Developing Cost Effective Laboratory Exercises For Telecommunications Programs

Telecommunications equipment that are commonly utilized in industry are generally expensive and it is becoming increasingly more difficult for universities to afford even some of the most basic of these equipment for their laboratories. As a result, Engineering Technology programs have had to resort to alternative means of providing the requisite laboratory training for their students. One such effective alternative is to use simulations to give students a hands-on experience of specific technologies. Many standard software packages, as well as specialized packages that are available for use in Telecommunications Engineering Technology programs, can be utilized to emphasize particular telecommunications theories or to simulate specific technologies. This paper discusses the approaches used in the Telecommunication programs at Pennsylvania State University Wilkes-Barre, and Southern Polytechnic State University.