TIMS, or Telecommunication Instructional Modeling System, is an

electronic device Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other electrically charged particles. It is a subfield of physics and ...

invented by Tim Hooper and developed by Australian engineering company Emona Instruments that is used as a

telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

trainer in educational settings and universities.

History

TIMS was designed at the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...

by Tim Hooper in 1971. It was developed to run student experiments for electrical engineering communications courses. Hooper’s concept was developed into the current TIMS model in the late 1980s. In 1986, the project won a competition organized by

Electronics Australia ''Electronics Australia'' or ''EA'' was Australia's longest-running general electronics magazine. It was based in Chippendale, New South Wales. Publication history It can claim to trace its history to 1922 when the '' Wireless Weekly'' magazine ...

for development work using the

Texas Instruments TMS320 TMS320 is a blanket name for a series of digital signal processors (DSPs) from Texas Instruments. It was introduced on April 8, 1983, through the TMS32010 processor, which was then the fastest DSP on the market. The processor is available in man ...

. Emona Instruments also received an award for TIMS at the fifth Secrets of Australian ICT Innovation Competition.

Methodology

TIMS uses a block diagram-based interface for experiments in the classroom. It can model mathematical equations to simulate electric signals, or it can use block diagrams to simulate telecommunications systems. It uses a different hardware card to represent functions for each block of the diagram. TIMS consists of a server, a chassis, and boards that can emulate the configurations of a telecommunications system. It uses electronic circuits as modules to simulate the components of

analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...

and digital communications systems. The modules can perform different functions such as signal generation,

signal processing Signal processing is an electrical engineering subfield that focuses on analyzing, modifying and synthesizing ''signals'', such as audio signal processing, sound, image processing, images, Scalar potential, potential fields, Seismic tomograph ...

, signal measurement, and

digital signal processing Digital signal processing (DSP) is the use of digital processing, such as by computers or more specialized digital signal processors, to perform a wide variety of signal processing operations. The digital signals processed in this manner are a ...

Variants

The block diagram approach to modeling the mathematics of a telecommunication system has also been ported across to other domains.

Simulation

Where the blocks are patched together onscreen to mimic the hardware implementation but with a simulation engine (known as TutorTIMS).

Remote access

It can be used by multiple students at once across the internet or LAN via a browser based client screen. This utilises a statistical time division multiplexing architecture in the control unit. The method is applied both to Telecommunications and Electronics Laboratories (known as netCIRCUITlabs).

V References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Telecommunication Instructional Modeling System 1971 establishments Electronics Electrical engineering Telecommunications