This integrated system is a combination of technologies and human procedures that support the management and the process of selection, validation, aggregation, scheduling and booking of the transmission of content, and furthermore the verification of the reception and access to the content on the client side. This complete system is called the Content Delivery Service SchoolCast. It consists of a client-server model where users have access to a common online management system. The system manager is responsible for the final selection of content to be multicast and the overall management of the system. Content publishers prepare and clear their own content for multicasting as well as log the use of their content in participating schools. Network managers schedule multicasting for the most suitable time. Schools check for recent multicasts and can request certain content to be pushed.

The SchoolCast server software provides a management application that gives access to all the different aspects required to manage the Content Delivery Service. The server mirrors the specified web sites, creates static snapshots, distributes the web site snapshots via multicast, collects log files from SchoolCast clients and prepares the log files according to the requirements of the content provider. The functionality of the SchoolCast system furthermore allows the incremental update of content snapshots, multiple channel multicast and the possibility for encryption, which can be linked to a subscription system.

The SchoolCast client software receives web site snapshots via multicast, corrects transmission errors, stores received web site snapshots to the hard-disk, and allows transparent access to these sites by acting as HTTP proxy.

The elements and modules on the server side consist of:

  • database
  • management system
  • logging service
  • multicast service
  • scheduling server

On the client (school) side the Content Delivery Service has the following components:

  • proxy server
  • caching server
  • logging client
  • multicast client

Read the brief report on the SchoolCast development and trial.

Read the SchoolCast product sheet.