Towards Resilient Synchronous e-Training Platforms

Synchronous e-training is emerging as an alternative for developing human resources training plans in large organizations. However, synchronous e-training platforms must face many issues affecting their resilience. Self-recovering and self-protection software techniques should be implemented to enable the continuity of e-training activities faced with network failures or entities of the platform going down. In this paper, the resilience issues in synchronous e-training are identified, and those presented in a real e-training platform are analyzed. The platform includes a self-optimizing technique to make efficient use of network resources as participants join and leave. Furthermore, various self-recovering and a self-protection techniques are proposed, making possible the continuity of ongoing e-training activities with reduced functionality until the automatic full system recovery. Most of the proposed techniques are applicable to other real-time communication systems, since the e-training platform is built using standard technologies such as SIP and RTP, commonly used in voice over IP systems.