The UNH InterOperability Lab: Complementing ECE Classroom Study with Experience

by David Strohschein, ECE Graduate Student (das@sun4.iol.unh.edu)

It seems to be the age-old dilemma: to get a job you need experience, but to get experience you need to have worked in the field. This quandary applies to UNH students no less than to those at other institutions. However, some students have discovered help in their search for industrial experience. For almost a decade, the UNH InterOperability Lab (IOL) has been quietly providing students with experience in computer networking technology. As a result, many ECE students who have worked in the lab experience an easier transition to industry than if they had only completed the standard course of academic instruction.

Established in 1988, the IOL is an organization designed to provide UNH undergraduate and graduate students with detailed technical training in the area of computer networking and data communication that meets current industry needs, is affordable, and does not compromise the basic academic curriculum. Rapid advances in technology have fueled the demand for computer professionals in all spheres of business and industry, but especially in the area of computer networking and data communication. Computer communication is a field of study that requires an incredibly detailed and broad spectrum of knowledge, but most academic curricula focus strictly on theoretical studies, facts, and exercises. Students rarely experience the excitement of computer communication by using the best in modern hardware and test equipment, by rubbing shoulders with industry experts, or by solving tough, real-world problems. The IOL is able to offer this kind of educational experience and uniquely meet the challenges of high technology education through its fundamental principles of industry involvement and apprenticeship training.

Over the past six years, the IOL has been training students in computer communication as an offshoot of the technical testing services it has developed for the computer communication industry. Companies that develop data communication or computer networking products are invited to join one or more of the technical, focused interest groups in our lab, which we call consortia. To become a member of an IOL consortium, companies pay a small annual membership fee and donate to the IOL one of the products that they wish to test. The IOL then uses these funds to hire and train students and places the products in environments that allow students to discover and isolate problems with the equipment. Thus, the consortium membership requirements directly address and solve two of the fundamental obstacles in technical education: financial resources and equipment. The IOL currently has consortia in operation to test the following computer communication technologies: Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Fast Ethernet (100Base-T), Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), Fibre Channel, Gigabit Ethernet, Internet Protocol (IPv6 and OSPF), Network Management, Token Ring (including Dedicated Token Ring (DTR)), and Wireless (IEEE 802.11). The IOL also offers contracted testing services in Ethernet (10Base-T), Full Duplex Switched Ethernet (FDSE), and 100VG-AnyLAN.

The IOL’s principle of industry involvement in education has proven to be extremely successful over the last six years and has enabled the IOL to experience phenomenal growth. As a direct result of this growth, the financial resources and equipment base of the lab have increased significantly. The IOL now tests 10 different networking technologies, works with over 80 companies, and has an annual revenue generated by over 140 consortium memberships of just under 1 million dollars. This revenue allows us to:

1. Provide over 35 UNH undergraduate and graduate students with part-time jobs during the school year and full-time summer employment. By providing flexible jobs for these students, we make training possible for those who could not otherwise afford it or make time in their academic schedules.
2. Employ eight full time staff who are committed to fostering excellence in UNH students in the field of computer networking and dedicated to improving the operation and interoperability of multi-vendor computing environments.
3. Fund eight graduate research assistantships, offer scholarships to exceptional students, and provide the funding for one computer science faculty member.
4. Maintain a knowledge base in computer networking and data communication at UNH that is second to none. The staff of the IOL has extensive experience and broad knowledge of the technologies, equipment, personnel, and companies in the computer communication industry.

Additionally, the testing facilities and equipment base of the IOL have also grown a great deal over the last six years. Composed of almost 10 million dollars worth of equipment from over 100 companies, the IOL currently maintains the largest and most heterogeneous testing network in the world. There is no place in the world where students have better access to technology. IOL students have complete access to recently released and unreleased products that are on the cutting-edge of their field. New and emerging technologies that most universities and corporations won’t be implementing for years, such as Gigabit Ethernet, ATM, Fast Ethernet, 100VG-AnyLAN, Fibre Channel and Wireless Local Area Networks, are used every day by students here at the IOL. Students learn protocols such as TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, NETBIOS, NCP, and SNMP. In addition to their training in next-generation communication technologies, our students gain valuable experience in the finer details of operating systems such as UNIX, DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows and distributed software environments such as Novell, Banyan VINES, NFS, Windows for Workgroups, Win95 and Windows NT.

The real heart of the IOL, however, is its comprehensive training program. The IOL doesn’t exist just to have its students perform a service, but to serve its students. Toward that end, the IOL has created a rigorous, formal apprenticeship training program in data communication and computer networking that ensures that its students will know the technologies, equipment, tools, issues, and people in the industry when they graduate. This training supplements the normal B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. programs at UNH by providing students with both the detailed technical knowledge that is of interest to industry and the broad background that is the hallmark of an effective academic curriculum. Each of our students receives in-depth training in data communication, computer networking, physical media, device configuration, and basic troubleshooting. In addition to this formal training, students are educated through one-on-one training, "on-line" training from the Internet, independent studies, and hands-on training with cutting-edge equipment. Every student has not only the opportunity to use next-generation communication products and devices, but also interacts and works side by side with the engineers who have designed and built the equipment! This allows students to form direct liaisons with leaders in their field of study and, in many cases, directly influence the development of standards and the design of new technologies. The apprenticeship training program also enables students to acquire other fundamental job skills as they learn to manage their time, communicate clearly and effectively, give oral presentations, and work in small groups or teams.

This type of rigorous apprenticeship training provides detailed knowledge of the current state of industry that is seldom matched by students graduating from other institutions. When this training is coupled with the high-quality education that ECE students receive as they pursue their undergraduate or graduate degrees, students of the IOL are able to obtain jobs in competitive environments that would typically go to students from more prestigious institutions.

For more information about the IOL and/or student employment opportunities visit the IOL web site at http://www.iol.unh.edu or send mail to webmaster@iol.unh.edu.

A Closer Look at the Role of ECE Students in the IOL

By Mike Carter

The InterOperability Lab has drawn upon the talents of ECE students, both undergraduate and graduate, almost since its inception in 1988. Some of the most challenging interoperability problems are found in the lowest layers of the ISO reference model for communication networks, the Physical layer and the Data Link layer. With their academic training in digital communication systems, random signals and noise, electronics, and electromagnetics, ECE students in the IOL are able to isolate and identify many interoperability problems that arise in the physical layer (i.e., the cable plant, or for wireless networks, the air interface, and the station transceivers attached to the transmission medium) and in the medium access control sub-layer. The experience that students gain in Junior Lab (EE617/618) using automated measurement systems based upon GPIB-compatible instruments is put to good use in the IOL as well. Much of the routine testing that the IOL provides to consortia member companies is performed using highly automated measurement systems, and ECE students have been the principal developers of the automated measurement software and instrument configurations that enable the IOL to provide timely, accurate characterizations of a vendor's products.

In addition to their involvement in the routine test activities of the IOL, ECE students are often called upon for their special expertise in two areas: 1) design and implementation of custom test instruments that provide functionality not currently available in standard commercial instruments, and 2) analysis of factors that limit measurement accuracy and repeatability in the various testing configurations. These tasks are often performed as part of a student's master's thesis research or as an undergraduate or graduate independent study project.

The first ECE master's thesis that emerged from collaboration with the IOL was that of Jim Doherty (MSEE '91). Jim developed a special instrument that enabled the IOL to gather statistics on the amplitude and duration of noise and crosstalk interference on its installed twisted-pair cable plants. Vaibhav ("VJ") Shah (MSEE '95) was concerned with the reliable measurement of clock jitter in token ring networks and undertook an extensive experimental and theoretical modeling study of jitter sources in such networks. His thesis research efforts led to improved measurement techniques and greater confidence in the measurement results presented to the IOL's industry clients. Kevin Karcz (MSEE, in progress) developed a custom network performance monitor for 16 Mb/s token ring networks using a FPGA implementation, and more recently has been working with Dave Strohschein (Ph.D., in progress) on the design of a "sniffer" for monitoring of IEEE 802.11 wireless networks. Yanli Gao (MSEE '97) devised a custom tester for the Media Independent Interface of the Fast Ethernet network standard.

Several former and current ECE students have conducted independent study projects in the IOL. These include Eric MacDonald (BSEE '91), Chris Williamson (BSEE '96, MSEE in progress), Venkataraman Natham (MSEE in progress) and Maruthi Kilambi (MSEE in progress). Many others have been actively engaged in support of lab activities including Bob Noseworthy (BSEE ' 95, MSEE in progress), Adam Healey (BSEE '95, MSEE in progress), Gaurav Gupta (BSEE '96, MSEE in progress), Derek Rohde (MSEE in progress), and Dave Strohschein (Ph.D. in progress). There are numerous former ECE students who may have been involved in IOL activities without the knowledge of the author -- if you're one of them, don't hesitate to send me e-mail (mike.carter@unh.edu) and I'll add you to the growing list!

The extensive, state of the art network testing facilities and training programs of  the IOL have been a boon to ECE students over the past 8 years, not only as an aid to master's thesis research or independent study, but as a vital element of their preparation for engineering careers. Perhaps some future students will find their interest in network communication stimulated so much by work in the IOL that they form their own successful companies. Eric MacDonald went from an undergraduate project on the design of a link test pulse detection circuit for 10Base-T networks in 1990 to becoming a founding partner (along with Bing Yang, MSEE ’92) of Cadia Networks Inc., a developer of products for the frame relay/ATM network markets. Cadia Networks was acquired by FORE Systems, a major supplier of ATM network systems, in December 1996 at a cost of approximately 4 million shares of FORE's common stock and stock options. Congratulations to Eric and Bing, and may all of our former and future ECE students fare as well!