Abstract:

Undergraduate courses and laboratories on wireless networks and technologies have been developed in response to increasing demand for wireless networking skills in almost all industries. Since most of wireless technologies and applications require greater research and are heavily based on theoretical concepts, developing hands-on activities for undergraduates is crucial to improve the performance and engagements in the classroom. Acoustic Data Transmission (ADT) functions by transmitting data over the air in the form of sound with the use of a speaker and receiving data with a microphone. In this paper, we introduce ADT technology into the undergraduate classroom by using an ADT application called Wave-GUI. This paper presents a step-by-step procedure for designing, implementing, and evaluating an ADT application with only two computers. Through the testing phase, we found that ADT typically works best with high bitrate protocols, and that additional external ‘noise’ does not have as much of an impact on this form of communication as one might expect. Additionally, we determined that the two main factors in the success of an acoustic data transmission were the quality of the hardware being used and microphone-speaker proximity.

Keywords:

Acoustic Data Transmission, Wireless Hands-on Project, Wave-GUI Testing.