Frequently Asked Questions

Q1.   How does analog communication lab fit into an electronics engineering course, because in telecommunications we use real applications such as telephone lines, microwaves, satellites, LANS, etc?
Ans:  Communication lab gives students hands-on experience with the theories and concepts involved in the specific area of "transmission theory". "Transmission" involves an original message being carried from one point to another, using either analog or digital modulation. it will allow the students to learn about the concepts of the many sub-sections of a major telecommunications system: eg sampling and reconstruction; coding and decoding; modulation and demodulation; etc. After a student has learnt and grasped these fundamental concepts, it is much easier for them to take this knowledge and apply it to HF electronics, microwaves, telephone lines, computer local area networks, and so on.

Q2.   How does a student or lecturer perform experiments on communication lab ?
Ans:  Experiments are made by patching together blocks. Each block represents a fundamental telecommunications system function. The block diagram of the text book can be quickly realised by patching together blocks in accordance with the block diagram.

Q3.   What is the difference between BASIC modules and ADVANCED modules?
Ans:  The BASIC modules include the simplest, fundamental, general purpose electronic building-blocks. eg. signal adder; signal multiplier; filters; oscillators; phase shifters; etc. The ADVANCED modules include more specialised or more specific electronic building-block functions. eg. PCM waveform encoders and decoders; bit error rate and signal to noise measuring functions; Delta modulation building-blocks; etc.

Q4.   What are the software or other requirements?
Ans:  Browser with Labview run time plugins are required is needed. And Internet with Port Number 8000 and 8081 open.

Q5.   How do I learn how to put together experiments - where can I get some ideas?
Ans:  Ideas for block diagrams are available from many sources including:

  1. Communications textbooks, magazines and research papers
  2. The user's own new ideas and theories
  3. On our Website www.evalidate.in/lab2/index.htm
  4. The "Modern digital and analog communication systems" text, by BP. LATHI.

Q6.   What is the MASTER SIGNALS module?
Ans:  MASTER SIGNALS is a "fixed module", which provides the user with a set of synchronised carrier, sampling and baseband signals.

Q7.   Why is the "carrier" only 100kHz? Don't you know that in real telecommunications systems, carrier frequencies can range from 1MHz to many tens of Giga Hertz?
Ans:  Communication lab is a mathematical, telecommunications theory and signal processing modelling system. It models the mathematics. it does not consider high frequency circuit applications because this is a separate and very specialised area of Electronics Circuit Theory.
For example, a student can model and take detailed measurements of a complete BPSK (binary phase shift keying) satellite link. The mathematical equations behind the theory of such a satellite link works at 100kHz and 10GHz, only the circuits are different. The carrier frequency has simply been scaled down to 100kHz.

Q8.   Can DSP modules be used with BASIC and ADVANCED modules?
Ans: Yes, of course. This is another of feature : it provides the environment the most flexible "test-bed" for developing, debugging and testing DSP programs in telecommunications and signal processing applications.

Q9.   How will I know how to perform these experiments?
Ans:  On every Experiment page, there is an option for “step by step procedure”. It will help you a lot. Before performing the experiment, go through it.

Q10.   Can I get some sort of assessment?
Ans:  You can compare your result with the typical outputs given on every Experiment page. Also, you can always go through quiz designed specifically for this purpose.