Design of a Data Communications Hub for use in Research and Education

In this paper we present the design of a data communication hub for use in research labs and classroom teaching. One main aim of the communication hub is to provide embedded system students hands-on experience in handling data communication by using several technologies. The board includes four distinct communication hardware subsystems: optical fiber, infrared, RS232 serial communication, and USB serial communications. This paper identifies the need of such a communication hub for teaching. The later part of the paper presents the design of the board in detail and the various data communication modules used along with their speeds and throughputs. The use of the communication educational board for classroom teaching will help students obtain the kind of practical exposure which they can not get through theoretical studies. Lab exercises and test code provided with the board can be used by students in the lab to test the various data communication techniques and determine the data rate and bit error rates. The student will be capable of programming the board for different functionalities