AN EDUCATIONAL LABORATORY FORAN EDUCATIONAL LABORATORY FORTELECOMMUNICATION ENGINEERING TELECOMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

BASED ON TCP/IP REMOTEBASED ON TCP/IP REMOTEINSTRUMENT CONTROLINSTRUMENT CONTROL

Filippo Giannetti, Paolo Nepa, Marco Michelini, Giuliano Manara, Aldo N. D’Andrea

University of Pisa, Department of Information EngineeringVia G. Caruso - 56122 Pisa, ITALY - email: f.giannetti@iet.unipi.it

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The ELITE System:The ELITE System:whatwhat isis itit intendedintended forfor ??

ELITE (Educational Laboratory for Interactive Telecommunication and Electromagnetics) is an educational system for telecommunication engineering

developed at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Pisa, Italy.

ELITE is used by the students attending the master degree coursein Telecommunication Engineering.

The City of Pisa The Faculty of Engineering

The Deptartment of Information Engineering

The Telecommunication Educational Laboratory

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The ELITE System:The ELITE System:whatwhat isis itit ??

ELITE consists of one (or more) measuring instrument(s) connected to a server PC (teacher) via standard GPIB interface (a.k.a. IEEE488), and a cluster of client PCs (students) connected in a star network configuration to the server via TCP/IP protocol, through a LAN or the Internet.

TCP/IP

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The ELITE System:The ELITE System:howhow doesdoes itit work ?work ?

Instruments can be controlled either by the server of the clients,thanks to dedicated applications (“Virtual Instruments”, VIs)

developed using LabVIEW™ software by National Instruments.

TCP/IP

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The VIsThe VIs

The VIs replicate the appearance of the “physical” instrument’s panel, accept commands from the operator and graphically present measurement results exactly like the real instrument does.

TCP/IP

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The control panels of the “real” instruments can bereplicated with high fidelity by means of VIs.

Support for parallel processing.

Efficient functions for GPIB management, TCP/IP links, and graphic output of measured data are available.

WhyWhy LabVIEWLabVIEW ??

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VI

The “Server Mode”The “Server Mode”

VI

VI

The clients receive, through the server, the measured data.

TCP/IP

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VI

The “The “ClientClient Mode”Mode”

VI

VI

One client at time is allowed to set the instrument parameters,through the server, and to receive the measured data.

TCP/IP

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Server Server MainMain ProgramProgram

Broadcasts the measured data to the clients.Routes the commands sent from the clientsto the instruments.Selects the operating mode and managesconnection/disconnection requests from the clients.

The server runs also a dedicatedapplication (written using LabVIEWTM)named “Server Main Program”which …

Sets the measurement parameters on the instruments.Receives the measured data from the instruments. GPIB

TCP/IP

To the instrument To the clients

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Server Server MainMain ProgramProgram

Client Mode

Server Mode

Program GUI

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Hardware Hardware FacilitiesFacilities

The Telecommunication Educational Lab at the Faculty of Engineering

An analyzer performing measurements on a microwave antenna and the server PC withthe VI application

A client PC with a VI application

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DigitalDigital OscilloscopeOscilloscopeAgilentAgilent 54641A54641A

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VectorVector Network Network AnalyzerAnalyzerWiltronWiltron 37311A37311A

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VectorVector Network Network AnalyzerAnalyzerWiltronWiltron 37311A37311A

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DigitalDigital TransmissionTransmission AnalyzerAnalyzerHP 3784AHP 3784A

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Web-based remote laboratory activities are made possiblealso for students unable to attend to university courses.

Laboratory practices can be carried out also with costly, single-copy, instruments.

Inexperienced users can safely operate measurements withoutany risk of damaging the instruments.

Students can process “real” data, that are acquired by a “real” instrument and are not generated by a simulator.

System System BenefitsBenefits