Sonia Leon del Rosario

A library is presented that makes it easier for students to create TCP/IP communications applications. Even though the library offers elementary and high-level usage functions, additionally, resolves all asynchronous call sequences with low-level sockets.

A teaching tool, M3CVME, is presented that makes it easier for students to design and implement a data communication system. This tool was developed with the aim of assisting lab works of the Industrial Informatics subject. Using it, the student can select what entity of the communication system they want to simulate: the supervisory application, the system controller, or a remote TCP client. As M3CVME allows to simulate each communication system entity, the student can use each to check his own developed entity. The main advantage achieved is that the student can develop a moderately complex and almost real communication entity during the lab-session time, due to the support of the entities simulated by the tool, that are used to test their works. Later, a collaboration experience provided the opportunity to use M3CVME to integrate session labs with another subject of the same course level. The tool was then applied to control and supervise an electric vehicle (EV) prototype in the Power Electronics subject. With M3CVME, from the point of view of Industrial Informatics, the student can integrate systems using communication media and protocols. During several academic years (since 2018) it has been possible to verify that the availability of the M3CVME tool has been totally determinant for the students to be able to finish practices with this level of deepness and complexity.