NetAcad, has educated so far over the years more than 7.8 million
people in more than 170 countries. It forms more than twenty two thousand educators
worldwide and can count on more than ten thousand partner institutions. Many of these
students have used Cisco Packet Tracer in their Cisco education.
Figure 3 - Cisco Packet Trace user interface
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The tool was built in order to allow students to experiments networking without having a
need of costly network infrastructure and lengthily hardware setup procedures. The tool
in fact offers an extensive set of hardware and cabling that allows students to setup from
a basic to very a complex network, enabling them to learn how to program Cisco appli-
ances via Command Line (CLI) interface. It also educates how to troubleshoot network
related problems, as the tool also includes realistic features for debugging.
From version 7.0 Cisco also introduced IoT functionalities in the tool, allowing students
to practice by setting up IoT devices and IoT automations. Also a possibility for a lower
level IoT simulation using single board computer (SBC) and sensor was offered in the
same release.
More complete explanation of the Cisco Packet Tracer feature can be found in the Chap-
ter 4.2.
This thesis work was only focusing on delivering IoT simulations utilizing Cisco Packet
Tracer. It was not in the scope of this thesis to evaluate or compare other IoT simulator
available.
It is also expected that Cisco will release more IoT functionalities in the future due to the
growing amount of IoT courses offered in NetAcad. Functionalities, devices and tools
might differ from what is explained in the chapter 4.2.
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