A Container‐Based, Web‐Accessible Experimental Platform for Remote FPGA Laboratories With Transparent Hardware Allocation

ABSTRACT Hands‐on experimentation with Field‐Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) is pivotal for Computer Architecture education but is frequently bottlenecked by complex local environment configurations and scarce hardware resources. To dismantle these barriers, this paper proposes a container‐based, web‐accessible experimental platform that democratizes remote FPGA development. The system leverages a cloud‐native architecture—utilizing Docker Compose and Traefik—to deploy isolated, pre‐configured Linux environments accessible directly via standard web browsers, thereby achieving a “frictionless” zero‐installation experience. A central architectural element is the dynamic hardware orchestration mechanism, which decouples physical FPGA boards from specific user sessions. By replacing static binding with an on‐demand, time‐windowed scheduling pool, the system efficiently multiplexes limited hardware resources (41 boards) to serve a significantly larger cohort (70–80 students). Comprehensive empirical evaluation involving 100 participants provides encouraging evidence of student acceptance, with Project‐Based Learning scores averaging 4.20–4.37/5.0. Notably, 92% of students reported measurable time savings in environment configuration, with nearly half saving over 3 h. Deployment results suggest that this architecture reduces setup overhead and improves hardware utilization, offering a deployable and extensible solution for engineering education.