2.2 Structure of the Pilot Experiment
The first stage of this pilot experiment is to be done by NASDA, KDDI, University of Tsukuba (Japan), Asian Institute of Technology (AIT, Thailand) and Multimedia University (MMU, Malaysia).

The details assigned responsibilities of each participant are shown in Table-1. This system will be extended to other universities and institutes in GMSARN (Great Mekhong Sub-region Academic Research Network) in the next stage.
Table-1: Participants and their Responsibilities

2.3 Background
It is identified that the distant learning can contribute in eliminating digital divide and shortage of schools / teachers in many Asian countries. An e-learning environment would be arranged in these countries, which is important to develop cost-effective system that can be bearable to the students. It is considered that the multi-point e-learning system using new technologies to be implemented on WINDS will be able to provide cost-effective e-learning environment.

However, we do not have the experience of Instructional Design (ID) on the Mesh-type satellite network such as WINDS at this stage. In developing an effective e-learning network on WINDS and in eliminating digital divide in Asian countries, prototype e-learning network should be developed immediately as a Pilot Experiment, and an experience of Instructional Design (ID) toward WINDS network is needed.

Every satellite network system, which has been used for the conventional e-learning experiment, consists one or both of the following problems:

1. The network is based on point-to-point connection, or the combination of point-to-point connection. In this type of network, as the number of site increases, the required satellite capacity also increases drastically, and therefore, does not meet cost requirements very well.
2. Since the network is configured as Star-type topology (Figure-1), teachers / contents should be located at hub station. The load on a particular teacher would be much heavier than the others. The system has long delays of multicast traffic because of a double-hop connection.

Figure-1. Application Image of Distance Education on Star-type Network Topology


Figure-2. Application Image of Distance Education on Mesh-type Network Topology
In the future, multimedia distant learning for high-grade students, teachers and contents are expected to be located at multiple sites. Then various Quality of Services (QoS) will be required depending on the type of the class. Furthermore, if the participants increase, the effective use of satellite capacity based on the multiple-access technology will be expected in order to develop cost-effective e-learning network. While it is difficult to satisfy the above requirements on the existing satellite network, the new technology to be implemented on WINDS will be able to provide dynamic Mesh-type topology (Figure-2) for flexible assignments of satellite capacity and QoS control. Therefore any two sites could be connected as single-hop connection, and multi-site allocation of teacher / contents will be available. The implementation of the above network is very important to provide high- level distance education, which includes two-way discussion, multi-teacher environment, and so on. But, we don't have enough experience to operate the above type of network systems, so that the impact from the satellite network to the applications hasn’t been known. This Pilot Experiment will contribute in studying appropriate specifications for the future e-learning applications, which will be operated on WINDS.

Page 2 of 3
| Previous | Next |