The Network Engineering Laboratory is a state-of-the-art distributed systems research facility at the University of Texas at Austin. The Network Engineering course, taught by Professor Bill Bard, is a part of the telecommunications branch of the electrical and computer engineering program.

The NEL evolved from the Network and Software Engineering Laboratory in 1996. The lab has received support from several companies including, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Tellabs, and Larsecom.

Students in this course will build a fully functional data center. The infrastructure of the network will be constructed using modern networking equipment. The students will also implement several common Internet-related services, including, but not limited to DNS, mail, web, and dial-up servers.