Abstract—In online context, the design and implementation of effective remote laboratories environment is highly challenging on account of hardware and software needs. This paper presents the remote laboratory software framework modified from ilab shared architecture (ISA). The ISA is a framework which enables students to remotely acccess and control experimental hardware using internet infrastructure. The need for remote laboratories came after experiencing problems imposed by traditional laboratories. Among them are: the high cost of laboratory equipment, scarcity of space, scarcity of technical personnel along with the restricted university budget creates a significant bottleneck on building required laboratory experiments. The solution to these problems is to build web-accessible laboratories. Remote laboratories allow students and educators to interact with real laboratory equipment located anywhere in the world at anytime. Recently, many universities and other educational institutions especially in third world countries rely on simulations because they do not afford the experimental equipment they require to their students. Remote laboratories enable users to get real data from real-time hand-on experiments. To implement many remote laboratories, the system architecture should be flexible, understandable and easy to implement, so that different laboratories with different hardware can be deployed easily. The modifications were made to enable developers to add more equipment in ISA framework and to attract the new developers to develop many online laboratories. Keywords—Batched, ISA, labserver, servicebroker. I. INTRODUCTION EMOTE laboratory means online experimentation on real processes. Contrary to simulations, which rely on mathematical models, remote laboratories deal with real signals. Laboratory experiments provide students with practical experience that help them better understanding the theory taught in classes. However, normal learners and distant learners often don’t have access to such equipment. This is because traditional laboratory instruments are usually expensive such that many educational institutions cannot afford the instruments they require for their students. Sometimes students are overcrowding in laboratory sessions. In addition, laboratory personnel need to be hired to operate the facilities, thus imposing additional costs. By providing remote access to laboratory equipment to students, the problem of costly traditional laboratories can be overcome by sharing the few laboratory resources available [1]. Authors are with Department of Electrical and Computer System Engineering. University of Dar Es Salaam .Box 35131 Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. e-mail:teyana@udsm.ac.tz,. e-mail:dddhaule@udsm.ac.tz Developments of such laboratories are useful in developing countries where funds for education resources are hardly available.. The remote laboratory architecture from MIT termed iLabs are remote laboratories developed to address the weakness of conventional laboratories. It is a technology that allows experimental setups to be accessed remotely through the Internet, allowing students and educators to carry out experiments from anywhere at any time [2]. II. TYPES OF REMOTE LABORATORY IN ILAB SHARED ARCHITECTURE [2] Divides online laboratory experiments into three categories: batched, interactive and sensor experiments. Each has different characteristics and requirements for the online laboratory. In this paper, the batched architecture is extensively explained and it has three tiers: Batched experiments: The experiment, which is entirely defined before experiment starts. It is termed as “system of data processing where information is collected into batches before being processed by the computer in one machine to run”. Experiment requests can be inserted to a queue and then device can run those one by one. Benefit of this type of experiments become evident especially when the experiment takes long time to conduct and if the system has results saving and retrieving feature as in that case user is not necessary to be online during running the experiment. Multiple principles can be used to schedule experiments, for example first in first out (FIFO) method, shortest job next method (SJN) as well different types of other priority methods. Interactive experiments: defines interactive processing as opposite to batch: computer mode that allows the user to enter commands, or programs or data and receive immediate responses. System allows user to monitor and control some parameters dynamically during experiment running. This experiment type requires user to be online while running the experiment. Sensor experiments: User does not have any influence to the measured phenomena, but may choose which data streams to subscribe. She/he monitors and analyses the continuous data streams of the sensor. Describing Experimental specifications The batched shared ilab shared architecture consists of three experimental specifications [3], [4], and [5]. These specifications are lab configuration, Lab specifications and ExperimentalResult. The function of these specifications is pass information between client and labserver. This is done Teyana S. Sapula and Damian D. Haule Development of Reliable Web-Based Laboratories for Developing Countries R World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering Vol:4, No:5, 2010 892 International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 4(5) 2010 scholar.waset.org/1307-6892/14243 International Science Index, Electrical and Computer Engineering Vol:4, No:5, 2010 waset.org/Publication/14243