Telecom Networks Lab I

Laboratory Report Writing Format

Yonas Yehualaeshet (yonas.yehualaeshet@aait.edu.et)

An experiment is only as good as the lab report that describes it. Lab reports are an essential
part of all laboratory courses and usually a significant part of your grade. A lab report is
how you explain what you did in experiment, what you learned, and what the results meant.
You should not simply restate what is already written in the handout. It is important to use
appropriate citations when referring to handouts or other materials. Each group will submit a
single report, using this format, for each experiment requiring a formal lab report. The report
should contain the following sections:

1 Title Page
It would be a single page that states:

• The title of the experiment.

• Your name

• Your instructor’s name.

• The date the lab was performed or the date the report was submitted.

2 Introduction/Purpose
The introduction includes background information, as well as a description of how this work
fits into the contexts of the discussions before the starting of the lab sessions. It also includes
a brief description of the principles that underlie the experiment.

3 Materials/Components and Equipment

List everything needed to complete your experiment.

Example:

• GNS3 Emulation Software

• Wireshark, 2811 Cisco Router and etc.

1
4 Methods/Procedure
In this section, the details of the way the simulation was performed, how the equipments were
configured, the way the data was collected, etc., are described. Describe the steps you completed
during your investigation for each scenario situation given in the lab questions. Simulation data
obtained from your procedure usually is presented as a table (if possible). It may be helpful to
provide a figure or a screen shot to diagram your experimental setup.

5 Discussion or Analysis
This section is used to demonstrate the significance of the results, and to explain why they are
or are not consistent with those that would be expected from theory and analysis.

• Discuss the significance, or meaning, of the results.

• Discuss discrepancies between theoretical and experimental results, and their likely causes.

• How do your results relate to your experimental objective(s)?

• Discuss any difficulties encountered in performing the laboratory, what were their sources?
How might they be avoided in future experiments?

6 Conclusions
The purpose of this section is to wrap up the lab and summarize what was reported. It is
also a place to make suggestions for future improvements. Most of the time the conclusion is
a single paragraph that sums up what happened in the experiment, whether your hypothesis
was accepted or rejected, and what this means.