Advanced videoconferencing educational system - A case study

The main contribution of this paper is to present a videoconference platform that can support all the advanced learning methods and techniques. We firstly address the basic system architecture, structure and building configuration (topology) of an IP based videoconferencing educational system. Then, we define the basic components and their characteristics and ways to interconnect them while having in mind the QoS parameters, the network parameters (such as bandwidth reservation, packet loss, jitter and latency), the video transmission process, and the application-based control of the streaming. Finally, we provide an example (a case study) as a prototype built for this system architecture with detailed specification. The performance evaluation of this prototype showed that using these practices, one can build a stable videoconferencing platform which satisfies all of the educational telecommuting requirements. It presents a successful tool for expanding the possibilities for collaboration while providing time and cost savings.