Networking multimedia classroom initiative

Bandwidth capabilities of broadband networks have turned interactive multimedia services into a cost-effective reality, targeting not only large companies, but also SME and individual users. An application of multimedia networks and multicasting videoconference via the Internet with direct social impact is teleteaching and in the broader sense distance learning. In this paper, combining the WWW and the H.323/MPEG-4 protocol families, we specify an open system and network architecture towards the virtual networking classroom realisation. The proposed classroom incorporates both asynchronous courses, where the students can access on-line multimedia educational material whenever they are available, and synchronous courses, where the students are able to follow real-time lectures via state-of-the art videoconference techniques over the Internet.