Remote laboratory collaboration plan in communications engineering

Communications laboratories for electrical engineering undergraduates typically require that students perform practical experiments and document findings as part of their knowledge and skills development. Laboratory experiments are usually designed to support and reinforce theories presented in the classroom and foster independent thinking; however, the capital cost of equipment needed to sustain a viable laboratory environment is large and ongoing maintenance is an annual expense. Consequently, there is a need to identify and validate more economic solutions for engineering laboratories. This paper presents a remote laboratory collaboration plan for use in an electrical engineering communications course.