Multidisciplinary Learning through Implementation of the DVB-S2 Standard

Telecommunication standards are documents that contain consolidated knowledge about communication systems and implementation best practices. They are created based on long consensus processes in order to meet practical constraints. This article describes how the DVB-S2 standard is used in the electrical engineering curricula at KU Leuven within a design and implementation course called EAGLE. The goal of the course is to teach third-year Bachelor students how to apply the abstract knowledge gathered in the theoretical courses (control theory, communication theory, software, and hardware) to the design of a complex and real engineering project. Based on their progress during the academic year, we illustrate how standards can be used to teach a broad skill set and act as an accelerator to abstract system implementation complexity. We give an overview of the objectives of the EAGLE project and the relevance of the DVB-S2 standard, the design and implementation task that the students need to accomplish, and how they finally learn to master the complexity of a real communication standard, VHDL coding, and system verification and integration.