AC 2012-3303: REMOTE EXPERIMENTATION FOR COMMUNICATION:

FROM REMOTE DESKTOPS TO GATEWAYS

Mr. Grant Huang, University of Texas, San Antonio

Grant Huang received his M.Sc. degree from the University of Texas, San Antonio (UTSA) in 2009 and
is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at UTSA.
His research interests include satellite/wireless channel modeling, Assisted-GPS/GNSS (A-GPS/GNSS),
and remote experimentation systems.

Andreas Gampe, University of Texas, San Antonio

Andreas Gampe is a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He received a diploma
degree in Computer Science from the Friedrich-Schiller University, Jena, Germany, in 2006. His current
research interests include language-based security for computer systems, embedded languages in software
engineering, and online education.

Mr. Arsen Melkonyan, University of Texas, San Antonio

Arsen Melkonyan is a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas, San Antonio. From 2005 to 2007, he was
a member of the research staff of Tampere University of Technology, Finland. He received a B.Sc. degree
in electrical engineering from the State Technical University of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia, in 2003 and
a M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2008. His current
research interests include impact localization algorithms for structural health monitoring, WLAN Indoor
positioning technologies, and remote hardware based educational system design.

Dr. Murillo Pontual, University of Texas, San Antonio

Murillo Pontual is a Senior Member of the technical staff at Oracle. He received his Ph.D. in computer
science from the University of Texas, San Antonio in 2011, and he received his M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees in
computer science from the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil, respectively in 2005 and 2003. His
current research interests include formal methods, online education technologies, and computer security
with special emphasis in access control, security policies, and obligations.

Dr. David Akopian, University of Texas, San Antonio

David Akopian is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). He joined
UTSA in 2003 where he founded Software Communication and Navigation Systems Laboratory. He re-
ceived the M.Sc. degree in radio-electronics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in
1987 and Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Tampere University of Technology (TUT), Fin-
land, EU, in 1997. From 1999 to 2003, he was a Senior Engineer and Specialist with Nokia Corporation.
Prior to joining Nokia in 1999, he was a member of teaching and research staff of TUT. His current re-
search interests include digital signal processing algorithms for communication and navigation receivers,
positioning methods and mobile applications, and remote labs

Page 25.1116.1

American
c Society for Engineering Education, 2012
 Remote Experimentation for Communication: from Remote Desktops to
Gateways
Grant Huang, Andreas Gampe, Arsen Melkonyan, Murillo Pontual, and
David Akopian

Abstract

With continuous development of information technology and mature communication

channels through the Internet, remote labs may potentially overcome many constrains faced
in hands-on laboratories (e.g., minimizing expenses, providing flexible lab schedule, and
sharing limited resources among multiple students). This paper presents a comparative study
among three different remote lab implementation options, which include all the unique
solutions used in simple-to-sophisticated system development. The testbed is eComLab, a
radio-communication remote laboratory system developed by the authors; it has been used in
several courses at the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the University of
Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). The implementation options are discussed as various
evolutional stages of the eComLab, which evolved from a simple single-user remote desktop
application to a multi-user system architecture that operates as a gateway connecting four
remote sides: (1) PC-controlled experiment, (2) users such as students, (3) instructors and (4)
system administrators. In its latest version, users may utilize a regular web-browser to access
remote experiments. The system provides various handy functions and enables group work
capabilities. The paper also provides intervention data in the classroom through the analysis
of surveys collected among students.

1. Introduction

Nowadays, laboratories that work with hands-on experiments are among the core components
of engineering studies. Hands-on experiments help efficiently digest theoretical concepts and
train students to rely on the facts according to physical evidence. On the other hand, high
equipment cost and the lack of the necessary maintenance and assistance have led to reduced
importance of hand-on laboratories on the curriculum. Software simulators, based on
mathematical models, can be an alternative method to replace the traditional hands-on
laboratories; however, the valuable pictorial element is removed from the practical learning
processes.

The continuous progress of information technology combined with the increasing stability of
the Internet provides a potential environment for Web-based remote applications. A web-based
Page 25.1116.2

remote laboratory application can overcome various difficulties and limitations in offering
hands-on training (i.e. minimized expenses, flexible times, and resources sharing among
students). Unfortunately, only physical experiments, which have PC-controlled features can
be implemented in remote settings, which limit the conceptual applicability of the specific
educational areas such as radio-communications. One of the main design challenges is to
establish an architecture that can provide adequate access to the remote hardware in the
remote laboratory development. Hardware that generates real time signals is the core factor in
the remote laboratory architecture, while software is the alternative hardware management
component, which provides connection between the user orders and the hardware. In addition,
a software layer provides a Graphical User Interface (GUI) where the experiment results can
be visualized.

The simplest remote laboratory may be a single user, one-by-one experiment that reports
feedback data of visualized measurement results from the hardware. Moreover, more
sophisticated systems may handle several experiments with different apparatus and manage
multiple user accesses.

Currently, several academic institutions provide different Internet-based laboratories (e.g.

AIM-Lab [1], ReLOAD at University of Leeds [2], and remote lab at UTS [3]) with different
physical experiments from various topics of engineering. In AIM-Lab, the user (client)
connects to the experiment to control the hardware with proprietary software. This
proprietary software plays an intermittent role between the experiment and the user. As for
the scopes of the system infrastructure, ReLOAD has been designed as a gateway server,
which connects multiple experiments with the central management server through the
Internet by LabVIEW web server with a static IP address. However, the system architecture
in UTS lab integrates central management server and experiments with isolated interfaces by
utilizing virtual machines. Virtual machines are located in the central management server,
which is considered as experiment PCs connected to experiment hardware. The discussed
remote labs have GUI features to assist the users. For example, the UTS lab provides video
streaming and chat function in the experiments, while the ReLOAD supports the video
feature only.

The eComLab system’s architecture has been developed in three generations

(simple-to-sophisticated) — conventional remote desktop, server-centric, and server as the
gateway architectures. In this paper, we present the technological solutions used in each
eComLab generation. Each eComLab generation development has been driven from the
previous generation’s defects. During the development, we had to come up with several
solutions to overcome these defects. All these solutions are presented in further sections.
Page 25.1116.3

The latest generation of eComLab is based on the gateway architecture, which connects
multiple instructors, experimental equipment, and users from different locations via Internet.
The GUI of the current eComLab platform includes several handy features, which help users
interact (chat rooms) and monitor the hardware with real-time video stream through the
motorized Web-camera. The eComLab uses the NI ELVIS [4] /DATEx [5]
telecommunications bundle as the hardware-based experimental equipment. eComLab is a
very flexible platform, and it is capable to connect new educational experiments (hardware
laboratories) directly to a gateway (central) server, or from remote locations. This platform
allows multiple users to access and operate with the same experiment simultaneously by
following two parallel (the queue and the group policy) methods. Finally, the eComLab is
accessible through a regular Web-browser with Java and Flash plug-ins, which eliminates the
necessity to install any additional hardware driver in the user computer. The detailed
information about the different eComLab generations is discussed in the following sections.

2. First Generation of eComLab—Conventional Remote Desktop

2.1 Architecture
The first generation of eComLab [6] is based on a straightforward system architecture that
uses conventional remote desktop application (Teamviewer [7]) to connect the users to the
experiments. The host computer known as the experiment server is attached to the hardware
equipment (NI ELVIS/DATEx). It contains all the necessary software components (NI
ELVISE and DATEx SFP) to control the hardware and monitor the results on the host
machine. Figure 1 shows the system architecture of the first generation eComLab. The first
generation of the eComLab is based on one-by-one communication system architecture.
Multiple requests are treated with the first-in-first-out queuing policy, parallel connections are
not supported.

2.2 Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Figure 2 is a snapshot of the first generation eComLab’s GUI. In this architecture, eComLab
uses the TeamViewer as the remote desktop software.

Page 25.1116.4

Fig. 1. Hardware-based system architecture of remote desktop experiments

The opeeration systeem of the ex
xperiment sserver is Wiindows XP professionaal edition. Security
polices built in Winndows XP have
h been uused to secu
ure the host computer bby granting the
t
users acccess only to the speciffic list of sooftware.

Fig. 2. The first ggeneration of eComLab GU

UI

Once thhe users connnect to the host/experiiment machine, they haave complette control ov
ver the
experim
ment-relatedd software. They
T can m
manipulate hardware-ba
h sed experim
ments remottely.
Connecction is estabblished usin
ng TeamVieewer with th heir corresponding ID aand passwo ord. In
additionn, Teamviewwer has several handy bbuilt-in fun
nctions (e.g. chat and fille transfer),, which
can be uused duringg the remotee experimennt.

2.2 Systtem Review

w
The rem
mote desktop architectu
ure has beenn designed as
a a one-by--one commuunication sccheme,
so the ffirst-in-first--out queuing
g policy is aapplied to th
he concurreent connectiions when multiple
m
users reequest to acccess the exp periment. U
Under this arrchitecture, users cannoot collaboraate with
other ussers to execcute tasks inn groups. Quueued users have no infformation fo for how long g he/she
needs too wait for thhe experimeent. Besidess, users are required
r to install the aadditional reemote
desktopp software inn order to connect to thhe hardwaree attached ex xperiment sserver.

3. Second Generration of eC
ComLab—C
Centric Serrver

3.1 Arcchitecture
The seccond generaation of the eComLab
e w
was designeed to addresss the defectts of the firsst
Page 25.1116.5

generation reportedd by the stu

udents. It is a multi-userr system based on a cenntralized sy ystem
architeccture.
In this ccentralized architecturee ([8] and [99]) shown in
n Figure 3, the
t central sserver contaains
several virtual macchines, whicch are indeppendent hosst computerss and severaal server
manageement softwware. It is running Ubunntu Linux too provide thhe Web interrface from an a
Apachee HTTP servver, a MYSQ QL databasse for storag
ge, and a Reed 5 for streaaming real--time
video. E
Each virtuall machine connected too the experimment machiine is attachhed to experriment
hardwarre equipmennt with all necessary
n sooftware insttalled to opeerate the har
ardware.

Fig.. 3. Server-Ceentric architecture

Additioonally, a useer managem

ment program
m installed on
o the centrral server siide is conneected to
the UTS
SA Blackbooard user daatabase, whiich simplifies the system access foor the studen
nts.
UTSA sstudents do not need to
o have extraa login inforrmation to lo
og in to the eComLab. They
simply use their log in information from tthe Blackbo oard. After signing in thhe system, the
t
centric server redirrects users to
t the corressponding viirtual machiine by creatiting the link
k
betweenn the user annd the seleccted experim
ment from th
he experimeent list.

The num
mber of virttual machin
nes that the ccentral serv
ver can host depends onn several facctors:
networkk bandwidthh, experimeental equipmments, central server haardware connstarints (e.g
g.,
memoryy size, processor speedd, etc.) The eeComLab has
h three virrtual machinnes with
ELVIS//Emona DA ATEx experiiment traineer for commmuncation ex xperiments attached. The
T
system was servingg a wirelesss communiccation class with 25 students.

3.2 Graaphical Useer Interfacee (GUI)

The seccond generaation of the eComLab
e iss an advancced system with
w a user friendly GU UI [9].
The sysstem can be accessed by using anyy regular Weeb browser,, which makkes third part
softwarres on user machines
m unnnecessary. The remotee experimen nt room in ssecond geneeration
eComL
Lab is shownn in Figure 4.
4
Page 25.1116.6

The eCoomLab GUI provides several

s handdy functions. One of th
he main systtem functionalities
is a mulltiuser suppport. The useers are able to log in th
he same exp
periment conncurrently.
Howeveer, only onee user can control the eexperiment, while the others
o can obbserve it. The
system manage thee rotation off the users. T
The users can monitor their experiiment contrrol time
or the pposition in thhe queue thhrough the sttatus bar. The
T students have the opption to deccrease
the quallity of the im mage that iss being trannsmitted by the remote desktop thrrough the co ontrol
bar; thiss is particullarly useful to overcom me the bandwwidth constrraints. Finallly, users caan
observee the experim ment hardwware throughh the real-timme video transmission,, and comm municate
with eacch other thrrough the ch
hat room.

Fig. 4. The GUI oof second gen

neration eCom
mLab
3.3 Systtem Review
w
In this ggeneration, eComLab has
h graduallly improved
d. A new central system
m architectu
ure was
built. U
Users could access
a the system
s by a simple Web browser; no extra sofftware was
requiredd in the user side. Multtiple users ccould execu
ute multipless experimennts at the saame time.
In addittion, users could
c comm municate witth each otheer through a chat room,, and all thee video
of the eexperiments were transm
mitted in a rreal time faashion.

Althouggh, the response collectted from thee users were very posittive. Some uusers asked
d for
some otther features, among thhem, such ass experimen nt control sw
witch functiion among the
t
users w
without the queuing
q con
nstraints, cam
mera contro ol (i.e. zoom
m in, zoom oout and chan
nge the
video sttreaming anngle), and a dedicated ggeneral disccussion boarrd for all useers.

4. Currrent Geneeration of eC
ComLab—
—Gateway Server
S

4.1 Arcchitecture
The lateest version of
o eComLab b is the com
mbination off the centrall server andd server as gateway
g
architecctures. The central serv
ver can eitheer host expeeriment macchine or connnect experiiment
Page 25.1116.7

machines located in remote lo ocations throough the nettwork. The gateway seerver architeecture,
shown iin Figure 5,, connects four
fo remote sides through the Interrnet: PC-conntrolled exp
periment,
studentss, instructorrs, and systeem administtrators.

Like in the previouus generatio

on, users of tthe last verssion of eComLab utilizzes a regular Web
browserr to access the
t system. All the Weeb pages aree coded in PHP using M MySQL dataabase.
The rem
mote desktop applet utilizes a moddified versio on of the open source tiight VNC [110]. The
video sttreaming appplication iss based on a modified Red
R 5 [11] player
p versioon written in
i flash.

Fig. 5. G
Gateway Server architecture

4.2 Grraphical Usser Interfacce (GUI)

Differennt users acccess differen
nt GUI. Thee system red
directs userss to the corrresponding GUI
using thhe sophisticated user management
m applicationn after verify
fying their cr
credentials.
Studentts can only access
a the experiment
e llist, corresp
ponding matterials, survveys, and geeneral
discussiion board, while
w instru
uctors are abble to manag ge experimeents such ass adding or editing
the expeeriments, seetting the ex
xperiments ttime and grroup size, an
nd uploadinng or editing
g
experim
ment materiaals, surveyss, and questiionnaires.

4.2.1 Sttudent Inteerface

Once a student loggs in the eCo
omLab, he/sshe can cho
oose the prefferred experriment from
m the
experim
ment list. Thhe main winndow of the student inteerface is sho
own in Figuure 6. In thee main
windoww of studentt interface, the
t studentss have accesss to the threee main sysstem interfaces:
menu, eexperiment list, and disscussion boaard. With th
he help of th
he menu barr, students are
a able
to naviggate within the eComLab system. It allows thhe user to goo back or for
orward from m the
Page 25.1116.8

main WWeb page to the contacts, the surveey, the material area, the discussionn wall, and the
experim
ment area. The
T user can
n log off from
m the system anytime by using thhe logout bottom
located in the menuu bar.

Fig. 6. Main menu of Stud

dent Interface

In the suurvey sectioon, studentss can compllete a short survey, whiich helps deevelopers to
o collect
user feeedback abouut the system m in order tto improve it.
i Experimeental materiials and tuto
orial in
text or vvideo formaat are availaable in the m
material areaa. In additio
on, studentss are able to see the
list of eexperiments in the expeeriments areea. The eCo omLab defin nes the expeeriment statu us
throughh special im
mage figures,, which are shown in th he status column. It infforms user that
t the
experim
ment is free, and it is av
vailable for full use if no
n other user is in the vvirtual experriment
room. TThe system can also notify the userr about whaat experiment is being uused and wh hether
the userr can join thhe group as an observerr. When thee maximum number of users for an n
experim
ment is reachhed, the eCo omLab autoomatically blocks
b accesss to the expperiment.

The discussion walll in the stud

dent interfaace allows sttudents to post
p commen
ents or questtions for
a publicc view, whicch can be annswered or further com mmented by y all users, inncluding
instructtors and othher students. Besdies, thhe eComLab b provides individual
i w
walls for all the
Page 25.1116.9

experimments. The wall

w link on n the right haand side of each experiiment (Fig.66) corresponnds to
the disccussion walll. The system automatiically chang ges the discu
ussion wall located und
der the
experimment list oncce a user po
oints to the w
wall link.

After chhoosing an experiment, a user acceesses the ex xperiment arrea that inclludes the reemote
desktopp applicationn, the real tiime video, tthe chat roo
om, the statu
us and the ccontrol bars as
shown iin Figure 7. The remote desktop ap application is
i an applet that allows students to
o control
the expeeriment remmotely. Thiss applet periiodically co ommunicates with the mmain centrall server
to checkk which stuudent has thee right to coontrol the ex
xperiment, how
h many uusers are in the
experimment room, and
a automaatically updaates the user queue. No ote that the ssystem allow
ws only
one studdent to havee control ov
ver an experriment at a time.
t However, other sttudents in the
virtual eexperiment room can observe
o the experimentt, the hardw
ware from reeal-time videeo
streaminng, and disccuss with otthers using the built-in chat room.

Fig. 7. The tthird generatio

on of GUI

The stattus bar, locaated under the

t remote ddesktop app plication, sh
hows the remmaining expperiment
time forr the main user,
u and thee user positiion in the queue
q with th
he remaininng time to gain
g
experim
ment controll for the oth
her users.

The conntol bar is composed off four icons at the bottoom, next to the status bbar. They prrovide
several additional useful
u functtions: remotte desktop transmission
t n rate controol, quality refresh,
r
full screeen mode, and
a passing experimentt control to another useer. The last ttwo functio ons were
implem mented in ordder to fix th
he problemss that were reported
r fro
om generatioon two by thet users.
Full scrreen mode was
w designeed in order tto present th
he users a biigger workiing area. Thhe
experimment controll passing function allowws a user to
o pass the coontrol of a eexperiment to
t
Page 25.1116.10

anotherr users, in a way that a group of ussers can colllaborate to execute

e an eexperiment
togetherr.
4.2.2 In
nstructor In
nterface
The instructor’s GU
UI has been
n designed tto manage thhe eComLaab remotely.. The instru
uctor can
managee the experim
ments, acad
demic materrials, users, and surveys through a Web browsser
applicattion. Figuree 8 shows th
he instructorr interface'ss main Web page. Mostt importantlly,
instructtors can set up new expperiments orr edit the old ones, set up
u the numbber of studeents in
the expeeriment grooup, define the
t list of sttudent namees authorizeed to access an experim ment,
and the set the experiment durration. Instrructors also have accesss to set up a physical
experimment server such as hardware and ccamera settiings. Instrucctors can allso upload or o edit
tutorialss and videos in the academic mateerial area.
In the uuser area, the instructorr is able to m
manage userrs such as crreate or deleete users, ed
dit user
passworrds, and deccide whetheer a user is ggoint to be in
i the role of
o a student or an instru uctor.
The instructor can also post messages
m to sstudents in the wall areea, and can rrepply private
messages left by sttudents thro
ough the conntacts functiion.

Fig. 8. Adm
ministration in
nterface

4.3 Systtem Review

w
The currrent versionn of the eCo
omLab has improved th
he defects th
hat arose inn previous tw
wo
versions, and it offfers several additional ffunctions (i.e. experiment control passing, fulll screen,
camera control butttons, and ad dministratioon interface). The signiificant imprrovement off the
current system is thhe usage off a central seerver as a gaatway, whicch connects PC-controllled
experimment, studennts, instructo
ors, and sysstem adminiistrators from remote loocations thrrough
the Inteernet.

5. eCoomLab Queestionnairee Results

As desccribed in thee introductio

on, eComLaab has passed by three generationss: the conveentional
remote desktop, the central server, and thhe gateway server.
s All the
t three geenerations have
h
Page 25.1116.11

been offfered in thee Communiccation classses for both undergradu

uate and graaduate levelss at the
departm
ment of Elecctrical and Computer
C E
Engineering since 2008. In [8], ourr previous works
w in
a radio--communicaation domaiin with pedaagogic conccerns have shown
s that sstudents can
n have a
better uunderstandinng of the course after hhands-on exp
periments. We
W have prresented feedback
questionnnaires for each differeent version of e-Comlaab in a way to t evaluate and improv ve the
system. The surveyy questions have a fivee-level Likerrt scale from m “Stronglyy Disagree” to
“Stronggly Agree”, which correesponds to tthe answer options. Th he minimum m score is on ne and
the maxximum scorre is five. Thhe questionss are classiffied into three categoriees: usability
y,
usefulness, and accceptance.

Chart 1 summarizees survey results (meann value) con nducted amoong the 97 uundergraduaate and
34 gradduate studennts. The threee eComLabb generation
ns are noted
d as first (F)), second(S)), and
Third (TT). Chart 2 shows the correspondi
c ing standardd deviation for
f three eC ComLab
generations.

Cha
art 1. Summaarized survey rresults (mean value) for three eComLab ggeneration

The meean values of

o the ‘usabiility’ categoory for the first
f generatiion is MV=
=3.78 (F) an
nd for
second generation is MV=3.81 (S). As thhe results deemonstrate in i this categgory, the stu
udents’
feedbaccks have possitively incrreased overr the develop
pment stagees of the eC
ComLab. Alll the
GUI im
mprovementss, which weere done bassed on studeents’ feedbaacks, made the eComL
Lab a
more usser-friend syystem (MV=4.26 (T)).

Similar to ‘usabilitty’ category

y, the resultss of the ‘useefulness’ aree also increaased from one
o
generation to anothher. The meean value off survey resu ults in ‘useffulness’ cateegory are
MV=3.82 (F), MV V=3.82 (S) and
a MV=3.996 (T). Simiilar results are a obtainedd for the
‘acceptaance’ category MV=3.86 (F), MV V=3.91 (S) anda MV=4.0 02 (T). The results in th
his
categories show that all the immprovementts over the developmen
d nt stages maade the eCom mLab
very useeful and in general accceptable systtem.
Page 25.1116.12

The stanndard deviaations of thee “usability”” (SD=0.96 (F), SD=0.95 (S) and SD=0.85 (TT)),
“usefulnness” (SD=
=1.01 (F), SD D=0.97 (S) and SD=0.9 95 (T)), and
d “acceptancce” (SD=1.17 (F),
SD=1.009 (S) and SD=1.07
S (T))) are decreaased from one
o generatiion to anothher. The resuults
show thhat the numbber of studeents who annswer positiv
vely to the survey
s quesstions has in
ncreased
over thee eComLab developmeent generatioons.

Generallly, the studdents’ feedb

backs have iimproved frrom one gen
neration to aanother. It also
a
demonsstrates that the
t system improvemen
i nts based on
n the user feeedbacks w
were successsful,
which increased thhe users’ interest in the eComLab. Besides thee sophisticatted system
architeccture, the eC
ComLab waas turned intto a user-friiendly and useful
u system
m, which caan
successsfully replacce the traditiional handss-on laborato
ories.

Chart 2. Stan
ndard Deviatioon for three generation of eComLab
e

nclusion
6. Con

This paaper has pressented the different

d gennerations off eComLab,, in terms off architecturre, GUI
platform
m, and pedaagogical surrvey concernns. In the cuurrent versio
on, eComLaab has been n
implem
mented as a gateway
g serrver to connnect instructtors, studentts, and expeeriment serv
vers
from remote locations. It has successfully
s y dedicated the GUI plaatform withh computer-like
remote experimentts without reequiring anyy additionall software or
o hardware--based driver
installattions on thee user side. All
A the thre e generation
ns has been
n successfullly tested sin
nce
2008 inn the commuunication classes at thee University y of Texas att San Antonnio.

Finally,, pedagogical surveys collected

c froom studentss show an im
mprovemennt from geneeration
to generration of thee eComlab. Furthermorre, this worrk shows thaat remote laaboratories, like
eComlaab, are viablle alternativ
ve to the tradditional han
nds-on laborratories at leeast in radio
o
commuunication doomain, which may optim mally utilizee limited resources andd provide fleexibility
to the sttudents in thhe sense of time and loocation.
Page 25.1116.13
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