A remote emulation environment for the teaching of low-power wireless communications

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about new challenges to educational institutions around the world, as there has been a sudden interest in distance-learning solutions in the offering of disciplines, including the science and technology ones. Distance-learning will have a direct impact on the training of professionals that will develop the bespoke Internet of Things (IoT) solutions that homes, offices, companies, and cities are increasingly dependent on. Regardless, the training for IoT needs to consider the particularities of wireless communications, as it is essential to guarantee communication in any IoT solution. However, this training is hindered by the difficulty of conducting remote experiments that reproduce the wireless channel behavior. Besides, learning the main theoretical concepts of wireless connectivity would be facilitated by the adoption of practical methods centered on the student, the so-called inductive training methods. This paper presents a remote, low cost, open-source network emulation environment capable of reproducing the behavior of nonguided, low-power links under different configurations. The emulation environment incorporates inductive approaches in the experimentation with wireless connectivity while following a consolidated project methodology. This environment was offered at a postgraduate course in the first semester of 2020. An end of course survey with the students indicated that the environment contributed to the comprehension of the principles governing the over-the-air connectivity. The evidence suggests that this remote environment is a useful tool for academic investigations of the particularities of low-power wireless channels.