Proposal for a Videoconferencing Services Pilot Project
Videoconferencing Services Pilot Project
Rob Symberlist Bob Day 17 February 2004
1 Introduction
This paper proposes a twelve-month project, which would involve working closely with the Regional Broadband Consortia (RBC) to identify and define the national videoconferencing requirements of the schools sector and to pilot a national service enabling schools to make immediate use of the JANET Videoconferencing Service (JVCS) Gateway facilities. The pilot would be instrumental in defining the national services, which the Network Management Authority (NMA) would be expected to provide in order to support videoconferencing by the schools sector. It would also provide a practical example of interoperability, standards implementation and compliance, helping to develop and to validate standards in videoconferencing, network design and security, for schools.
1.1
RBC Support
The need for a videoconferencing services pilot was discussed at the meeting of the RBC Technical Group on 26 November 2003, following the presentation of a preliminary proposal by UKERNA. The Group supported the concept of a national pilot and made the following recommendations as to its scope and nature: A national pilot should complement the existing and continuing deployment of videoconferencing services within RBCs. The pilot should include investigations of both engineering and management issues, in order to determine what will be required of a full end-to-end service, and to recommend means of implementing these requirements. The pilot should include the use of national gateway facilities between the IP-based videoconferencing services increasingly being adopted by schools and ISDN-based videoconferencing. Potential mechanisms for recovery of ISDN call charges should also be investigated. During the pilot however, these charges should be covered by the pilot, up to a pre-determined budget limit. The pilot should be open to involvement by all RBCs. It should ensure that technical support is available so that best practice in the provisioning and operation of videoconferencing services is disseminated fully. This best practice should come from within those RBCs active in videoconferencing, and from other practitioners in the field. The pilot should ensure that there is rapid deployment of pilot services, and feedback on their use, in order that RBCs can make timely investment decisions in terms of their own service deployments. The principle of a national pilot along these lines was endorsed by the RBC Managers’ Group meeting held in the afternoon of 26 November.
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Proposal for a Videoconferencing Services Pilot Project
1.2
Project Aim, Objectives and Deliverables
The overall aim of the project is to identify suitable technical and operational mechanisms for national-scale videoconferencing services, over and above those being developed within individual RBCs. This will be achieved by practical piloting and trials of appropriate mechanisms as these are defined. The specific objectives of the project are: to understand existing and planned architectures for the provision of videoconferencing services within RBCs and LEAs; to develop and trial appropriate registration, authentication, authorisation and admission-control mechanisms to allow videoconferencing to be conducted between individual RBC management domains, and between a RBC and other users of videoconferencing services (e.g. colleges and universities, schools in the rest of the UK and abroad, national and international providers of education resources); to provide IP/ISDN gateway services via the JVCS and, if applicable, to provide, also via the JVCS, conferencing in the IP domain between individual RBCs; to develop possible charging mechanisms for the recovery of usage-related costs, such as the ISDN call charges that would be incurred by the use of a IP/ISDN gateway from the IP domain; to develop best practice for use by RBCs, LEAs and schools in further developing their own videoconferencing services; to make recommendations to DfES on the actions that the NMA would need to undertake in the longer term in order to support national-scale videoconferencing services.
Project Deliverables will include: 1. a detailed project plan to meet the above objectives; 2. an operations management framework for the provision of national-scale videoconferencing services, capable of integrating with regional services delivered by RBCs; 3. technical and operational standards to ensure that this integration is possible; 4. access to the relevant components of the JVCS for the duration of the project; 5. a charging mechanism for the recovery of ISDN call charges and any other usagerelated charges that are relevant to national provision; 6. a “best practice” guide plus supporting material; 7. a set of detailed recommendations and specifications on the actions necessary for the NMA to undertake to ensure the longer-term provision of national-scale videoconferencing services.
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Proposal for a Videoconferencing Services Pilot Project
1.3
Project Method
The first stage of the project will be the definition by UKERNA, participating RBCs and other stakeholders of a detailed project plan to deliver the objectives above. This plan will determine a number of study, development and trialling activities, which will then be pursued under UKERNA’s overall project management. In parallel with the development of the project plan, UKERNA will provide early access to the JVCS for RBCs in order that trials can be commenced in as timely a manner as possible.
1.4
Project Costs
The cost of national development, advice and support, for the duration of the pilot is £10,000. The cost of RBC technical implementation and liaison is £20,000; the cost of service development is £20,000 and the cost of project management is £25,000. The total cost of the facilities, including the capital cost of equipment, maintenance, ISDN lines and call charges for the duration of the project is £98,049 including VAT. The total project cost is £173,049. Detail of these costs is provided in Section 4. A recent quotation for additional national gateway facilities is appended.
2 Capacity requirements
During a recent extensive survey, Becta has obtained figures for the numbers of schools that are actively videoconferencing. These reveal that: 14 of the 337 Primary Schools surveyed use VC. This equates to 4.2%. 90 of the 359 Secondary Schools surveyed use VC. This equates to 25.1%. The majority of Primary and Secondary schools, who use VC, responded that they use it for between 1 to 5 hours per week. Applying these percentages to the total numbers of schools1 provides an indication of the likely total numbers: 4.2% of 17,900 Primaries: 752 25.1% of 3,400 Secondaries: 853 If we assume that Special schools are treated as Primaries then: 4.2% of 1,100 Special schools: 46 Alternatively, if we assume that Special schools are treated as Secondaries then: 25.1% of 1,100 Special schools: 276 Therefore, the total number of schools actively videoconferencing at present is likely to be somewhere between: 1651 and 1881, i.e. less than 2000. A maximum figure of 2000 will be assumed here for the purposes of calculating any requirement for increased capacity.
1
DfES ICT in Schools Survey, published on 30 October 2003 NDD/NSP/VCS/02 17 February 2004 Page 3 of 8
Proposal for a Videoconferencing Services Pilot Project
The extent of the deployment and implementation of MCU and Gateway facilities appears to vary considerably within each RBC (and LA) and it will be a key theme of this project to work closely with the RBCs to identify the requirements of the schools sector. All but one of the RBCs (and LAs) are now interconnected to SuperJANET; the last RBC is expected to be interconnected soon. The provision of additional central Gateway facilities for the schools sector, incorporated into the JVCS, would enable all schools with videoconferencing systems to communicate and collaborate with each other, nationally and internationally, via the ISDN and JANET IP networks, whether or not their RBC (or LA) has its own MCU facilities. As schools become connected to their regional IP networks, there will be a growth in demand for IP videoconferencing. However, there will continue to be an interim requirement for ISDN conferencing between schools without a Broadband connection, and an ongoing need for IP-ISDN Gateway facilities, as many educational organisations outside the UK still use ISDN for videoconferencing. All IP-only and IP-ISDN gatewayed videoconferences supported by the JVCS IP Service, whether point-to-point or multipoint, connect via a JVCS MCU to enable effective management and to enhance security. The MCU calls each IP system and manages the conference, connecting only the authorised IP systems. Currently ISDN calls are made to, rather than from, the JVCS MCU. Furthermore, while calls can be initiated by the JVCS on special request, this is not generally part of the current service and there is no formal billing system in place. However, for the purposes of this pilot, it is recommended that all IP and ISDN connections be initiated centrally, from the MCU. The JVCS has a number of MCUs deployed at the Leeds and Reading C-PoPs and the University of Edinburgh, including one for resilience, to support the existing community of 400 videoconferencing systems. It is not unusual for 5% of the existing sites (20) to be actively using the MCU facilities simultaneously. Sometimes 8% of the sites (32) are using the MCUs with very occasional peaks at 10% (40). Around 20% of all conferences are gatewayed, leading to an estimated peak of 1% of existing sites involved in gatewayed videoconferences simultaneously. It is expected that it will be some time before these levels of use become commonplace in the schools sector. However, if the maximum figure of 1% is assumed, then 1% of the 2000 school sites will be using the central Gateway facilities simultaneously, and the current capacity needs to be able to cope with an additional 20 simultaneous connections. It is unclear exactly how many of these will be ISDN or IP. The current JVCS capacity can accommodate a maximum of an additional 12 ISDN connections. There is therefore a requirement for a maximum of an additional 8 ISDN connections.
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3 Project Components
3.1 Gateway facilities
It is proposed that the current JVCS Gateway capacity is increased to accommodate the anticipated requirement. The only available upgrade to the existing MCUs is to add ISDN capacity to the MGC-1002 at the Leeds C-PoP. It is recommended that Gateway facilities be procured at £45,801 plus VAT. This will provide additional capacity to cater for 8 simultaneous ISDN connections, all at 384Kbps. IP capacity at 384Kbps and 768Kbps will also be made available as required for use in the Gateway conferences being run as part of this pilot project. The solution can be upgraded if demand for additional capacity is identified at a later date, although this would require additional funding. The following costs are based on an appended quotation dated 28 November 2003: Calls 8 Capital £45,801 Recurrent £5,877
Add ISDN capacity for 8 calls
3.2
ISDN Lines
The provision of ISDN lines for central MCU facilities reduces the recurrent costs of line rental to individual RBCs (and LAs). One PRI provides ISDN30. For 8 sites at ISDN6, 2 PRI lines would be required. The quoted costs for Primary Rate Interface (PRI) Lines are: Installation cost (PRI) Unit cost 2 PRI £0 £0 Annual Rental inc DDI Unit cost 2 PRI £10,884 £21,768
1 Year Contract:
3.3
ISDN Call Charges
It is recommended that all ISDN calls be initiated by the MCU. Under normal circumstances, this would necessitate the implementation of a central Billing system to enable UKERNA to recover the cost of the ISDN calls. However, for the purposes of this pilot it is proposed that all ISDN call charges are absorbed by the project. The pilot project will investigate the best way to recover the cost of future ISDN calls, so that it meets the requirements of the schools sector. A budget of £10,000 has been set aside to meet the cost of call charges for the duration of the project. This will provide a minimum of 1,000 hours videoconferencing within the UK at ISDN2 (128Kbps) or 330 hours at ISDN6 (384Kbps).
2
The MGC-100 is a large, scaleable, chassis based MCU, manufactured by Polycom and used internationally by videoconferencing service providers such as BT, MCI and Deutsch Telecom. It conforms to the internationally agreed ITU-T standards for both IP and ISDN videoconferencing. NDD/NSP/VCS/02 17 February 2004 Page 5 of 8
Proposal for a Videoconferencing Services Pilot Project
3.4
National Development, Advice and Support
The development and support of a national service for schools would would need to address the following issues: Authentication and Directory services Support, Advice and Guidance Booking, scheduling and the recovery of ISDN call charges Quality Assurance issues Data and application sharing In particular, Authentication, conference booking and Quality Assurance issues are aspects that need to be considered well in advance of any new Service. Those using the Gateway facilities would require advice and support. It is estimated that national development, advice and support would amount to £10,000 for the duration of the pilot. This effort will be drawn from the existing JVCS management services.
3.5
Regional Development, Advice and Support
A key theme of this project is to work closely with the RBCs to identify the requirements of the schools sector and to define the project plan. A budget of £20,000 has been set aside to meet the cost to the RBCs of regional development, advice and support. We envisage that this could be used to provide technical consultancy and support on behalf of all RBCs, as well as liaison with Becta.
3.6
Service Development
A budget of £20,000 has also been set aside for service development, wherever the project determines this is necessary.
3.7
Project Management
The management by UKERNA of the 12 month pilot project will amount to £25,000. This will include: procuring and commissioning the equipment and the lines; overseeing the national development, advice and support; liaison with the RBCs concerning project planning and service issues; preparation and editing of the deliverables; organising and running all meetings, including four project workshops, to discuss project issues and progress.
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3.8
Timescales
A total duration of twelve months is proposed, starting on 1 January 2004, with the following milestones, which will be refined once the project plan is complete: Project Start: Order, delivery, installation and commissioning of equipment. Development of Booking System Milestone: Start of Pilot Service: 3 months Operation throughout one complete school term (April-July) Milestone: Interim Report: 7 months Operation during peak months (October-November) Milestone: Final Report: 11 months Project End: Review 12 months
3.9
Post-Pilot Dissemination
It will be necessary as part of the project to discuss appropriate means for the dissemination to RBCs, LEAs and schools of the relevant deliverables of the project. Funding for dissemination, other than via the World Wide Web, has not been included at this stage.
4 Costs
The estimated total costs of the proposed pilot project are (Equipment costs are payable annually in advance.): Equipment Gateway facilities 8 ISDN (Quotation) ISDN lines (2 PRI) (1 Year contract) ISDN Call Charge budget Operational management Total VAT Total including VAT Effort (all inclusive of any VAT) Project Management Regional Development and Liaison Service Development Total Total cost of Pilot Project for 12 months Year 1 £51,678 £21,768 £10,000 £10,000 £93,446 £16,353 £109,799
£25,000 £20,000 £20,000 £65,000 £174,799
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Proposal for a Videoconferencing Services Pilot Project
Appendix: Quotation for additional ISDN Capacity
UKERNA - MCU/Gateway for Schools EXPANSION OF LEEDS SYSTEMS - ADDTL 8 SITES ISDN + 8 SITES TRANSCODING ALL PRICES EXCLUDE VAT 28th November 2003 Part number VCSA1601 PWR0549 KIT2026 BRD0445 KIT1157 VNMP4801 VRMA4802 VRMV0801 CBL2029 SWL0749 SWL0698 SWL0697 SWL0700 SWL0701 SWL0702 VSWD0801 VSHP0003 Description Qty Unit (£) Total (£) MGC-100 base system (AC) 0 11,801.28 0.00 PSU for above 0 1,794.87 0.00 16-Slot Chassis, 19" Rack Mount (90deg) 0 0.00 0.00 MUX-16 H.320.H.321 1 7,628.21 7,628.21 NET-8 H.320 ISDN(PRI),Leased(T1/E1) 1 12,564.10 12,564.10 IP-48 H.323 0 21,987.18 0.00 Audio+48/96 module 0 20,371.79 0.00 Video+8 CP8/TX8 module 1 12,564.10 12,564.10 MGC country kit - UK 0 0.00 0.00 H.320/H.321 License, MCU max. sites = 28 0 33,653.85 0.00 H.320/H.321 License, MCU max. sites = 16 0 13,461.54 0.00 H.320/H.321 License, MCU max. sites = 8 1 0.00 0.00 H.320/H.321 License, additional 4 sites 0 4,487.18 0.00 ISDN BONDING license, 8 sites 1 6,057.69 6,057.69 ISDN BONDING license, 16 sites 0 9,423.08 0.00 MGC Video SWL CP8/TX8 1 4,487.18 4,487.18 MGC-100 shipping 3-5 modules 1 Installation 1 2,500.00 2,500.00 Sub-total 45,801.28 12 months maintenance per existing SLA 1 5,876.60 Sub-total 5,876.60 5,876.60
MAINTENANCE
TOTAL 51,677.88 CAPACITY ISDN Sites at 384kbps 8 Audio sites (mediumband) 0 IP sites at 384kbps, or 0 IP sites at 768kbps, or 0 IP sites at 2Mbps 0 Transcoding sites 8
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