Project Details

Organisation:	Institute of Infocomm Research, A*STAR
Mentor:	Dr Yee Ming-Li, Mr Tan Seng Kwang
Members:	Xiong Wei, Hong Yi
Project Title:	Radio over Fiber_Wireless Transmission

A. Brief Description of Project
This attachment in I2R was mainly about radio over fiber technology and wireless transmission. We were introduced to what an engineer and researcher usually do at work and throughout this month-long attachment, we learnt more about radio fiber hybrid and we were trained to be a link designer. Moreover, we did many experiments during the attachment and really learnt a lot from these various experiments.

Attachment timeline:

1st Week:
♀ Car tour around the Science Park II
♀ Reading the material, "Radio over Fiber Technologies", given by the mentor:
- To get a rough idea what radio fiber is
- To understand what work we may be doing during this attachment
- To know more about different types of wireless equipments
♀ Introduction to soldering and various types of equipment used during soldering
♀ Introduction to the different machines we may be using in the lab
♀ Going through the process of designing and setting up an experiment:
- Idea (RoF Board)
- Block Diagram and Second Level Block Diagram
- Electrical Schematic
♀ Setting up experiments to do required testing on various components
♀ Testing the power lost from an e/o (electric to optic) and o/e (optic to electric) set up
♀ Using EXCEL to draw graphs to plot the trend for tested components
♀ Learn not to trust datasheets completely but to test them ourselves whenever we have any doubts
♀ First two experiments done

2nd Week:
♀ Testing of more components and setting up more experiments
♀ Introduction to an amplifier
- An amplifier is an electrical circuit that increases the power, voltage or current of an applied signal; in a cable system, amplifiers are spaced at regular intervals throughout the system to keep signals picture-perfect regardless of how far you live from the headend
♀ Introduction to an attenuator
- An attenuator is an electronic device that reduces the amplitude or power of a signal without appreciably distorting its waveform. Attenuators are usually passive devices made from resistors. The degree of attenuation may be fixed, continuously adjustable, or incrementally adjustable
♀ Introduction to a band pass filter
- A band pass filter is an active or passive circuit which allows signals within the desired frequency band to pass through but impedes signals outside this pass band from getting through
♀ Self designing of a pathway for the e/o (electric to optic) and o/e (optic to electric) set up with various combination of amplifiers to minimize the loss or negative gain
♀ Drawing up of the blueprint for the design
♀ Introduction to the error rate
♀ Doing experiments testing how the error rate (EVM and percentage EVM) varies when we change the input power
♀ Experiments 3, 4 and 5 done

3rd Week:
♀ Setting up a wireless access point
♀ Stripping down the wireless router to see how it is constructed and what it is made of inside
♀ Finding out which antenna transmits and which one receives
♀ Field experiment:
- Wireless transmission to the e/o (electric to optic) and o/e (optic to electric) set up from the lab we worked to the pantry, which is about 100 m away
- It worked but not as well as we expected
♀ Project suspended as the manufacturing of the PCB board was delayed

4th Week:
♀ Learning how to solder properly
♀ Effective use of the microscope while soldering
♀ Practice in soldering with various chips
♀ Soldering a microscopic amplifier
♀ Learning how to use time management graphs during important projects with deadline
♀ Rounding up

B. Results
Since the duration of this attachment was quite short, we were unable to do a major project within just one month.

C. Reflection

Three content knowledge/skills that we have learnt

1. I learnt how to solder various metal chips and microscopic amplifiers, which is the basic skill that every engineer requires.
2. I learnt how to design and carry out an experiment given the aim and requirements.
3. I learnt a lot about radio over fiber technologies which we will only be learning at the university level.

Two interesting aspects about our learning

1. Most engineers and researchers in the research centres are male and Chinese.
2. Researchers are generally the kind of people who are very alert when they are doing research but kind of blur in other aspects.

One take-away for life
1. I understand how different a student's life is compared to an engineer and researcher's life

Gallery


Wireless Access Point


Wireless Access Point without the Cover


Machine used to find the receiving end




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