A hybrid algorithm for time scheduling in remotely triggered online laboratories
04 Apr 2011-pp 921-926
TL;DR: In this article, a hybrid time scheduling scheme for conducting experiments in an online remotely-triggered laboratory is proposed, which is implemented in the NETLab online laboratory management system which has been embedded in the curricula of two undergraduate laboratory courses at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India.
Abstract: In this work, a novel hybrid time scheduling scheme for conducting experiments in an online remotely-triggered laboratory is proposed. The scheme has been implemented in the NETLab online laboratory management system which has been embedded in the curricula of two undergraduate laboratory courses at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India.
Citations
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10 Apr 2014
TL;DR: Consideration is given to the different parameters that affect remote laboratory capacity, and a number of scenarios are used to illustrate the varying levels of laboratory apparatus that might be required, and hence the feasibility of providing support.
Abstract: Massive Open Online Courses have been receiving enormous attention within the educational community. Open questions remain however with respect to how laboratory experiences - particularly those that benefit from access to physical equipment - can be accommodated within MOOCs. In this paper the potential for addressing this challenge through the use of remotely accessed laboratories is considered - particularly in terms of the feasibility of achieving massively-scalable laboratory access. Consideration is given to the different parameters that affect remote laboratory capacity, and a number of scenarios are used to illustrate the varying levels of laboratory apparatus that might be required, and hence the feasibility of providing support.
39 citations
Cites background from "A hybrid algorithm for time schedul..."
...Fine-grained multiplexing has been explored in previous work [15] and is feasible when the set-up time of a laboratory is very short....
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...Another approach, explored by Maiti [15] is to multiplex multiple users onto a single experiment in parallel....
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Journal Article•
TL;DR: The main contribution of this paper is to develop a reference model which may help the educators and hardware-based laboratory module developers for electrical engineering disciplines.
Abstract: This paper discusses the technical considerations and pedagogical issues that influence the design and classification of hardware-based experiments and their implementation in an internet-based remote laboratory environment for technical education. The necessary architecture to maintain academic integrity and imparting quality laboratory education via remote laboratories involving the instructor, faculty, and the students has been discussed. Online laboratory teaching and learning may be augmented by adding voice/multimedia protocols for teacher-student interaction. Pedagogical issues conducive for online laboratory instructions incorporating effective remote learning facilities that mimic the face-to-face interaction in conventional laboratory have been discussed. An online remote laboratory management system ensuring quality of service, security, automated laboratory report evaluation, and monitoring of student progress has been proposed. The main contribution of this paper is to develop a reference model which may help the educators and hardware-based laboratory module developers for electrical engineering disciplines.
32 citations
TL;DR: This research analyzes the scheduling algorithm utilized by the Sahara RL system to investigate any limitations that affect the system utilization, and identifies a number of current issues and proposes specific modifications to address them.
Abstract: Remote laboratories (RLs) have become increasingly seen as a useful tool in supporting flexible shared access to scarce laboratory resources. An important element in supporting shared access is coordinating the scheduling of the laboratory usage. Optimized scheduling can significantly decrease access waiting times and improve the utilization level of RL resources, with associated reductions in per-use costs. Current RL systems have typically supported scheduling based on either reservations or queuing, though rarely both. In this paper, we investigate issues that arise when a single RL resource (or pool of resources) supports both modes for gaining access, and how these two approaches can be effectively integrated. This research analyzes the scheduling algorithm utilized by the Sahara RL system to investigate any limitations that affect the system utilization. We identify a number of current issues and propose specific modifications to address them. The proposed modifications will lead to increased utilization and improved student experiences.
25 citations
Cites background from "A hybrid algorithm for time schedul..."
...Maiti [31], [32] has also described a hybrid (or “mixedmode”) approach, referred to as “slotted queuing....
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04 Jul 2012
TL;DR: This research analyses the scheduling algorithm utilized by the Sahara RAL system and proposes specific modifications to address a number of current issues and should lead to increased utilization and improved student experience, and hence widen the scope of RAL usage.
Abstract: Optimized scheduling can significantly improve the utilization level of Remote Access Laboratories (RAL) resources and decrease the waiting time. Current RAL systems have typically supported either booking or queuing, though rarely both. In this paper we investigate issues that arise when a single RAL resource (or pool of resources) supports both modes for gaining access. This research analyses the scheduling algorithm utilized by the Sahara RAL system in order to investigate any limitations that affect the system utilization. We identify a number of current issues and propose specific modifications to address them. The proposed modifications should lead to increased utilization and improved student experience, and hence widen the scope of RAL usage.
12 citations
16 Apr 2015
TL;DR: A mobile crowd-sensing application capable of gathering the received signal strength of 3G/4G mobile devices and can be used as a preliminary, wide survey to identify prospective areas where EM emissions may exceed regulatory thresholds and where more accurate measurements can be performed.
Abstract: The diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies continuously allows users and customers to benefit from powerful devices, new functionalities and more appealing wireless services. However, the more mobile services are provided, the more telecommunication companies must comply with specific Quality of Service (QoS) levels. Therefore, users' requests can be guaranteed by increasing the offering in wireless communication services. Consequently, wireless emitting sources are becoming more and more numerous nowadays. This casts the need to assess properly the Electromagnetic (EM) field levels generated by those emitting sources without revolving to expensive monitoring assets. Additionally, some important educational aspects have to be considered as well, since nowadays many coursework from both secondary schools and universities lack of a wide and actual experiential knowledge in EM monitoring. Therefore, in this work we describe a mobile crowd-sensing application capable of gathering the received signal strength of 3G/4G mobile devices. The proposed solution has a twofold characterization: on the one hand, it behaves as an enabling platform for the provisioning of global-scale online experimental learning (i.e., Massive Online Open Laboratories, MOOL). On the other hand, it can be used as a preliminary, wide survey to identify prospective areas where EM emissions may exceed regulatory thresholds and where more accurate (but much more expensive) measurement campaigns can be performed. The application has been developed as a complete data warehouse solution and it is currently under test amongst students from the Engineering faculty at our university.
12 citations
Cites background from "A hybrid algorithm for time schedul..."
...MOOLs can be offered according to different approaches, directly deriving from the area of remote laboratories such as: batches of experimental tasks submitted by students to remote servers dedicated specifically to experiments [13], multiplexed students sessions [14] and so on....
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References
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22 Dec 2008
TL;DR: The iLab shared architecture has been extended with a highly configurable lab resource scheduling service, a robust data storage system and support for high bandwidth communication between the lab client and server.
Abstract: The MIT iLab project has developed a distributed service infrastructure and software toolkit to support a scalable community of online laboratory experiments. The iLab shared architecture provides a framework for the development and deployment of remote laboratories using a three-tiered model based on Web services consisting of lab clients, service broker middleware, and lab servers. This simplifies the development of remote labs by providing reusable components for common lab administration functions. The initial focus of the iLab project was on hatched labs, which require no interactive control. Following the projectpsilas success in supporting these labs, it has expanded its efforts to include those requiring interactive control. Interactive labs require that the user have active control of lab instruments during the course of an experiment and can generate a large amount of data. In order to accommodate these requirements, the iLab shared architecture has been extended with a highly configurable lab resource scheduling service, a robust data storage system and support for high bandwidth communication between the lab client and server. By integrating these services into the iLab shared architecture, a more diverse set of educationally valuable labs can now be easily deployed online and shared around the world.
89 citations
"A hybrid algorithm for time schedul..." refers background in this paper
...Different time scheduling techniques currently being used in online laboratories have some problems/limitations which been discussed in references [1-4]....
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Journal Article•
TL;DR: The research is focused on what is perceived to be the greatest challenge, i.e. to give the student laboratory experience that is as genuine as possible despite the lack of direct contact with the actual lab hardware.
Abstract: Physical experiments are indispensable for developing skills to deal with physical processes and instrumentation. The Internet provides new possibilities for universities and other teaching organizations to share laboratories and increase the number of lab sessions without incurring any increase in cost. Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden has opened a traditional electronics laboratory for remote operation and control 24/7; it is the first of its kind. The laboratory is equipped with a unique virtual interface enabling students to recognize on their own computer screen the desktop instruments and the breadboard they have already used in the local laboratory. The research is focused on what is perceived to be the greatest challenge, i.e. to give the student laboratory experience that is as genuine as possible despite the lack of direct contact with the actual lab hardware at the same time as it allows the teacher to use existing equipment and teaching material. The goal is to produce an open international standard.
37 citations
"A hybrid algorithm for time schedul..." refers background in this paper
...Different time scheduling techniques currently being used in online laboratories have some problems/limitations which been discussed in references [1-4]....
[...]
TL;DR: This remote laboratory system aims at providing an opportunity to students from distant places to conduct hardware experiments but also to take the corresponding measurements, and uses real-time capture of images and data from the instruments to perform experiment-related measurements.
Abstract: In technical education, laboratory components comprise an essential and integral part without which engineering education remains incomplete. Experiments conducted on laboratory equipments lend a practical touch to the theoretical knowledge acquired by the students. However, setting up a specialized laboratory consisting of sophisticated and expensive equipments such as Digital Storage Oscilloscope, Signal Generator, Spectrum Analyzer and Network Analyzer is an expensive and unaffordable proposition for many universities and engineering colleges. Sophisticated technologies incorporated in recent models of such high-end equipments enable remote access through Internet to the instruments. This concept of accessing these expensive instruments over the Internet can be exploited by setting up a Remote Laboratory. This remote laboratory system aims at not only providing an opportunity to students from distant places to conduct hardware experiments but also to take the corresponding measurements. In this work, real-time hardware experiments have been designed and implemented. These are based on modulation techniques widely employed in Communication Engineering. An interactive Graphical User Interface (GUI) environment has also been developed using Microsoft Visual Basic. This GUI is provided at the user end to facilitate the remote control and access of various instruments and experiment setups. It has been specifically designed and optimized for a low-bandwidth remote access link. The above mentioned system, as a whole, uses real-time capture of images and data from the instruments to perform experiment-related measurements.
29 citations
"A hybrid algorithm for time schedul..." refers background in this paper
..., internet connections are noisy and hence there is a high probability of break in connection at any time [5]....
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...Also the connection may be slow [5], such as in case of a dial-up connection....
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TL;DR: The design and prototype implementation of an online laboratory management system (for use with shared hardware-based remote laboratory resources) which may be employed for running internet-based online laboratory courses for geographically dispersed Institutions are described.
Abstract: Online hardware-based educational laboratories are increasingly being deployed in traditional on-campus as well as Web-based distance-learning courses around the world. An online laboratory generally will consist of several hardware-based remote experiments. However, one particular experiment can be performed at a time by an individual student or a group of students which require a careful scheduling of the experiments. For the proper implementation of an online laboratory an efficient laboratory management system (LMS) is thus essential. Also for an online laboratory, the students need to fully understand the experimental system setup and feel comfortable as in an actual laboratory environment which, however, can be effectively done by adding suitable videos and animations etc. Besides, the students should be able to run the remote experiments, extract, save and analyze the data and submit laboratory reports online. The front end of the laboratory management system should be made browser-based so that one can use the laboratory facility from anywhere. Also, for the teachers, the laboratory management system should include an online evaluation for the quiz/viva-voce, checking experimental data, grading of submitted laboratory reports and feedback for the students.
In this paper, we describe the design and prototype implementation of an online laboratory management system (for use with shared hardware-based remote laboratory resources) which may be employed for running internet-based online laboratory courses for geographically dispersed Institutions.
24 citations
"A hybrid algorithm for time schedul..." refers methods in this paper
...The method is implemented in NETLab [6] using a set of web service and a special client side developed using Adobe Flex....
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...queuing methods the mixed time-queue-slotted mode [1] in NETLab [6]....
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22 Dec 2008
TL;DR: The design and prototype implementation of a scheduling system for shared online laboratory resources, which can be employed to coordinate reservations of usage time for multiple geographically dispersed users are described.
Abstract: Online educational laboratories are increasingly deployed in traditional on-campus as well as Web-based distance-learning classes around the world. Recently, various educational institutions have attempted to leverage their online laboratory developments by broadly sharing them across institutional boundaries. While virtual experiments represent scalable software simulations, hardware-based remote experiments can only be used by one person or group of persons at a time. This paper describes the design and prototype implementation of a scheduling system for shared online laboratory resources, which can be employed to coordinate reservations of usage time for multiple geographically dispersed users. This scheduling system facilitates various priority levels for user requests, thus allowing different modes of usage, such as experimental demonstrations during a live class by an instructor and experiments carried out either individually by one user or collaboratively by multiple users. This software module can also be integrated into a more general resource management system, which enables the standardized description of and efficient search for online resources. Collectively, such tools have the potential for leading to fundamental changes in engineering and science laboratory education.
16 citations