The diversity of communication applications and the spectrum of system-level technologies upon which they rely provide a rich set of opportunities to develop projects allowing students to apply and integrate knowledge obtained from courses across the curriculum while simultaneously developing the spectrum of CAD, prototyping, and testing experiences critical to the engineering workplace. Through this project, a Communication System Prototyping Laboratory (CSPL) provides a curriculum-wide laboratory resource for integration of junior- and senior-level required and elective topics through multidisciplinary communication-based design experiences. The CSPL organization emulates the application-driven interdisciplinary environment of a corporate research and development laboratory through use of multiple "microlabs" within a single instructional lab linked by a prototype fiber optic backbone. As the foundation of the CSPL organization, the Lightwave Microlab supports student design activities based on lightwave communication applications with a Prototype Fiber Network; a Photonic Prototyping Center for student optoelectronic interfacing and optical prototyping; a Lightwave Test Measurement Center for component, transmission medium, and system-level evaluation; and a Photonic Reference Library. With basic infrastructure for other microlabs in place, this project specifically addresses the instrumentation needs of the Lightwave Microlab.
