Multi-Access Techniques Comparison for Remote Lab System

Abstract

Remote lab systems are one of the essential requirements for an increased academic productivity in the modern digital world. These systems support and facilitate effective migration from face-to-face classroom education to online education. Digital technology applications and processes are required to easily build a remote lab system. With the availability of multiple access techniques, users can comfortably share laboratory equipment among themselves. The sharing of resources using the remote lab system is highly required for a smooth deployment and implementation of online education. This paper therefore proposed and tested some techniques that combine Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) in remote lab systems. The tested techniques are Multi-Carrier Direct Sequence CDMA (MC-DS-CDMA), Multi-Tone CDMA (MT-CDMA), Multi-Carrier CDMA (MC-CDMA), and Spread Spectrum Multi-Carrier Multiple Access (SS-MC-MA). The first step proposed in this work had to do with the setting of the comparison criteria. At the second step, the solutions cited previously in the real equipment was tested and the best option that met the criteria was selected for the eLab system since the performance technique varies with the laboratory equipment characteristic. The four techniques that were tested demonstrated high performance in telecommunications and online laboratory systems. The implementation of these techniques will benefit universities in several ways, which include reduction of remote lab cost and optimization of sharing of online resources among users. This will further provide students with conducive learning environment by addressing the challenges of reservation and time slot limit. It is therefore recommended that MC-CDMA should be integrated into remote lab system.