Case Studies
Documented Vocational Laboratory Implementations
Laboratory Case Studies
The case studies document how authentic technical scenarios can be adapted into practical learning environments for vocational education.
Each case study connects the educational activities with the technical infrastructure that supports them, including system architecture, hardware, software, implementation practices, and functional verification.
The objective is not to prescribe a single laboratory configuration, but to provide documented examples that other educators may adapt according to their curriculum, available equipment, infrastructure, and institutional context.
Analog Telephony Laboratory
The Analog Telephony Laboratory recreates the relationship between outside-plant telecommunications infrastructure, customer-premises installation, distribution systems, analog telephone service, and functional communication within a controlled vocational learning environment.
Students progressively work with outside-plant service representation, NID, MDF/IDF distribution, analog and network cabling, telephone outlets, analog endpoints, PBX-generated service, and functional call verification using VoIP endpoints.
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VoIP Multi-Network Laboratory
The VoIP Multi-Network Laboratory extends the same workflow-driven approach into IP telephony and networking.
Instead of sharing a single preconfigured PBX, each student builds and operates an independent VoIP environment consisting of a router, private LAN, virtualized FreePBX system, physical IP telephone, and software endpoints.
A central instructor-managed platform provides a shared laboratory/provider network and SIP interconnection services. Students work directly with private IPv4 addressing, LAN/WAN segmentation, DHCP, routing, NAT, virtualized PBX deployment, SIP extensions, SIP trunks, call routing, PBX services, port forwarding, external endpoint registration, and analog/VoIP interoperability.
Because each PBX is located behind an independently managed router, the environment creates realistic troubleshooting situations involving network boundaries, service reachability, and SIP communication.
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Water Reservoir Level Control Laboratory
The Water Reservoir Level Control Laboratory extends the case-study collection into industrial automation and process control. An industrial 4–20 mA level sensor is integrated with a voltage-input PLC through a custom signal-conditioning stage, while ladder logic, filtering, hysteresis, relays, pumps, and a physical reservoir create a complete closed-loop educational system.
The implementation deliberately exposes students to constraints that occur in real automation work: signal-standard incompatibility, analog scaling, limited measurement resolution, electrical noise, actuator cycling, and the relationship between physical process dimensions and control-system behavior.
The supporting Module 22 sequence progresses from PLC safety, software configuration, sourcing/sinking, GRAFCET, timers, counters, and digital sensors to analog instrumentation. Laboratory 11 then explicitly prepares students for the water-level project through a functional signal path: Sensor → PLC Input → Raw Value → Converted Value → Ladder Decision → Output Action.
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Continuing Development
Additional case studies may include networking, automation, cellular communications, and other technical learning environments.
Each implementation will be documented with the technical and educational information required to understand the system, reproduce its functional relationships, and adapt it to different institutional contexts.