Applicants (please refer to Figure below)

The Applicants are a consortium of educators (Open Learning Agency, Open School, and School Districts) and a private sector firm (Advanced Interactive (Canada) Inc. (AiCi) - a wholly owned subsidiary of Advanced Interactive Inc. (Aii)). Detailed information on each member of the consortium and the role that each will play are on the Description of Applicants page.

Technical System Proposed

Both 'Dynamic' (demand-based) and 'Policy-based' (scheduled) caching will be used to provide a large cache of educational material at the school location for immediate access by students and teachers, at LAN speed, without external connection limitations.

The system will consist of:

• the selection of required courseware, Internet files and multimedia resources by education authorities,
• accumulation of these files at the server(s) at the headend, and
• transmission of these files to designated, addressable servers in schools, delivered via the television signal (cable, broadcast, satellite, etc) using the VBI (vertical blanking interval) of KNOW during regular program hours, and full frame, or continuous 2-2.5 Mbps during non-program hours.
• The "back channel" will be a PLNet (the BC Provincial Learning Network) or other School District connection provided to the school, which can vary from a dial-up 19.2 Kbps line to a dedicated 56, 64, 128, 1544, Kbps connection. The back channel will be used to constantly check for small file requests, file updates and teacher/student requests.
• Advanced Interactive plans to route our signals to the internet via PLNet, BCNet and CA*Net. The main content server(s) at the Knowledge Network headend will connect to the world via CA*Net3 at the closest connection point; which could be either at BCIT (close by), or at Harbour Center on Hastings Street in downtown Vancouver.

This project will concentrate on providing a total, end-to-end service, with software management of the entire process, in order to provide a high quality of service, located locally on the school server. In this way we can provide the same file access experience for a remote school student with a slow access line connection, as would be available to an urban school student with a much faster outside connection. In addition, the system will be compatible with other delivery technologies, and fully scaleable to millions of users, at home or at school.

Over the term of this Project, AIC also hopes to test new technologies that will significantly increase data speed, and allow for multi-channel audio capability. However, these advanced technologies will depend on other technical developments moving ahead in the same time frame.

The educational program will address such things as:

1. delivery of a very large number of Internet sites to school servers, and the management of these files for scheduling and updating
2. the problems of delivery of distance education materials to distance education students, with the delivery of a wide variety of resource materials for programs such as OSCAR
3. remedial training opportunities
4. fast access to the Districts's AV resources library
5. delivery of teacher training in many disciplines, such as science, with the delivery of "T-Lite" programs
6. but most of all - providing what teachers and students tell us they want!!

We also plan to offer a wide array of other complimentary features on the school server, which will provide added service and significant savings for the education system. AIC Servers are to be provided with:

• a Linux operating system, with FTP, HTTP, Email, Streaming Multimedia (video, audio, animation, text), Landline Caching, Broadcast Caching, Telnet, Firewall, Gateway, and DNS.
• Later options will include such additions as News Server, Shared Printer, and source code for various development programs.
• All of this will be managed remotely with Management Software, which will provide great flexibility for local school requests and levels of priority access for teachers. This software will be useful for management of any school files regardless of how these files were acquired.

If the facility proves to be highly successful, the entire system can be rapidly duplicated, at low cost, at several other broadcast headends to cover Canada; such as TVOntario in Ontario, or TVA for Quebec, or the CBC nationally. Indeed, if further funds are available, the project could be expanded to trial the same services on a national scale. The system is also highly suitable for export to developing countries, where the television infrastructure is well developed, and deployment could be immediate, but where high-speed terrestrial line infrastructure is not available.

Schoolnet Caching Requirements

The SchoolWeb project fulfills all of the requirements of the Schoolnet project by:

1. Connecting to the CA*net backbone through the facilities of PLNet, and BCNet at the KNOW headend near BCIT.
2. Using Internet Cache Protocol (ICP) to be compatible with CA*net
3. Employing both policy-based and dynamic caching technologies
4. Involving the complete educational chain of responsibility from government to student as our partners
5. Agreeing that the network system will remain in place (operated by Open School/KNOW and PLNet) at the conclusion of the project; and that school systems will remain with the School Districts.
6. Submitting budgets for future system expansion
7. Continuing the study for 2 years
8. Supporting known International Standards

Milestone Reports:

1. Report 1 : Milestones 1 and 2
2. Report 2 : Milestones 2 and 3
3. Report 3 : Milestones 4 and 5
4. Report 3 : Milestones 6 and 7

Company Papers and Presentations:

1. Powerpoint Presentation : SchoolWeb - The Benefits of Broadcast Caching (Approx 2.1 MB - winzip file)
2. PC Client Administration Guide (Approx - 9 MB MSWord file)
3. PC Client Administration Guide (Approx - 1 MB winzip file)

Member services (authorized access only)