Deploying interactive remote labs using the iLab Shared Architecture

Abstract

The MIT iLab project has developed a distributed service infrastructure and software toolkit to support a scalable community of online laboratory experiments. The iLab shared architecture provides a framework for the development and deployment of remote laboratories using a three-tiered model based on Web services consisting of lab clients, service broker middleware, and lab servers. This simplifies the development of remote labs by providing reusable components for common lab administration functions. The initial focus of the iLab project was on hatched labs, which require no interactive control. Following the projectpsilas success in supporting these labs, it has expanded its efforts to include those requiring interactive control. Interactive labs require that the user have active control of lab instruments during the course of an experiment and can generate a large amount of data. In order to accommodate these requirements, the iLab shared architecture has been extended with a highly configurable lab resource scheduling service, a robust data storage system and support for high bandwidth communication between the lab client and server. By integrating these services into the iLab shared architecture, a more diverse set of educationally valuable labs can now be easily deployed online and shared around the world.