Realizing multimedia distance education based on DVB and GSM data services

Multimedia services are exploited in a variety of different applications such as telemedicine, distance education, video conferencing, etc. In this study innovative ways of realizing multimedia distance education through satellite and cellular communications are investigated. Focus is on African scenarios that require affordable, available and low technical-literacy-requirement solutions. A satellite link from teacher to students is used, completed by a GSM/cellular return path (from student back to the teacher). These two network infrastructures are well in place and accessible through out higher populated areas in Sub-Saharan Africa. This research aims to facilitate a multimedia distance education service on the proposed set up and then to assess system performance (bit rate consumption-cost, packet loss, jitter/unequal packet arrival intervals, round trip delays, etc.). Data/IP services available on GSM networks (SMS and GPRS) and satellite networks (DVB data broadcasting) are implemented. The flexibility of this system promises to deliver rich multimedia at scalable content/cost.