Showing posts with label Data Drought. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Data Drought. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Additional NBN Satellite Allocation for Adult Distance Education?
NBN Co have announced that rural and regional users of its new "Sky Muster" satellite will receive an increased allocation of 75GB a month (up from 20GB). Also it is planned for distance education students to receive an additional 50GB each (for up to three students per location). However, the NBN announcement refers to "children who rely on satellite for the delivery of distance education programs" (from "Broadband satellite data boost", NBN Co, 14 December 2015, emphasis added). It is not clear if adult students will be eligible for the additional allocation when undertaking school, VET, or university distance education.
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Queensland Distance Education Schools Not Catering to Remote Students?
ABC TV's Landline program featured "Data Drought" (Pip Courtney, 4/10/2015 1:22:26 PM) concerning problems with the NBN Interim Satellite service, particularly for distance education students. In response I suggested some techniques, including those from m-learning, could be used to reduce the bandwidth requirements.
It has been suggested that the problem only really exists in Queensland, as other states have school distance education programs which specifically cater for the limitations of satellite communications, for example using IP multicast. The suggestion is that most of the "distance" students in Queensland are actually in Brisbane (where there is good broadband access) and so catering for remote student in not a priority.
The Queensland DE schools cater to students who are unable to attend a campus due to a remote location, medical condition, itinerant lifestyle, have been suspended from a school, are mature age or home-based by choice.
Looking at the Education Queensland website, the department provides schools of distance education for geographically isolated areas (Cairns, Rockhampton, Emerald, Charleville, Charters Towers, Longreach, Mount Isa) and one in Brisbane. They also provide for "... other home based students with limited educational choice... mainstream school students and providing a service for by choice home based learners and students in a range of alternative education centres". Given that most of the DE schools are in regional areas, it would be surprising if they were not specifically catering for the needs of distance students.
It has been suggested that the problem only really exists in Queensland, as other states have school distance education programs which specifically cater for the limitations of satellite communications, for example using IP multicast. The suggestion is that most of the "distance" students in Queensland are actually in Brisbane (where there is good broadband access) and so catering for remote student in not a priority.
The Queensland DE schools cater to students who are unable to attend a campus due to a remote location, medical condition, itinerant lifestyle, have been suspended from a school, are mature age or home-based by choice.
Looking at the Education Queensland website, the department provides schools of distance education for geographically isolated areas (Cairns, Rockhampton, Emerald, Charleville, Charters Towers, Longreach, Mount Isa) and one in Brisbane. They also provide for "... other home based students with limited educational choice... mainstream school students and providing a service for by choice home based learners and students in a range of alternative education centres". Given that most of the DE schools are in regional areas, it would be surprising if they were not specifically catering for the needs of distance students.
Monday, October 5, 2015
NBN Data Drought
ABC TV's Landline program featured "Data Drought" (Pip Courtney, 4/10/2015 1:22:26 PM). This concerned problems with the NBN Interim Satellite service. Internet speeds in rural and regional Australia were reported to be "... so slow it's
impossible to do online banking or email a small photograph". One example cited was five students of the School of the Air who have to share 20 GB per month. The report appears to have been prompted by a recent meeting of the Isolated Children's Parents' Association. Also mentioned in the program is the Better Internet for Rural, Regional and Remote
Australia Facebook page started by Kristy Sparrow.
One claim in the ABC program is that the NBN service has been sized for 48,000 customers, not the 200,000 it has. As a result there is only capacity for 10 gigabytes a month, not even the 20 GB currently allocated.
The NBN interim satellite users are now limited to 20 GB a a month, after which the service is shaped to 128 kbps, then further reduced by an unspecified amount for an unspecified level of use:
I use a wireless modem with a 10GB a month allocation, which then gets "shaped". This is fine for on-line banking, email, podcasts and low resolution video (as well as for tutoring and being a student of on-line university courses using Moodle).
E-learning should work well at 64 kbps. This should be more than enough for downloading documents, engaging in on-line text based discussion forums and uploading assignments. It should also be sufficient for limited podcasts and low resolution video. It also should be enough for webinars using audio and limited video (I have successfully used Blackboard Collaborate for webinars at 32 kbps). Applications which assume low latency and high bandwidth will not work well, but then these should not being used in this application.
Unfortunately the ABC TV program does not provide technical details of exactly what speeds remote NBn users are experiencing. However, "The shape of bush disconnection…" (Amanda, July 29, 2015) provides no only a first hand personal account of the problems, but also speed test results. These indicate speeds of 50, 65, 72, 95 kbps which Amanda describes as "Unrelentingly awful.". Then the unshaped speed of 2.16 Mbps as "our internet returned".
The problem may be that users who exceed the 20 GB limit and are then reduced to 128 kbps then attempt to squeeze the maximum amount of data from this and are then penalized with a further reduction in speed. The solution might be to reduce the data allocation further (for example to 10 GB) and reduce the speed after this to 128 kbps, but then not reduce it further. This should be sufficient for e-learning.
Also the applications used for e-learning may need to be checked to see if they are designed and configured for e-learning. As an example, webinar software is normally configured assuming a high speed link. The settings can be changed to suit a slower line. I generally set the system to 64kbps and for 8khz sound, even when I am using a high speed link. This gives slower video and sound like a telephone, rather than a hi-fi, but it works more reliably. Also some software works better than others (and some can;t be configured at all). I have sound Blackboard collaborate works well.
However, this is also a matter of perception. Someone used to 2.16 Mbps will find 95 kbps to be slow. The perception that city users are receiving much more data will decrease satisfaction with the remote service. There is no technical means to correct the relative imbalance between city and remote users, the remote Internet service will be tens or hundreds of times slower, even with new satellites, due to physics and geography.
One claim in the ABC program is that the NBN service has been sized for 48,000 customers, not the 200,000 it has. As a result there is only capacity for 10 gigabytes a month, not even the 20 GB currently allocated.
The NBN interim satellite users are now limited to 20 GB a a month, after which the service is shaped to 128 kbps, then further reduced by an unspecified amount for an unspecified level of use:
"If you exceed your Normal Data Allowance during a Billing Period, your Peak Information Rate will be reduced to 128/128 kbps for the remainder of that Billing Period. If you then increase your Excess Data Usage by placing a continuous load on the service, your Peak Information Rate will be progressively reduced. " From "SkyMesh NBN Interim Satellite Plans"But what is not clear is why this is effecting users in the ways described in the ABC program. The speed of 128 kbps should be more than enough for on-line banking, emailing photos and for e-learning (half that, 64 kbps, should be sufficient).
I use a wireless modem with a 10GB a month allocation, which then gets "shaped". This is fine for on-line banking, email, podcasts and low resolution video (as well as for tutoring and being a student of on-line university courses using Moodle).
E-learning should work well at 64 kbps. This should be more than enough for downloading documents, engaging in on-line text based discussion forums and uploading assignments. It should also be sufficient for limited podcasts and low resolution video. It also should be enough for webinars using audio and limited video (I have successfully used Blackboard Collaborate for webinars at 32 kbps). Applications which assume low latency and high bandwidth will not work well, but then these should not being used in this application.
Unfortunately the ABC TV program does not provide technical details of exactly what speeds remote NBn users are experiencing. However, "The shape of bush disconnection…" (Amanda, July 29, 2015) provides no only a first hand personal account of the problems, but also speed test results. These indicate speeds of 50, 65, 72, 95 kbps which Amanda describes as "Unrelentingly awful.". Then the unshaped speed of 2.16 Mbps as "our internet returned".
The problem may be that users who exceed the 20 GB limit and are then reduced to 128 kbps then attempt to squeeze the maximum amount of data from this and are then penalized with a further reduction in speed. The solution might be to reduce the data allocation further (for example to 10 GB) and reduce the speed after this to 128 kbps, but then not reduce it further. This should be sufficient for e-learning.
Also the applications used for e-learning may need to be checked to see if they are designed and configured for e-learning. As an example, webinar software is normally configured assuming a high speed link. The settings can be changed to suit a slower line. I generally set the system to 64kbps and for 8khz sound, even when I am using a high speed link. This gives slower video and sound like a telephone, rather than a hi-fi, but it works more reliably. Also some software works better than others (and some can;t be configured at all). I have sound Blackboard collaborate works well.
However, this is also a matter of perception. Someone used to 2.16 Mbps will find 95 kbps to be slow. The perception that city users are receiving much more data will decrease satisfaction with the remote service. There is no technical means to correct the relative imbalance between city and remote users, the remote Internet service will be tens or hundreds of times slower, even with new satellites, due to physics and geography.
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