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A new production controller is to be put on trial in a brewery bottling plant. The connecting sensor wires have been replaced by a wireless local area network (WLAN). On the production line, the sensors are used to indicate when a beer bottle is in a particular location (using a proximity sensor) on the bottle filling conveyor belt and whether or not the metal closing cap has been correctly placed on the bottle (using a metal sensor). This novel controller will eliminate the use of wire connections between the main controller and its sensors and it is anticipated that this will greatly reduce the incidence of production stoppages which in the past have been mainly due to accidental damage of the connecting wires.
The production controller is PC based and interacts across the IEEE 802.11 WLAN with a sensor manager unit and an active sensor unit. The sensor manager looks after two housekeeping functions for the sensor; it carries out regular sensor internal self-checks and also conducts power supply checks. The active sensor unit produces the activity outputs of its two sensors; a proximity sensor and a metal sensor. Both of these manager units are micro controller controlled. A Master Slave control protocol is employed between the PC Controller (master) and the two sensor units (slaves) for information exchange. The controller requests information from either the Sensor Management Unit or the Active Sensor Unit and the unit then responds with the appropriate information that was requested.
(1) Referring to the cost modelling process, identify and analyse one major cost centre (6 marks) with major associating main direct costs (6 marks) and indirect costs (4 marks). [16 Marks]
Answer (purchase the full solution by adding this past paper to cart)
Cost Centres:
Cost centres are the resources that are used directly to produce the end product.
Cost centres include human resources such as design engineers, project managers as well as equipment such as controllers. Human resource is a major cost center, the resources needed are assigned as well as the driver rates determined. Also, the activities are identified e.g. planning, designing and implementation as well as the drivers for such activities as well.
One Major Direct Cost Centre:
Major cost centre includes the cost of hiring Human resources to replace the wires between the controller and the sensor manager and active sensor unit with a WLAN.
Indirect Cost associated with Human Resource:
Indirect expenses are the overhead costs that need to be allocated to the project. These expenses include room rent, cleaning, computer purchasing and maintenance, water, software, network administration, paper, printers and the like.
(2) Discuss factors which will help to decide if the existing wired network is in good enough shape to support upgrading to wireless network? [18 Marks]
(3) Referring to the top-down network design approach (additional information A), prepare a meeting agenda for discussing network requirements with the brewery bottling plant owner, technical director and frontline users. [16 Marks]
(4) The Technical Directors of the plant expect to have full control over the operation of their network and its traffic. After discussion with the Technical Directors of the company, a tradeoff table has been generated which can be found in additional information (B). Discuss all technical goals with highest priorities. [18 Marks]
(5) Which of the following network measurements are suitable to give the new wireless network users an initial idea of the network performance and why?
[16 Marks]
(6) Prepare a testing plan for the network and suggest a type of testing service for this network [16 Marks]
Additional Information:
Last updated: Mar 21, 2020 09:14 AM
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