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Joe Meno Network Operations Mgr, Pacific Data Systems, Guam, USA "I can't wait to use the Media Library with my teachers. The more I learn about it the more excited I am to have it."
Joey Andrews, Arkadelphia School District, USA  "It’s refreshing to have a vendor provide this level of support"
Marcus Tanner, American International School of Bamako "We wouldn't consider any working with anyone apart from ApplianSys"
Joe Meno Network Operations Mgr, Pacific Data Systems, Guam, USA "Your customer support really sets you apart from some of the others I have dealt with."
Weston George, Network Administrator, Monett School, USA

Save bandwidth and speed up classroom content with caching

Without Caching

When a teacher directs a class of students to online educational content (usually at the start of a lesson), each student downloads an individual copy of the content to their device and this all happens at the same time. This duplicate traffic can consume most, or very often, all available bandwidth. This congestion that makes the internet slow.

In addition, software updates for all school devices download at set times during the day, also all at once, often causing worse congestion due to their large file sizes, slowing the internet even further. If bandwidth becomes congested students will not be able to access educational content on their devices.

With Smart Caching

When a student requests content from the internet, the request is intercepted by EDUGATEBOX and checked against the contents of its cache storage:

  • If EDUGATEBOX finds the content, it will send it back to the student. This happens at the lightning speed of the LAN – saving time, and without using any bandwidth.

  • If EDUGATEBOX can’t find the content, it will forward the request on to the internet. While the content is downloaded for the student, EDUGATEBOX will save a copy in its cache store, ready for further requests.

Where bandwidth is limited or expensive, caching is very effective in dramatically lowering bandwidth requirements. By serving all duplicate content requests from cache storage, students receive the content locally, removing their requests from the internet connection completely.

With the resulting free bandwidth capacity authorities can make more use of student devices with additional e-Learning schemes, or provide faster general web access, or simply choose to cut monthly bandwidth bills.

With the cached content being served directly via the LAN, students will enjoy access often 10 times quicker than internet download speeds.

Specialised features for schools

In addition to high performance caching, EDUGATEBOX is packed with additional features designed to help schools get more from their internet connection:

Pre-caching: Normally a web page or object needs to be requested before EDUGATEBOX can store a copy. With ‘pre-caching’ teachers can download content before it is requested. Web content that is central to lesson plans can thus be ready for use – no valuable lesson time need be wasted.

Pre-caching also lets schools take advantage of their internet connection during quiet or off-peak periods, such as when the school is closed or even overnight. Teachers can schedule EDUGATEBOX to visit a URL at a specific time and cache its content, ready for serving locally exactly when it is needed.

Storage monitoring: EDUGATEBOX’s caching function maximises bandwidth savings by ensuring that there is always storage capacity for the most popular content. It does this by regularly checking for content that is no longer requested over time and removing it from storage.

Protected priority content: When content is considered critical regardless of whether or not it has been recently requested – for example, a particularly large video needed just once per term – it can be fully protected. This is very useful with large files where it can be inconvenient or, with expensive bandwidth, simply too costly to download again.

Static video store: Videos that are stored as protected content can be grouped and displayed on a page at a self-defined URL. Teachers can thus create the equivalent of a ‘YouTube Channel’ for different topics and, as they will not be fetched from the internet, they will always be available at high speed, without using any bandwidth.


 

 

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