LABORATORY III ON TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

Last update:  November 1999    Spanish Version      

The student, at the end of this laboratory, will:

• Posess a minimum knowledge about the OS internals and services and the way to use them when creating multitasking applications.
• Have acquired hands-on experience on Design and Implementation of both: simple SPC systems and telecommunications protocols.
• Understand the architecture implied in distributed/multitasking/multithreaded applications running in heterogeneous environments.
• Be familiar with working in well-structured teams to solve real engineering problems and with the use of  development strategies.

OPERATING SYSTEM'S CONCEPTS (3H)

INTRODUCTION TO THE RTKERNEL OPERATING SYSTEM(1H)

Equivalent to the practice Basic multitasking system, session 1.

CREATION OF PROGRAMS UNDER RTKERNEL (2H)

Equivalent to the practice Basic multitasking system, sessionS 2 y 3.

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF PROTOCOLS UNDER A MULTITASKING OS (10H)

Not defined.

FUNDAMENTALS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROJECT (2H)

Por definir.

FINAL PROJECT (12H)

Permanent consulting.

METHODOLOGY

This course is practical from end to end. The mandatory theoretical part (OS) occupies aprox. 10%, while the 90% is dedicated to the development and deployment of applications.

The theory is given as a lecture, while the labs are guided-practices which require additional weekly work by each team of students in order to get a full multitasking application.

PRACTICES

The students are divided in workgroups, from 3 to 5 each.

BASIC MULTITASKING APPLICATION (2H)

Communication y synchronization among tasks.

Objectives: A) Assimilate the philosophy of the RTKernel operating system. B) Demonstrate the use of the mechanisms for communicating and synchronizing provided by an Operating system. C) Architect the solution by levels and by tasks.

Session 1: (2H)

Operation and performance of RTKernel, setup of the environment to get it to work. Essential components of a multitasking application: initialization, launching of the various tasks, termination

Sessions 2 and 3: Communicating tasks: implementing synchronization, handshaking, console (keyboard and screen) use by the tasks.

PROTOCOLS UNDER MULTITASKING OSs (8H)

Each 2 hours session is made up of a set of guided, documented practices which demonstrate certain features of the multitasking environment and which are complemented by weekly homeworks. The demos must be redesigned ( mainly additions) and instrumented to build the intended system of the homework; the OSI tower concepts must be applied. The development is like this:

Session 1: Creation of packets, checksum and headers. basic ARQ and window-based ARQ.

Session 2: Checking the connection: control and data packets.

Session 3: Using the logic addressing scheme to inter-connect several processes. Physical connection of two computers by a serial or ethernet link.

Session 4: Implementing a small computer's network: physical addressing, simulation of random behavior to distribute the packets, reordering of packets, re-send requests and packet filtering.

Session 5: Creation of an application that monitors and controls the computer's environment. Connection to a ring or bus network.

FINAL PROJECT (12H)

Every workteam must develop a small, PC-based telecommunications system that solves a real problem. The detailed specification will be carried out from the 4th to the 8th week.