REMLABNET - open remote laboratory management system for e-experiments Franz Schauer1,2, Michal Krbecek1, Pavel Beno1, Michal Gerza1, Lukas Palka1 and Petra Spilaková1,2 1 Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Faculty of Applied Informatics, Department of Electronics and Measurements, CZ-760 05 Zlin, Czech Republic, e-mail:
[email protected] 2 University of Trnava, Faculty of Education, Department of Physics, SK-918 43 Trnava, Slovak Republic e-mail:
[email protected] Abstract—The Remote Laboratory Management System (RLMS), REMLABNET, for the integrating and management of remote experiments for starting university level and secondary schools is presented. Its building was initiated both from the extensive use and expertise in Internet School Experimental System (ISES) and remote experiments built and the lack of a similar system for secondary schools in Europe. RLMS is built using new components, designed for the purpose, as Measureserver, web space management, data warehouse, communication board of RLMS, etc. The communication server will provide beside connection and diagnostics services also services for the teacher´s comfort as white board, IP telephony, simulation inclusion, test management and reservation management. For the sake of safety, optimal access to all experiments and economical exploitation the virtualized cloud will be used. Index Terms—Internet School Experimental System Remote Laboratory Management System, remote experiments, web services
I. INTRODUCTION The recent emergence of appropriate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enables physical laboratory equipment to be monitored and manipulated through the internet, and has therefore facilitated the development of online or remote laboratories. A great deal of attention worldwide has been devoted to remote experimentation and especially remote e-laboratories and these are under a strong current of evolution [1] and [2]. Remote laboratory experiments are further distinguished by batched experiments, interactive experiments and sensor [3]. It is important to note that remote laboratories are those laboratories that can be accessed and manipulated online; they differ from their virtual counterparts as they deal with real physical equipment rather than simulations. Remote laboratories (RL) and Remote experiments (RE) have been shown to provide significant benefits compared to traditional hands-on laboratories (see recent monographs and references there [1] and [2]). Examples include increased time for student access to equipment, resource sharing among institutions to offset costs and a more versatile range of experimentation due to the mitigation of safety issues, being used in a secure environment with tightly constrained access which limits either intentional or unintentional misuse [4]. The earlier era of remote laboratory development saw more efforts directed at their technical architectures [5] and [6] preoccupations included experimenting with technologies for real-time audio and video streaming in an effort to
overcome bandwidth limitations while ensuring service quality, and dealing successfully with the arbitration of multiple simultaneous connections to shared on line laboratory apparatus and equipment. A great deal of software (SW) and hardware (HW) approaches has been adopted (see the comparison of SW approaches to RE [7]). In Fig. 1 and 2 are typical examples of one of the systems developed by the authors using Java applets and ISES HW. To a significant extent, many of these issues have been successfully overcome, with continuous, reliable and high quality services being maintained for much of the past decade. The focus of RL development is now moving towards more sustainable models that promotes both institutional and individual engagement. Rather than individual academics custom building equipment for their specialized subjects, RL development and sharing is increasingly being carried out by multi institution consortia (Visir [8], ISES [9], Lila [10] and Labshare [11]). In 2008 the Consortium of Czecho-Slovak Remote laboratories was founded by Charles University in Prague, Tomas Bata University in Zlin and Trnava University in Trnava and announced the e-laboratory with at present 30 RE for universities and secondary schools [12] (examples are in Fig. 3 and 4). The development continued, as there are numerous initiatives being either funded or proposed in order to create Remote Laboratory Management Systems (RLMSs) that provide a common online portal for accessing and administrating a wide pool of heterogeneous developed remote lab systems that might be distributed at several universities. Examples include, iLab (USA) [13] and Sahara (Australia) [14] (with extension to WebLabDeusto [15] (Spain)).This allows academics to take advantage of pre-existing tools to implement their experiments, rather than having to begin from the very beginning. A next step would be exploiting such systems and implementing them at non-partner universities in order to get more feedbacks and consequently analyze the associated challenges with integrating different types of remote lab systems.
Figure 1. ISES – Internet School Experimental System [9]
(a) (b)
(c)
Figure 2. Examples of moodular Java appletts for ISES remotte ments digital displlay , control slidee , graph for data experim prresentation
In Czech and Slovak Republics, thhe situation inn the o RLs hass not progreessed creation of the nets of w RE substantially,, as documentted in [12] andd about 20 new have been built, b mainly as the initiaative of indivvidual working plaaces from diffferent fields of technicall and Natural scieences disciplines. In Euroope, compareed to overseas initiiatives, the acctivities in thee RL nets creaations are nearly missing, m as documented d b the cumullative by recent report [15]. The preseented project intends to heelp to remedyy the situation by the basic reseearch initiativve and suggessts to carry out thee research on the open systtem of the Reemote Laboratory Management M S System (RLM MS) and all itss new constituent blocks, b makinng use of all advantages of o the virtualized Cloud C computinng. The purpoose of the project is thus to makee research, testt and introducce as a pilot prroject the grid of innterconnectedd data centers under one RLMS R for the manaagement of reemote laborattories for pracctical use of the paarticipating Unniversities incoorporating exiisting RL and RE E. The system m will be accessible a for any
Figure3. Webb page of the RE E “Energy transffer in RLC circuuits”; Time representations of the innstantaneous currrent I and voltagee on the loading resistor UR (reed and blue in upper graph), the d to the cliennt computer (midddle graph) and the transferred data frequency sccan for approxim mate determinatiion of the resonnant frequency fres (lower graph), thhe life view of thhe web camera off the experiment iss in the left panel [16]
Fiigure 4. Web paage of the remote experiment “Farraday´s law of electtromagnetic inducction” see URL: http://kdt-200.karlov.mff.cuni.cz/ovladani 2 en n.html]
he access nott interrested e- labooratory withouut cost with th limitted by the special s interfface used. Allso the widee partiicipation of Czech C secondaary schools is envisaged too enricch their teacching and leaarning processs in Naturall scien nces [17]. Forr the purpose of the presen nt activity wee abbrreviated the whole project by th he acronym m REM MLABNET, serving s as a pilot program for the Czechh Repu ublic institutioons. III.
REMOTE LABORATORY Y MANAGEMEN NT SYSTEM – REMLAB BNET Remote R Laboraatory Managem ment System (RLMS) ( is ann emerging trend with w increasinng attention among manyy versities and elaborated inn USA [13] and a Australiaa univ [14]. Project highhlights many nnew basic ressearch aspectss ntegrating divverse remote laab systems asssociated withh of in man ny challenges that are actuually affrontiing also eachh univ versity willingg to wrap a pool of exiisting remotee labo oratories in a RLMS. R Extendding the implementation off RLM MSs among universities is associated with new w reseaarch challengges owing too the diversitty of remotee labo oratory system ms in terms off technical and d pedagogicall poin nt. The main basic b research outcomes of the envisagedd project, we may emphasize, aree the final RLM MS product ass hole and its four new vital ccomponents. a wh A. REMLABNET R T INTRODUC CTION RLMS R in genneral is a nnew system for complexx man nagement of diverse d interfaaces of e-labo oratories withh man nifold services, necessary foor the proper function fu of thee grid of e-laboratoories. Due too this fact a great deal off reseaarch and its reesults are suppposed within the suggestedd project. RLMS R REML LABNET servves for the integration i off expeeriments and measurementt equipment from f many e-labo oratories coverring many areeas of Naturaal sciences. Inn spitee of their divverse interfacces used and various ICT T appllied, their inclusion in the system is su upposed to bee simp ple enough annd ensure theirr availability to t the generall pooll of interesteed. The systeem is running g on modernn facillities and daata centers that enable Europe-widee integ gration with guaranteed g acccess 24/7. Multilingualism m of all a parts of thhe system is a commonplace. Modularr systeem enables thhe creation off virtual classees, which cann
exploit very sophisticated instruments, not available to the general public. The system will provide an easy way to store and access the resources for measurements, instruction and cooperative research across the EU. The main focus of envisaged RLMS REMLABNET project is on the integration and management of simple experiments on the university level and secondary and even primary education levels, not covered worldwide. The working principles of the RMLS are demonstrated in Figs 5-7 – depicting its three main functionalities:
of the RLMS to the clients. Because the users are not connected to identical rigs, user´s mutual communication is not allowed. All clients have exclusive control of their respective experiments. Clients communicate by the standard TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol) socket communication. This solution of direct connection ensures fast transmission of control commands and measured data. c) Server-clients connection through the RLMS to on experiment forming the virtual class with a tutor – Fig.7 describes connection of multiple clients to a single experiment by using a virtual classroom organized via RLMS. Control interfaces (web pages) are distributed via the web server in the RLMS to the participating clients.
Figure 7. REMLABNET function mode 3 – setup of virtual class
Figure 5. REMLABNET function mode 1 – Multiple clients (up) Figure 6. REMLABNET function mode 2 – Multiple experiment (down)
a) Server-clients connections through RLMS to one rig –Fig. 5describes connection of three clients to one rig via RLMS. Control interfaces (web pages) are distributed via the web server in the RLMS to the clients and http protocol is used. Web page is designed in general in HTML 5 using alternatively JAVA applets and/or javascripts and also PHP (HyperTextPreprocessor). Users connected to a single rig communicate mutually via the communication server, also hosted within RLMS. For this purpose communication protocols like VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) and RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) will be used. Because the rig allows the control only to one client with the proper rights at a time, the other two clients can observe only rig´s activities. After disconnecting of the user with control rights, the second connected user obtains them. b) Server-clients connection to different rigs – Fig. 6 depicts the second situation, i.e the connection of multiple clients to different rigs, using RLMS. Control interfaces (web pages) are distributed via the web server
On the control webpage will be a special plug-in, which ensures the virtual classroom organization. Communication protocols like VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) and RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) will be used. The users connected to the virtual classroom communicate mutually via the communication server, also resident in RLMS. The individual rights (teacher/student) are assigned to the participating users. The teacher has exclusive rights to control the experiment but he/she is allowed to pass control (or otherwise remove) to any of the participating students. Virtual classroom provides special features for testing and evaluation of knowledge of the students. B. Features of REMLABNET Interface recognition and connection – One of the envisaged and highly required qualities of RLMS REMLABNET is the necessity of recognizing of variety of common interfaces, the e-laboratories may possess. On applying to the RLMS, the system responds by the connecting of the corresponding transformation driver, transforming a rig´s data output to XML format. On the other hand, the system behaves in the bidirectional way, transforming the data sent by the client to the format of the rig. In such a way the system will by quite universal, removing all the communication barriers. - Registration of RE in RLMS - As a communication protocol for the data processing with the server JSON (Java Script Object Notation) or XML (Extensible Markup Language) will be used . Once the connection is established, the system will send a crafted web page to a web server and ensure experiment inclusion in the database with all necessary information that the user enters during the experiment setup. This information should allow the inclusion of experiment in the appropriate category, describing its physical background and its functioning. Descriptions will not be restricted to
mere textual information, but will allow inserting of images and videos in order to achieve the deepest possible problem understanding. By this step the experiment is included in the database and available on the web portal REMLABNET. - Virtual Classroom - This service will allow the integration of the rig and entry of the users into a virtual classroom. The virtual class setup will also enable (student / teacher) roles allocation Virtual classroom will provide special features for testing and evaluation of knowledge of the students as well. Communication within the virtual classroom will be by the video conferencing or text-only chat. For this purpose communication protocols like VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) and RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) will be used. - Communication board - This service will be a simple communication window that will serve to put questions to administrator or the insertion of proposals for improvements and feedback by email. This feature will be fully automated. Communication with the administrator will be displayed on the whiteboard window. - Reservation System - This service allows experiment booking for a selected time and thus to ensure exclusive access to the measurement. Reservations will be based on registration. - Simulation inclusion - The remote experiments in the system can be rather complex and may contain many input parameters for their settings. The measurement cycle of such type of experiments can also be very long and therefore incorrect parameters settings will lead to a considerable loss of time. Therefore our goal is to insert into measuring process the corresponding simulation of the phenomenon in question on the basis of its mathematical formulation. This service allows the user to simulate the process in question in advance and/or simultaneously with the measuring process with the variable input parameters. Thus, the user will achieve information by the sensitivity analysis about the influence of individual parameters that may help in parameters settings and data evaluation. Data obtained from the measurements and simulation will be depicted in graphs for comparison. - Entrance test - This function will restrict the access to the experiment only to those, who passed the test entered by the administrator. It will test the user's knowledge and prevent misuses of the experiment. The results of these tests will be stored and may be used for the statistical purposes. - Diagnostics and feedback - Diagnostic services should ensure keeping track of the status of the experiments connected to the RLMS. Depending on the activity of the rig, its breakdown or failure, the status will be continuously displayed at the access portal of RLMS. Diagnostics should also allow sending commands to the experiment in case of detected faults. Because the RLMS will manage many experiments at a time, it is necessary that the interface will allow connection to and supervision of many rigs, and simultaneously to be able to identify the individual rigs and communicate with them individually. As there will be the IP address for each rig stored in the server database, it will be appropriate to use these addresses for identification. There will be measures which serve for auto repair of experiment. If the step does not bring the necessary
remedy, the system will contact the rig´s administrator automatically informing him about founds errors and requiring repair. The system will support not only the diagnostics of the experiment as a whole but its parts as well to relieve the supervising load of the rig´s administrator as much as possible. From the readings transmitted from the individual sensor, the system will determine its malfunction, giving the administrator the clue for its repair. - Transformation of rig´s data to XML. The main purpose of this transforming interface is to gather experiment configuration, current controlling values and measured data results in order to maintain particular experiment setup and reproduce it off-line. Every rig is planned to be equipped with a separated storage space which should include the date, time, logged user and description, identifying the experiment and the measured data gathered from the experiment physical hardware (apparatus). This interface, giving data in standardized XML, will be used for a simulation process. - Database storage - The system will provide storage of all information concerning experiments and enable their displaying in the form of a catalogue. In database there will be stored measured experimental data of registered users for later use. C. Parts of REMLABNET MeasureServer(MS) is a vital component of every RE, ensuring its proper time sequence functioning. It is a state machine [23], provided with a comparative small psc file. MS manages all communication with hardware and work on the basis of instructions, contained in psc file. It is a very powerful tool enabling the control of any rig. It avoids the programming of a special MS for every physical HW. ER-ISES - For each experiment the logic of its operation has to be programmed. It shows the sequence of conditions and actions that experiment is carried out. For example, at what moment the experiment starts measuring or vice versa stops measurement. The creation of this control logic requires programming at an advanced level. Our goal here, as a part of basic research, is to develop graphical development environment that automates this programming process and compiles the control code to users who are not expert programmers. For the set-up of a new remote experiment is also necessary to ensure the generation of control interface (website) for the client. This activity, we intend to automate as well by developing the graphical development environment for web page generation. The first steps in this direction will be already published [18]. Web server and web space management - The aim is to create a web space based on the HTML5 CANVAS as the e-table. This will be implemented with applet javasctipts, Box2D, representing the laws of physics in real time on the screen. RLMS includes a portal (virtual space) created by the web tools with the components e-work, e-table, eresearch, e-databases and e-library designed, using the latest and most advanced methods and means HTML5, JavaScript, AJAX or other. The HTML5 environment will ensure portability and compatibility for a wide range of devices such as mobile phones, tablets, computers and many more. The environment will meet the needs for easy
work in the lab and work scope with attempts to meet new trends using drag & drop technique. The whole environment will be represented in the form of dynamic web pages and by means of which all functions of the RLMS Web 2.0 environment will be accessible. Data Warehouse - The data warehouse (DW) is a part of the system for the storage and data analysis. It is a centralized data store, providing analysis services to MS, web server, image server and other components of RLMS. DW is a central unified system of SW database services in remote laboratories used for storage and data analysis. This system includes a number of sophisticated instruments providing data analysis from individual rigs. The data analysis may detect and filter noise or measurements errors. Reservation and management server - Reservation server generates a service enabling individual RE reservation for a given time period. The service will include not only booking services as well as services for gateway interface in form of SMS messages, containing information as calendar, tasks meetings and to work in teams. Service Management server is continuously checking a proper functioning of the MeasureServer and individual experiments. Communication server- is a system designed for the transmission of information and real-time communication, interaction and collaboration in teaching and learning process with RE. Communication server will provide insertion of RLs in social networks and allow work with experiments in groups and enabling mutual help among groups. Communication server will also serve as the interface for connecting to both internal knowledge base, as well as global knowledge base like Wikipedia. Part of the communication server will be the authentication interface with direct connection to stored projects data. Virtualized Cloud - (Schematical functioning of virtualization is in Fig. 6) To provide optimal access to all the experiments and economical exploitation of the RLMS with its all functionalities and benefits, we intend to use the virtualised cloud computing. Our idea is make two or more datacenters (DTC) with relevant data and clients connected to the nearest DTC with the lowest traffic and utilization. Because of a large number of inexperienced users may access RLMS, we need to create as secure a network environment as possible. Specific concern is the RE computer system, the software from instrument vendor, and the security of data collected [19]. For our work are dedicated few servers in two datacenters. Vendor of this servers are Oracle (SunFire) and Cisco (UCS). All of servers are with ESXi operating system from VMWare and with one vCenter for management of them. We can use for the purpose following features of the system [20]. Operating systems for each VMs are used by purpose (for example MS Windows desktop or server editions, Linux SLES for VMWare or Ubuntu etc.) Security of DTCs is built on several levels. First security level is based on IP (Internet Protocol) with allowed or denied IP addresses and ports. Second security concern will deal with the unauthorized access to the
instrumentation and computer desktop, is user level with encrypted usernames and passwords used SSL to transmit between DTCs. Third level is IDS (intrusion detection system) and IPS (intrusion prevention system) to monitoring possible incidents. Fourth and last is SIEM (security information and event management) and
Figure 8. Schematical functioning of cloud virtualization
Checkpoint application firewall for monitoring on the application level. III.
CONCLUSIONS
We report the establishment of integration, coordination, and management of remote experiments for the segment of starting university and secondary schools level. The conclusions from our activities are -
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The starting point for RLMS building was initiated both from the extensive use and expertise in Internet School Experimental System ISES and remote experiments built and the lack of a similar system for secondary schools in Europe, RLMS is built using new components, designed for the purpose, as Measureserver, web space management, data warehouse, communication board of RLMS, etc. The communication server will provide beside connection and diagnostics services also services for the teacher´s comfort as white board, IP telephony, simulation inclusion, test management and reservation management, For the sake of safety, optimal access to all the experiments and economical exploitation the virtualized cloud will be used, We hope the REMLAB will provide the impulse for using remote laboratories in the segment of starting universities and secondary education, till now not occupied by the prospective field of remote experimentation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT The team of postgraduate students of Tomas Bata University that are exclusive authors of the paper, with their supervisor, are grateful for the financial support of Internal Grant Agency of Tomas Bata University in Zlin. The authors are grateful for support of KEGA projects No. 011TTU-4/2012 and 020TTU-4/2013. REFERENCES [1]
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