Download Study on Bandwidth Requirement for 88 Smart Schools

Study on Bandwidth Requirement for 88 Smart Schools
Conducted for
COMMISSIONED FOR
FEBRUARY 2008
Prepared by,
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREAMBLE .......................................................................................................... 5
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................... 7
1.
BACKGROUND OF ASSESSMENT ........................................................ 10
1.1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 10
1.2 Objective .................................................................................................. 11
1.3 Scope of Work.......................................................................................... 11
2.
METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................... 14
2.1 Information Gathering .............................................................................. 14
2.1.1 Network ......................................................................................... 14
2.1.2 Application ..................................................................................... 15
2.2 Test Approach .......................................................................................... 15
2.2.1 Bandwidth Utilization ..................................................................... 16
2.2.2 Application Profiling ....................................................................... 18
2.3 Prepare Test Environment ....................................................................... 19
2.3.1 Setup Test Machines ..................................................................... 19
2.3.2 Identify Transactions ..................................................................... 20
2.4 Perform Test at Client Site ....................................................................... 21
2.4.1 Pre-test .......................................................................................... 22
2.4.2 Testing........................................................................................... 22
2.4.3 Preliminary Analysis ...................................................................... 22
2.5 Analyse Findings ...................................................................................... 23
2.6 Final Presentation and Report Submission .............................................. 23
3.
ANALYSIS AND OBSERVATIONS .......................................................... 24
3.1 Bandwidth Utilization ................................................................................ 24
3.1.1 4 Mbps........................................................................................... 25
3.1.2 1 Mbps........................................................................................... 26
3.2 Infrastructure ............................................................................................ 27
3.2.1 PC Specifications .......................................................................... 27
3.2.2 Server Specifications ..................................................................... 29
Study on Bandwidth Requirement for 88 Smart Schools
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2
3.3 Application Profiling.................................................................................. 30
3.3.1 WSMS ........................................................................................... 31
3.3.2 LCMS ............................................................................................ 31
3.3.3 Digitized TVP ................................................................................. 34
3.3.4 Virtual Tour .................................................................................... 35
3.4 Observations ............................................................................................ 36
4.
RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................ 38
4.1 Upgrade Infrastructure ............................................................................. 38
4.1.1 Upgrade the PC specifications to a minimum of 512Mb RAM and
Pentium 4 processor...................................................................... 39
4.1.2 Immediate replacement of Win ME and Win 98 ............................ 40
4.1.3 Upgrade the DNS server to Windows 2003 ................................... 40
4.1.4 Develop Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on PC Operations
for schools. .................................................................................... 41
4.2 Periodic School LAN Health Check .......................................................... 41
4.3 System Maintenance and Network Training for ITC and Technicians ...... 41
4.4 Application Review ................................................................................... 42
4.5 Monitoring and Enforcement .................................................................... 44
5.
CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................... 45
6.
PRESENTATION SLIDES........................................................................ 47
APPENDIX A – School Categories ..................................................................... 61
APPENDIX B – Actual PC Environment at the Five Smart Schools.................... 62
APPENDIX C – Web Application Best Practices ................................................ 63
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TABLE OF FIGURES
Figure 1.3-1 Scope of Work.......................................................................................... 13
Figure 2-1 Project Life cycle Methodology ................................................................. 14
Figure 2.2-1 Testing Approach..................................................................................... 16
Figure 2.2-2 Network Vantage at Smart Schools...................................................... 17
Figure 2.2-3 Application Transaction Flow................................................................. 18
Figure 2.3-1 Test Environment Setup ......................................................................... 20
Figure 3.2-1 PC Specifications at the Smart School ................................................ 28
Figure 3.2-2 DNS Server Specifications at Smart Schools ..................................... 29
Figure 3.3-1 Top threads by processing time ............................................................ 32
Figure 3.3-2 Top threads by payload .......................................................................... 33
Figure 3.3-3 Top threads by processing time ............................................................ 34
Figure 3.4-1 Observations ............................................................................................ 37
Figure 3.4-1 Recommendations .................................................................................. 38
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PREAMBLE
Malaysia’s aspiration to transform the nation’s educational system was attained
when the Smart School Flagship Application was launched in July 1997 by the
then Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. Since then the Smart School
project championed by the Ministry of Education (MoE), has become one of the
key initiatives of the Ministry to ensure that such transformation is achieved. With
MoE spearheading, collaborative effort is made with Multimedia Development
Corporation (MDeC) to attain this Flagship vision to transform all 10,000 primary
and secondary schools to become smart schools by 2010.
According to The Malaysian Smart School Conceptual Blueprint, the smart
school is defined as “learning institute that has systemically reinvented in terms
of teaching-learning practices and school management in order to prepare
children for the Information Age”. Moving away from memory-based learning,
students are fostered to an education system that stimulates thinking and
creativity. Using technology as the key enabler, the educational system is
envisioned to evolve from the conventional practices to the information and
knowledge based environment.
Equip with vast ICT facilities, smart school is aimed to create more innovative
and creative teaching lessons towards achieving the technology-literate and
knowledge-based society. Six pillar components of the smart school are
Teaching and Learning, Management and Administration, People, Skills and
Responsibilities, Technology, Processes and Policies. The syntheses of these
components are aligned with the direction to innovate ICT based teachinglearning environment in turn the realization of workforce capable in contributing
to the economic development.
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The smart school pilot project started in 1999, involving 88 schools nationwide.
During the pilot project, one of the main components tested is the provision of
ICT infrastructure and system. Currently, all the 10,000 schools nationwide are
enabled with Internet broadband access through SchoolNet. SchoolNet is an
infrastructure project jointly conducted by the MoE and the Ministry for Energy,
Water and Communications to provide the network infrastructure to allow access
to Internet and relevant applications. The present smart school applications are
web-based with the database servers reside centrally at the Data Centre. For
future usage, WebTV and Virtual Tours/lessons applications will be introduced
with capabilities to download digital contents from the Internet.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
With the usage of vast ICT facilities in delivering more innovative and creative
teaching, Smart School Flagship requires a stable network infrastructure which
guarantees high availability and performance. This simply means that the
network bandwidth at the smart schools must be adequate to serve the ICT
needs of their stakeholders namely students, teachers and school administrators.
High availability and quality network performance ensures optimum usage of the
smart school applications by the students and other stakeholders. In addition,
with the present smart school applications which are web-based with the
database servers residing centrally at the Data Centre, and the future envision of
Smart school with WebTV and Virtual Tour Applications, stability and availability
of the network infrastructure is critical to determine the success of its
implementation.
In view of the above, MDeC has commissioned an independent study of the
stability and availability of the network infrastructure of smart schools. Five smart
schools from various locations throughout the country were selected together
with four smart school applications mainly with web-based and video streaming
functionality as sample for the study. Besides network performance, the study
includes also the analysis of usage of the smart school applications and the
performance of each selected application as an additional scope with the
objective of identifying the root causes of minimal usage of the smart school
applications if any.
The main objective of the study is to evaluate whether the current 4Mbps
bandwidth of the smart school network infrastructure called SchoolNet is
adequate to support the utilization of smart school applications. The study also
looks at the sustainability of the bandwidth when running digital content which is
the core component of today’s smart teaching and learning. In addition, the study
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also identifies relevant and reliable technology in ensuring all applications can
run smoothly on the SchoolNet Network.
To achieve these objectives, the study is basically revolved around Bandwidth
Utilization and Application Profiling. Bandwidth Utilization was measured using a
special tool which inspects network traffic and at the same time captures each
school’s bandwidth utilization. On the other hand, Application Profiling was
conducted to capture the application round trip transaction response time from
Client machine located at smart schools via SchoolNet towards the application
servers located at its data centers and vice versa.
In summary, the study concluded that overall bandwidth utilization of 4Mbps is
sufficient for the smart school applications including its future needs of running
web applications and video streaming. In fact, the utilization of the bandwidth is
far below the critical level of 70 percent (Actual Finding: 42.5 percent utilization),
the level normally established by world-class network providers.
Surprisingly, the study of the selected schools has concluded that the minimal
usage (i.e. below average) of the smart school applications are contributed by
equipment (i.e. Personal Computer) which does not comply to the technical
specifications, outdated server operating system due to poor maintenance, and
lack of experience in troubleshooting skills by the network and system
administrators.
On the application performance study, it is found that two out of four chosen
applications perform in accordance to the international standard. Of these two,
the Web-based School Management System (WSMS) performed better
compared to Virtual Tour Application. The performance difference is contributed
by the fact that the servers for Virtual Tour Application resides outside the
country.
The
remaining
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two
applications
which
are
Learning
Content
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Management System (LCMS) and Digitized TV Pendidikan (TVP) performed
below the international benchmarking.
Based on the above summarized findings, in order to ensure optimal usage of
the smart school applications in the country and thus ensuring successful
implementation of the Flagship are subject to the following recommendations.
First and foremost, the current hardware infrastructure specifically the outdated
PCs and those which do not comply with the technical specifications must be
upgraded or replaced. In addition, periodic network health checks are needed to
ensure school’s network is healthy and efficiently maintained.
Whilst the school network needs to be maintained, skills and knowledge related
to system and network administration amongst the Information Technology
Coordinators (ITCs) and technicians must be continuously enhanced. Periodic
assessment must be conducted to ensure that the smart school system and
network is well maintained. Periodic reviews of the applications must also be
consistently held in order to maintain application performance. Furthermore, MoE
must play the role in setting the Application’s Service Level Agreement (SLA) for
the application developers to comply.
In conclusion, this study shows the bandwidth requirement for the smart schools
is sufficient at the current 4Mbps as shown by the utilization assessment of
42.5%. However, the sustainability of the current bandwidth will be much
dependent on the growth and complexity of the smart school applications that will
be developed in future. In addition, the Study also determines that the optimal
utilization of the Applications is on three factors; ICT Infrastructure including
Network, System Maintenance and Application Performance.
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1.
BACKGROUND OF ASSESSMENT
1.1
Introduction
This document details the Study of Bandwidth Requirement for 88 Smart
Schools.
The report contains methodology and test approach, analysis and
observations, recommendations and conclusion of the study. The findings
of this report describe the analysis and observations of the bandwidth
requirement study approach from two different perspectives; bandwidth
utilization and application profiling. The analysis and observations detail
out the bandwidth and application issues that contribute to the bandwidth
utilization. The report also contains best practices for web based
application response time.
The recommendations in this report will include experts view and proposal
on the best way to effectively utilize the current 4Mbps bandwidth for all
the smart schools based from the study conducted at the five smart
schools nationwide. It focuses on:
•
Optimizing invested resources
•
Planning for future expansion
•
Best practices on application design and architecture
The rationales for this study are as follows:
•
Ensure schools are not interrupted with the bandwidth for
enculturation of ICT in teaching, learning and management;
•
Improve bandwidth requirement for the 88 smart schools;
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•
Increase access and usage by users (teachers, students, school
managements and other stakeholders);
•
Ensure the cost effectiveness of the services provided by the network
provider.
1.2
Objective
The objectives of the study are to evaluate current 4Mbps bandwidth of
the SchoolNet in order to utilize applications provided by the Ministry of
Education, to recommend the sustainable bandwidth running digital
content in serving the purpose of smart teaching and learning and finally
to identify relevant and reliable technology in ensuring all applications run
smoothly on the Wide Area Network (WAN) line regardless of the
technology.
With the above objectives established, the desired outcomes of this study
are to achieve the ideal and sufficient bandwidth for the schools with an
uninterrupted access for enculturation of ICT in teaching, learning and
management.
1.3
Scope of Work
The scope of work has been defined to meet the objectives of the study.
The sampling approach was done on a representative of five smart
schools nationwide. They were selected based on various categories.(
Refer to Appendix A)
Four applications tested were two current web-based applications being
used at schools namely, Web-based School Management System
(WSMS) and Learning Content Management System (LCMS) and two
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representations of video streaming applications namely, Digitized TV
Program and Virtual Tour via http://www.learnz.org. WSMS is an
application widely used by the school administrators (i.e. teachers) in
managing information such as students’ profiles, enrollment and
performance. On the other hand, LCMS contains the digital content of
various school subjects used during the smart teaching and learning
classes. Digitized TVP is a similar concept of WebTV application that
contains videos online and other interactive educational links. Virtual Tour
lessons are the Internet World Wide Web educational links from that
expose students and teachers to other countries’ digital content and smart
teaching and learning creativity.
The scope of the test revolves around Bandwidth Utilization and
Application
Profiling.
Bandwidth
Utilization
was
measured
using
Compuware NetworkVantage to perform the inspection of network traffic
and at the same time capturing school’s bandwidth utilization. On the
other hand, Application Profiling was conducted using Compuware
ApplicationVantage to capture the application round trip transaction
response time from Client machine located at smart schools via SchoolNet
towards the application servers located at its data centers and vice versa.
The following Figure 1.3-1 shows the network diagram of the overall scope
of work of this study.
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Figure 1.3-1 Scope of Work
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2.
METHODOLOGY
The methodology used to measure bandwidth utilization and application
performance response time is distinguished by the tools selected for the
testing activities. Figure 2-1 shows the overall framework of project life
cycle methodology that has been conducted for the study on bandwidth
requirement for 88 smart schools.
Information
Gathering
Test
Approach
Prepare Test
Environment
Perform
Test at
Client Sites
Analyse
Findings
Final
Presentation
and Report
Submission
Figure 2-1 Project Life cycle Methodology
2.1
Information Gathering
2.1.1 Network
Information gathering on school’s network is needed to gain
understanding on how the network is intended, designed and
implemented. This phase also determines suitable location for
installation of monitoring/test devices with minimum interruption to
the operational network. Consequently, the consolidation of the
network information gathered provides the basis and insight of the
current network traffic flow.
Amongst the documentations and configurations analysed for this
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purpose are:
i.
Local Area Network (LAN) Topology:Detail Physical and Logical network design at Data Centers
and remote test sites (VLAN, IP address, Gateway, Routing,
etc)
ii.
Wide Area Network (WAN) Topology:Detail Physical and Logical network topology between Data
Centers and sites, speed, technology and protocol used.
2.1.2 Application
Similarly, data information gathering on application list is also
necessary to gain understanding on the applications under
assessment.
This assessment identifies the requirements, architecture, volumes,
the critical scenario, transaction flows, the peak time and the usage
of the said applications.
2.2
Test Approach
This phase identifies the approach taken to execute the testing.
Estimation of how much bandwidth is required to meet current and
future needs of the smart school is technically done by applying
reliable assessment tools. The tools are able to determine the ideal
bandwidth requirements. Measurement of the school’s bandwidth
utilization and application profiling are major inputs to this
bandwidth requirement study.
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The assessment tool to obtain the bandwidth utilization is
Compuware NetworkVantage and for application profiling is
Compuware ApplicationVantage.
The study was conducted with the following approach:
Figure 2.2-1 Testing Approach
2.2.1 Bandwidth Utilization
NetworkVantage is the tool used to perform the inspection of
network traffic and at the same time capturing school’s bandwidth
utilization. NetworkVantage consists of a probe that passively
monitors the network performance and utilization network at
gateway level. Probe 2 in Figure 2.2-2 shows where the
NetworkVantage was positioned at the schools server room. By
positioning the probe between the switch and bonding equipment,
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the probe was able to capture the actual data being transferred in
and out of the school network during the test execution performed
by the students.
Figure 2.2-2 Network Vantage at Smart Schools
The evaluation of the school’s current bandwidth utilization was
done by capturing the network utilization while the students were
running the applications concurrently. To capture the actual
environment at the respective schools, different numbers of PCs
were used with their existing specifications. (Refer to Appendix B)
Observations, challenges and analysis were recorded during the
execution of the applications. The information was used to identify
the factors that could explain the behavior of the bandwidth
utilization. This provides basis for analysis on the bandwidth
utilization.
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2.2.2 Application Profiling
ApplicationVantage is a solution that captures network traces of
poorly performing mission-critical transactions while they are
running in production. It spotlights the interactions between an
application, the network, and server(s) so that production
application performance problems can be quickly pinpointed.
The application profiling is measured by capturing application
transaction response time from Client machine located at smart
schools towards the application servers located at its data centers
and vice versa as illustrated in Figure 2.2-3:
Smart School
GSB Data Center
Figure 2.2-3 Application Transaction Flow
During application profiling, a user in school computer lab will
execute the predetermined transactions from the test cases. While
the transaction traverses from client to server (at the data center)
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through SchoolNet and back to the client, ApplicationVantage
capture its network packets. The profiling was executed several
times in order to capture the patterns of the application response
time. The profiling is considered a successful upon completion of
the test. Any interruptions or transaction failure is not included in
the analysis.
2.3
Prepare Test Environment
Two major activities took place during this phase, they were to:
Setup Test Machines
Identify Transactions
2.3.1 Setup Test Machines
Probes are installed at the Data Centre in Cyberjaya and the smart
schools respectively. The breakdown of the time taken to reach
each of these probes is illustrated in Figure 2.3-1 below:
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Figure 2.3-1 Test Environment Setup
Data Centre
Probe 1 will act as a timekeeper to measure each test execution
reaching and leaving its monitoring point at Data Centre’s
application switch.
Smart School
Probe 2 will act as a timekeeper to measure each test execution
reaching and leaving its monitoring point at switch.
2.3.2 Identify Transactions
Network
For network assessment, multiple users were required to access
each application during testing period. The applications were
segmented into five scenarios, they were:
1. WSMS: Login to WSMS application and accessing its
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contents;
2. LCMS: Login to LCMS application and accessing the LCMS
contents;
3. Digitized TVP: Browse through Digitized TV Program
homepage and play the videos online;
4. Virtual Tour: Browse through Matiu Somes homepage and
play the videos online;
5. Accessing all four applications concurrently.
Application
For application performance assessment, Test Manager was
designated to capture critical transactions for each application, they
were:
WSMS: Capture ‘Pentadbiran Sekolah’ button click until
result page was displayed completely;
LCMS: Capture ‘Launch Learning Object’ button click until
result page was displayed completely;
2.4
Digitized TVP: Capture playing video online;
Virtual Tour: Capture playing Matiu Somes videos online.
Perform Test at Client Site
Execution of testing at the client site involves three activities:
Pre-test
Testing
Preliminary Analysis
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2.4.1 Pre-test
To perform test at client sites, a pretest was needed to ensure the
availability of application and network connection. The pretest on
bandwidth utilization and application access was conducted after
successfully setup the test environment at the client sites.
The following steps were steps were taken:
Setup the network configuration and NetworkVantage for
network load testing.
Test remote desktop connectivity from the AV Manager to
remote agents which were placed at Probe 1 (Data Center)
in Cyberjaya and the Probe 2 at respective smart school.
Test each and every remote agents individually using AV
Manager. Test is done by executing basic transaction and
verifying packets captured.
Create database for trace file storage.
2.4.2 Testing
Testing at client sites is conducted as per test cases for network
load and application assessment. Capturing for network load was
conducted with multiple users during testing period. Meanwhile,
profiling for application assessment was conducted at minimum 3
times per transaction of each application, per client site.
2.4.3 Preliminary Analysis
Once testing completed and before leaving the site, test team need
to ensure that the traces are correct. If the trace files captured were
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deemed unreasonable due to several factors e.g. packet loss,
packet delay; a retest should be conducted.
2.5
Analyse Findings
Based on the data obtained, the teams analyse the findings using
the application tool and based on the best practices. These
analyses verified the pattern of the trace subsequent with the
identified transactions flow.
2.6
Final Presentation and Report Submission
Once analysis was completed, presentations are to be conducted
to the respective stakeholders which are MDeC and MOE. Upon
acceptance, final report submission is required for reference and
future action.
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3.
ANALYSIS AND OBSERVATIONS
This section highlights the findings and the analysis of the bandwidth utilization
and application profiling.
Several assumptions were made before the test was conducted to ensure our
testing was focused on the bandwidth utilization and application profiling then
ultimately obtain the ideal bandwidth for the schools.
The assumptions made during the assessment were:
The current bandwidth at the schools is 4Mbps, uplink and downlink.
The schools’ network has no accessibility issues to the Internet and Data
Centre.
Network and application performances are measured from the selected
workable PCs from the computer labs used for teaching and learning
purposes. These criteria are based on the respective school’s IT
Coordinator feedback and assistance.
However, several constraints and shortcomings were encountered during the
testing period. These were recorded as observations at the end of this section.
3.1
Bandwidth Utilization
In summary, the overall bandwidth utilization of 4Mbps provided at the
smart schools was found to be low.
As mentioned in the earlier part of the report, one of the actions taken by
the Ministry of Education (MOE) recently was to upgrade the bandwidth of
all the 88 smart schools from 1Mpbs to 4Mbps. Prior to this bandwidth
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requirement study,
it was found that the use of the video streaming
applications required a minimum bandwidth of 3Mbps and a maximum of
4Mpbs.
This section discusses on the significances of the 4Mpbs and 1Mbps
bandwidth.
The
maximum
capacity
of
each
bandwidth
can
be
differentiated by the bandwidth required by the type of application.
3.1.1 4 Mbps
4Mbps has enough capacity to serve WSMS, LCMS, Digitized TVP,
Virtual Tour and similar applications in the future.
Figure 3.1-1 below illustrates the comparisons of the highest bandwidth
utilization captured at each school during the network load testing
performed by the students. .SMAP Kajang recorded the highest reading at
2.64Mbps. This is equivalent to about 66% utilization of the 4Mbps. The
application that was running during this peak was the video streaming
applications – Digitized TVP and Virtual Tours.
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Figure 3.1-1 Highest Utilization at 4Mbps
The average speed was calculated at 1.7Mbps. The low average becomes
the main concern of the study.
3.1.2 1 Mbps
1Mbps has enough capacity to run the web-based WSMS and LCMS
applications.
To date, the use of video streaming applications has not been officially
enforced by the Ministry in the school syllabus. By filtering out the
Digitized TVP and Virtual Tours applications, Figure 3.1-2 below shows
the comparisons of the highest bandwidth utilization captured for WSMS
and LCMS at each school. SMAP Kajang recorded the highest reading of
0.9Mbps. On average, schools were utilizing only 0.73 Mbps for both
WSMS and LCMS.
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Figure 3.1-2 Highest Utilization at 1Mbps
3.2
Infrastructure
In summary, the PC and server specifications at the five schools were
outdated and obsolete.
Without the right configuration of tools, the best vast technology cannot be
capitalized. The PCs and servers at the schools play a vital role in
enabling the smart school system to be used by all students and teachers
without being interrupted by the hardware limitations.
3.2.1 PC Specifications
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Insufficient PCs specifications at the five schools caused low bandwidth
utilization.
Figure 3.2-1 below shows the comparisons of the PC specifications
inventory at the five smart schools.
Figure 3.2-1 PC Specifications at the Smart School
Among all the schools, SMAP Kajang has the highest PC specifications.
Nevertheless, having 256MB RAM PC is not the ideal configuration to run
various applications. At the most minimum requirement, 256MB RAM is
only sufficient to support Windows XP operating level. Due to this
scenario, many occurrences of PC performances problems such as
browser crash and PC error messages were encountered during the
testing. These problems were very apparent at, SK Seri Bintang Utara,
SMS Miri and SMK Elopura. As a result of these interruptions, the
bandwidth was not used effectively and utilization captured was low.
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3.2.2 Server Specifications
4 out of 5 schools tested had low and outdated server OS hardware
specifications
Figure 3.2-2 below shows the comparisons of the PC specifications
inventory at the five smart schools.
Figure 3.2-2 DNS Server Specifications at Smart Schools
Only, SMAP Kajang meets the server specifications recommended by
Microsoft, which is Windows 2003. With the current technology, Windows
2003 is the most preferred OS. It is important for the domain name
resolution function when working in an IP based environment. Apart from
its functionality, the discontinued NT4 support from Microsoft will create
risks when server problems occur when we least expected. When DNS
server problem was encountered at SMS Miri and SMK Elopura, the
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testing could not proceed, as it was one of the dependencies of the
testing. A substantial amount of time was spent in troubleshooting and
rectifying the problem. The inconsistent and unreliable network availability
had resulted in ineffective and low bandwidth utilization.
3.3
Application Profiling
Overall, the performance of the application tested was considered
moderate.
Major bottlenecks were identified at the server side of the applications
especially for LCMS and Digitized TVP. Network congestion also
contributes to the slow response time of the transaction executed.
However, the acceptable response time to the user would greatly depend
on the application developer’s Service Level Agreement on each individual
application.
Table 3.3-1 illustrates the application average response time at the 5
smart schools measured in seconds.
Application
Average Response Time
Tested
(seconds)
WSMS
5.548
LCMS
19.374 (secondary materials)
174 (primary materials)
Digitized TVP
35.085
Virtual Tour
66.601
Table 3.3-1 Application’s Average Response Time at the Smart Schools
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3.3.1 WSMS
WSMS application performance is satisfactory as it complies with the
international standard.
Based on Table 3.3-1, WSMS demonstrated the shortest average
response time as compared to the other applications tested.
WSMS result is acceptable as the execution profiles a simple transaction;
the response time of a user clicking on administration button until the
complete downloading of the WSMS main page.
Based on a press release quoted by “Akamai and Jupiter Research” in
November 2006, the acceptable performance threshold for web based
applications are between 4 to 8 seconds. (Refer to Appendix C).
Therefore, WSMS application performance is considered complies with
the international standard threshold.
Therefore, in order to maintain the average response time for the smart
schools, application developers are recommended to develop Service
Level Agreement for the application together with a continuous application
monitoring management in place. By doing so, end-user’s expectations
are managed at all times.
3.3.2 LCMS
Processing delays on the server and network congestion contribute to the
slow performance while accessing LCMS applications at the smart
schools.
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Samples taken running LCMS at four (4) secondary schools gave an
average of 19.374 seconds of performance. LCMS with a larger content at
Sekolah Kebangsaan Seri Bintang Utara primary school gives an average
of 174 seconds.
The performance of LCMS application varies depending on the materials
provided at the primary and secondary smart schools. This is due to the
difference of learning content that is being displayed for each subject for
each school category.
Further investigation points out server processing delay and network
congestion are the major bottlenecks that at large effect the performance
of LCMS application.
The delay on the server processing is noticeable during high access to
LCMS application server, thus resulting in slow response time
experienced by end-users.
Figure below depict threads that consume the most processing time at
Sekolah Kebangsaan Seri Bintang Utara primary school:
Thread
Processing Time (s)
HTTP:[GET /external2/21/rumi/int_1.swf HTTP/1.1]
16.17
HTTP:[GET /external2/21/rumi/pengenalan/screen1/G2.mp3 HTTP/1.1]
2.76
HTTP:[GET /external2/21/rumi/pengenalan/screen1/siren.mp3 HTTP/1.1]
0.61
HTTP:[GET /external2/21/rumi/pengenalan/screen1/G1.mp3 HTTP/1.1]
0.61
Figure 3.3-1 Top threads by processing time
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This shows that an investigation must be made to find out why it takes the
above amount of time and whether is it necessary for the application to
behave this way.
Figure below shows the trend on large amount of payload relative to the
available bandwidth at all schools:
Thread
Payload (bytes)
HTTP:[GET
/lcms/updateCMI.php?cmiId=54&user_id=479&status=incomplete&access=1
HTTP/1.1]
HTTP:[GET /external1/1267/indexlms.htm HTTP/1.1]
1,052,480
57,945
Figure 3.3-2 Top threads by payload
Based on the above figure, it is recommended for the application
developer to reduce the total payload sent between LCMS application
server and Client.
Network congestion was identified during the transmission of data
between LCMS application server and Client. There were several reasons
that contributed to the congestion of the network:
Excessive background load (high link utilization) caused deep router
queues, and could cause delays that vary widely. Reducing utilization to
limit the traffic which runs over the link at the same time as this transaction
may help.
In some cases low priority traffic may be causing queuing delay for the
higher priority traffic. Implementing a QOS traffic prioritization can
eliminate waiting time for high priority traffic. Other policies such as
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delaying large e-mail attachments until after school hours can help to
reduce the impact of low priority traffic.
3.3.3 Digitized TVP
Performance of Digitized TVP is slow due to the bottlenecks identified on
the server side.
The server’s processing delays are affecting the application performance.
Reducing the memory or processing requirements that the application
makes at the server level can improve both response time and capacity.
Checking on protocol effects should also be made to avoid unnecessary
delays during the video streaming.
Application developers should monitor the processor, memory and disk
constraints of the Digitized TVP server in order to optimize its usage. In
this case, it is necessary to increase processor, memory, or disk speed of
the server; reduce the load on the server by reducing the number of
concurrent users or by adding additional servers. Ensuring suitable video
size and compression techniques used also plays a role in producing good
quality video plus acceptable application performance.
Figure below depicts the threads that consumed the most processing time:
Thread
Processing Time (s)
HTTP:[GET /tvp/video_kurikulum/wang/low.html HTTP/1.1]
0.17
HTTP:[GET /tvp/bahan_sokongan/image/sinopsis.jpg HTTP/1.1]
0.13
HTTP:[GET /tvp/styles.css HTTP/1.1]
0.11
Figure 3.3-3 Top threads by processing time
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Application developer should look into whether this result complies with
their SLA and is the behavior acceptable against best practices.
3.3.4 Virtual Tour
The performance of the Virtual Tour application is reasonable considering
the type of traffic and number of hops it need to go through in order to
reach its destination server.
Based on Table 3.3-1, Virtual Tour shows the longest average response
time as compared to the other applications being tested.
Several reasons were taken into considerations
Type of traffic
The Virtual Tour is a video streaming traffic. The video is split into parts,
being transmitted into succession and the receiver decodes and playback
the video as parts received, without having to wait for the entire video to
be delivered. This process alone differs from WSMS and LCMS
applications which are HTTP traffics.
Number of hops passed
Virtual Tour needs to pass through the public network in order to reach its
destination host in New Zealand. Therefore number of hops to pass
through is higher compared to the rest of applications tested. Based on
the information gathered during the testing, it has been identified that
number of hops passed for WSMS, LCMS and Digitized TVP located at
Government Integrated Sdn. Bhd (GITN) Data Center are four 4 hops.
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3.4
Observations
Observations during the testing were crucial factors that had affected
bandwidth utilization at the smart schools. There were both positive and
negative aspects of the study found from the observations made during
the testing.
From the positive perspectives, overall network performance is moderate.
The average network round trip at all schools was in the range of 195ms
to 313ms. With the continuing efforts to improve the application
performance, potentially the network latency will decrease.
4 out of 5 schools were in the Windows XP environment. Windows XP is
the recommended and preferred PC OS nowadays. This is crucial to
enable the PCs have uninterrupted access to run the applications and
utilize the bandwidth effectively.
Looking at the other perspective, it was concluded the school’s ITCs and
technicians lack the experience in troubleshooting skills. As a result, quite
a significant time was consumed in identifying and rectifying when
problems related to PC and systems occurred. As these personnel provide
the first level ICT support for the school, their speediness in
troubleshooting skilss is imperative. The following Figure 3.4-1 lists three
issues that were observed to be contributable factors of the low bandwidth
utilization:
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Figure 3.4-1 Observations
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4.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The main concern found in this study was the low utilization of the 4Mbps. Based
on the findings and observations, factors that contributed to the low utilization
revolved around the infrastructure, network and system administrators, the
existing processes and application performance. The recommendations are
intended to improve these shortcomings and encourage wider usage of the smart
school applications amongst teachers and students to utilize the bandwidth more
effectively. Consequently, students and teachers are able to enjoy an
uninterrupted access for enculturation of ICT in teaching, learning and
management.
Figure 4-1 below shows five elements that need improvement in accordance to
the recommendations provided.
Monitoring &
Enforcement
Network health
checks on schools
systems
Upgrade
infrastructure –
PC & server
specs
Monitoring &
Enforcement
Recommendations
Application
Review
Monitoring &
Enforcement
Monitoring &
Enforcement
Training to ITC &
Technicians
Figure 3.4-1 Recommendations
4.1
Upgrade Infrastructure
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4.1.1 Upgrade the PC specifications to a minimum of 512Mb
RAM and Pentium 4 processor.
The current PC specifications are low and outdated to carry out the
teaching and learning methods that require fast uploading and
downloading of digital content online. The highest specification was only
found at SMAP Kajang with 256MB RAM and Pentium 4 processor. Other
schools are having very low and outdated specifications as shown in the
table below:
Smart Schools
PC Environment at
SMAP
SK Seri
SMK
SM Sains
SMK
Kajang
Bintang
Badlishah
Miri
Elopura
School Lab
Utara
Number of PC tested
43
60
18
31
24
RAM (MB)
256
64
128
128
64
512
96
128
128
Processor
Pentium 4
Pentium 3
Pentium 3
Pentium 3
NA
OS
Win XP
Win 98
Win XP
Win XP
Win XP
Win ME
Table 4.1-1 PC Environment at the Smart Schools
256MB RAM is only sufficient to support windows XP operating level.
Ideally, with the existence of the smart school applications, the PC
optimization can be achieved with a minimum of 512MB.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to upgrade so that the smart school
applications are able to be used effectively.
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4.1.2 Immediate replacement of Win ME and Win 98
Windows ME and 98 operating systems are no longer supported by
Microsoft. Quoting Microsoft, “Microsoft is retiring support for these
products because they are outdated and can expose customers to
security risks. We recommend that customers who are still running
Windows 98 or Windows Me upgrade to a newer, more secure Microsoft
operating system, such as Windows XP, as soon as possible”.
Source:(http://www.microsoft.com/windows/support/endofsupport.mspx)
4.1.3 Upgrade the DNS server to Windows 2003
Smart Schools
DNS Server
SMAP
SK Seri
SMK
SM Sains
SMK
Kajang
Bintang
Badlishah
Miri
Elopura
Environment
OS
Utara
Windows
NT 4
NT 4
NT 4
NT 4
2003
Table 4.1-2 DNS Server Operating System
From figure above, 4 out of 5 schools uses Windows NT 4 DNS servers
with outdated server operating system. NT4 is now obsolete and no longer
supported by Microsoft. Therefore, to avoid any interruptions, these
servers need to be upgraded.
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4.1.4 Develop Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on PC
Operations for schools.
Part of the requirement of the Information System Management Services
(ISMS) is to comply with the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) when
setting up a new PC or server in the respective organization. This practice
is recommended to be applied at the schools to ensure the quality of the
hardware configurations is assured.
4.2
Periodic School LAN Health Check
Observations from SM Sains Miri and SMK Elopura found some
configuration errors of the Domain Name Server (DNS) and Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocol (DHCP) servers and improper cable management.
These show the lack of system maintenance by the ITCs and technicians.
As prevention step to overcome this predicament it is recommended to
perform a quarterly network health check on the school system. The
following checklist is the minimum requirement of the health check:
•
Ensure all OS (PCs and servers) are being updated with the latest
service pack and patches regularly;
4.3
•
Verify DNS and DHCP server configuration;
•
Physical checks on switches;
•
Proper cable management.
System Maintenance and Network Training for ITC and
Technicians
The lacks of troubleshooting skills amongst the ITCs and technicians have
caused slow time taken in identifying and rectifying problems related to
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network and systems. The ITCs and technicians are the administrators of
the smart school systems and therefore they are the first level support for
the schools. To improve their technical skills, the recommended trainings
are:
•
Windows System Administration
•
Managing and Maintaining Network Infrastructure
To strengthen the knowledge from the training given, assess their
knowledge and understanding by conducting the relevant examinations
from the training provider.
4.4
Application Review
Based on the analysis, application developers need to review their system
architecture and further investigate on the server processing delays and
network congestion experienced by the end users. This concerns
especially the LCMS and the Digitized TVP applications.
Investigations needed for server processing delays which include
a. Optimizing threads with the most processing time on the application
server by:
reducing
the
memory
or
processing
requirements
the
application makes at the server level;
reducing the total payload sent between LCMS application
server and Client. In some cases, images can be compressed
(or image header padding removed), whitespace can also be
removed from Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) files. Verify
caching options to reuse static content.
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checking
for
protocol
effects
(such
as
delayed
acknowledgements or nagling) which can sometimes cause
unnecessary delays which cannot be avoided by increasing
processing speed
b. Monitor processor, memory and disk constraints on the application
server. If it is load-related, application developer should evaluate
scaling up or scaling out options
c. Other considerations:
Ensure persistent connections where possible.
Avoid
using
Windows
NT
LAN
Manager
(NTLM)
authentication.
Design pages with a small number of components.
If Structured Query Language (SQL) is used, use stored
procedures where possible.
Network congestion was identified during the transmission of data
between LCMS application server and Client. Investigation is needed to:
a. Reduce utilization to limit the traffic which runs over the link at the
same time as this transaction may help.
b. Implement a QOS traffic prioritization can eliminate waiting time for
high priority traffic. Traffic “shaping” techniques can be used to
guarantee delay and bandwidth characteristics.
c. Implement other policies such as delaying large e-mail attachments
until after school hours can help to reduce the impact of low priority
traffic
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In order to ensure that users are experiencing the expected application
response time, MoE must enforce that all existing and newly developed
applications to have Service Level Agreements (SLA). SLA is needed to
benchmark the delivered quality of service as promised by the application
developer. Having said that, the response time needs to comply with the
SLA at all times or another review is needed.
The Ministry needs to continuously monitor the applications being
developed so that it considers the requirement and the capability of the
smart school’s infrastructure to support the applications.
4.5
Monitoring and Enforcement
Actions taken upon the recommendations given must be continuously
monitored and enforced. This is crucial to the successful implementation
of the recommendations. The advent of these new processes and
guidelines will bring challenges to the ITCs and technicians as the
expectations of their specialized responsibilities will be impactful to the
improvement of the smart school system administration. Consequently,
students and teachers ability to access the applications are limitless and
bandwidth will be used up more effectively. The recommended methods
of continuous assessment are:
•
Continuous Application Performance Monitoring
•
Bi-annually audit on PC Operations SOP compliance
•
Bi-annually audit Network Performance Monitoring
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5.
CONCLUSIONS
Based on the findings and observations, the existing 4Mbps is adequate to
run the current network load applications. Furthermore, the sustainability
of the 4Mbps line will depend on the growth and complicacy of the smart
school applications that will be developed in future. However, the overall
utilization of the 4Mbps is concluded as low due to the three issues found
at the five smart schools that are affecting the bandwidth mentioned
earlier in the report.
The study shows an effective bandwidth utilization is dependent on three
factors: infrastructure, system maintenance and application performance.
The findings of this study focus more on the network perspectives;
infrastructure and system maintenance. These two components are the
critical success factors that build a strong foundation of a successful
network.
For that
matter,
all the
stakeholders
involved
in
the
implementation of the smart school play a major role in ensuring that the
smart schools are equipped with the minimum industry standard hardware
specifications such as PCs are at least 1G RAM and running on Win95
OS. In parallel, the system administrators at the schools must work
professionally and ensure all system components function appropriately.
To reflect the level of professionalism the system administrators must be
well trained and certified as well as taking initiatives to learn the system
management SOP recommended by the industry standards such as
Microsoft or Cisco. Without effective and efficient system management,
having the best hardware specifications will not deliver the optimum
solution to the current low bandwidth utilization at the smart schools.
This study also highlights the importance of minimizing the application
bottlenecks that can have serious effects on the application performance.
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Improvement on the bottlenecks will optimize the performance of the
application, resulting in effective bandwidth utilization.
Moving forward, many service providers will put a lot of efforts in
benchmarking new technologies to enhance the current Asymmetric
Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) technology. As more future advanced
applications and digital content are developed, the demand for constant
and dedicated bandwidth will be needed to cater for the future education
demands.
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6.
PRESENTATION SLIDES
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APPENDIX A – School Categories
School Category
No
School
Name
Secondary Primary
Urban
Residential
Nonresidential
Islamic
SK Seri
1
Bintang
√
√
√
Utara, KL
SM Agama
2
Persekutuan
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
Kajang, KL
SMK
3
Badlishah,
√
Kulim
4
SM Sains,
Miri
√
SMK
5
Elopura,
√
Sandakan
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APPENDIX B – Actual PC Environment at the Five Smart
Schools
Smart Schools
PC
Environment
at School Lab
Number of PC
SK Seri
SMAP
Bintang
Kajang
Utarra
SMK
SM Sains
SMK
Badlishah
Miri
Elopura
43
60
18
31
24
256
64
128
128
64
512
96
Tested
RAM (MB)
128
128
Processor
Pentium 4
Pentium 3
Pentium 3
Pentium 3
NA
OS
Win XP
Win 98
Win XP
Win XP
Win XP
Win ME
Labs
1 Bestari
1 Bestari
1 PIBG
1 non -Bestari
1 Bestari
1 Bestari
1 non Bestari
1 KDP & 1
TMP labs
*Bestari lab
was closed.
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APPENDIX C – Web Application Best Practices
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