The 13th International Scientific Conference

eLearning and Software for Education

Bucharest, April 27-28, 2017
10.12753/2066-026X-17-114

VIRTUALIZED VIDEO AND CLOUD COMPUTING FOR EFFICIENT

ELEARNING

George SUCIU, Muneeb ANWAR, Roxana MIHALCIOIU

Telecommunication Department, University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Iuliu Maniu Street, Bucharest, Romania
george@beia.ro, ma@beia.ro, rm@beia.ro

Abstract: Multimedia content has become more and more popular in current eLearning platforms.
However, there are still many use cases which require virtualized resources from cloud platforms:
gamification, video analytics, and surveillance during exams, video conferencing for coaching, and
video streaming (live and video-on-demand) services. This paper has the purpose to present how video
services can exploit the virtualization techniques to provide ubiquitous video learning experience.
Virtualization consists of multiple operating systems on a single physical system. Virtualization shares
the underlying hardware resources, providing multiple execution environments for software
partitioning and time-sharing. Furthermore, virtualization is the basis for cloud computing, which is
adaptable and secure sharing of resources as a service, leading to ease of use for different types of
computing platforms. This gives to the teachers the authority to deploy their curricula to new channels
and to promote it with efficient video communication solutions. It is expected, from this point of view,
that virtualization will contribute in a beneficial way to these use cases. The main concept we present in
this paper is how to virtualize the video services and utilizing them combined with other eLearning
techniques, whereas the virtualization technique permits virtualization for full server machines along
with the whole operating system. The main objective is to demonstrate they can be monitored and easily
be maintained, as well being extremely secure and provide uninterrupted services. Furthermore,
virtualized video using Cloud would establish and provide quality eLearning relationships regardless of
distance and devices or operating systems, being accessible through a web browser.

Keywords: Cloud Computing; Virtualization; Virtualized Video; eLearning.

I. INTRODUCTION

In today's society, technology has increasingly greater importance, and it pervades all aspects
of daily life. In this context, e-Learning is emerging as the new paradigm of modern education; e-
Learning can be defined as a methodology for distance learning through which teaching methods use
the web, computer networks, and systems for multimedia communication. e-Learning is used
especially in companies and then also in education institution; studies show that this method has more
benefits than conventional learning [1].
The market demand is various and huge, especially because many companies, education
institutions and individuals focus on specific learning objective [2].
In an e-Learning environment, the virtualization can significantly contribute to the success of
the learning experience. Many video services can be used in this purpose, such us: multiparty video
communication, cloud gaming and video transcoding and distribution.
Cloud gaming represents a service which allows players to render games remotely and videos
are streamed directly to the consumer’s computers over the Internet. In other words, cloud gaming is a
type of online gaming that allows on-demand and direct video streaming of games onto devices. In
short, this allows access to games without the need of a console, which can be used also for efficient
learning. Video transcoding and distribution are useful for video service providers in order to start new

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services rapidly, scale services up or down, or move them to another computing platform using
private, hybrid or public clouds. In this way, it provides an efficient service to end users. Video
analysis uses information coming from video cameras to process and derive new information; the
information generated can be used in different areas and for different purposes. In the end, multiparty
video communication improves productivity, provides significant reductions in travel costs,
contributes a more efficient collaborative organization, and it contributes to a faster and more efficient
communication.
The paper is organized as follows: in Section II we present the related work on virtualized
video and cloud computing for efficient e-Learning, in Section III we analyze the benefits of using
cloud computing and virtualized video in e-Learning, Section IV proposes a multiparty video
communications for efficient learning, while Section VI concludes the paper.

II. RELATED WORK

The main characteristic of e-Learning systems is that they are multidisciplinary by nature. The
researchers from several fields, such as information systems, education, computer science and
educational technology have been trying for many years to make an evaluation of the e-Learning
systems. Some researchers dropped their attention to the components of e-Learning systems which are
based on technology [3], while on the other hand other research personnel discussed only about the
human factor of e-Learning systems, taking into consideration the satisfaction of the persons involved
(students and instructors) [4]. In paper [5], Douglas and Van Der Vyver studied only the effectiveness
of the materials used in e-Learning courses. Arbaugh and Fich [6] performed an analysis of the
importance of participant interaction in terms of online environments, while Gilbert [7] studied only
the perspective of student experience.
According to paper [8] written by Rosenberg, the main factor which influences e-Learning is
the used Internet technology. In other words, e-Learning represents a networked form of learning
which is based on a general learning concept which goes beyond the traditional paradigms. Because of
this, all electronic forms used for teaching and learning, including virtualized video in the cloud, will
be called “e-Learning” [9]. Those forms are procedural in character and influence the knowledge
construction (learners knowledge, individual experiences etc.) [11].
Even if communication and information systems are networked or not, they serve as a
modality of implementation of the e-Learning process. For example, an effective tool for students is
the use of blogs which allow them to directly interact with specific peers [12], or to use cloud
computing or gamification (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Cloud Computing/Gaming System Architecture Diagram

III. BENEFITS OF USING CLOUD COMPUTING AND VIRTUALIZED VIDEO IN

E-LEARNING
The most useful and fascinating applications of cloud computing and virtualized video are for
education. We analyze in this the section the benefits of educational cloud computing, which mainly
concentrates on providing access to the power of many machines on one single problem, letting the
researchers search and discover models and make them work as fast as possible.

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 The efficiencies of cloud computing can help the educational systems by keeping pace with
ever-growing resource requirement and energy costs. The researchers wish for rapid access to high-
performance computing services, without responsibility of managing of the underlying infrastructure,
such as server and storage [12].
3.1 Cloud Computing
The main factor which helps the cloud computing in the education is that it gives the direct
access to the resources, research applications and educational tools. The proposed e-Learning system
(Figure 2) is composed as a distributed application.
Therefore, the architecture and the design of the e-Learning system consists of a client
application, an application server and a database server besides the hardware to support it (client
computer, communication infrastructure and servers).

Figure 2. Proposed cloud e-Learning system

The main benefits of using cloud computing are:
 Platform: helps to develop solution in e-Learning depending on the development interface.
 Services: helps the provider for e-Learning a solution.
 Infrastructure: helps e-Learning solution on the provider’s infrastructure.
In particular, there are several advantages that come from using cloud-computing technology
for e-Learning [13]:
- Low cost. Users need not have high-performance computers: they can access applications using
a simple Internet connection. Moreover, since the data is accessible in the cloud, there is no need of
having to pay to have more storage space.
- Improved performance. The performance of client machine does not create problems for the
applications and processes are in the cloud. Instant software updates. Users have immediate updates
since the software is automatically updated in the cloud.
- Improved document format compatibility. The applications open the file directly from the
cloud; in this way, there are no problems regarding the readability of different file formats or font.
- Benefits for students. Students certainly obtain great benefit from e-Learning. They can benefit
from the distance learning, wherever they are; attend exams; send projects, etc.
- Benefits for teachers. Also, the teachers have many benefits: prepare better materials for
students, prepare on-line tests, send feedbacks, etc.
- Data security. The issue of data security is an important component; the cloud computing
provides some major security benefits.
3.2 Virtualized Video
The main benefits of using virtualized video in e-Learning are described below:
1. Supports the Intrinsic Learning Preference

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 Virtualization of video in e-Learning is a great way of creating or adopting the behaviour from
the environment surrounding us. Our parents are a good example of this. All our life we see our
parents doing and managing everything and we observe their behaviour and observation. The
virtualization technology takes it to the next level by permitting real-time teacher presentation,
commenting and collaboration.
2. Challenges our Perception of e-Learning
Nowadays we have noticed the trend is changed. It is being off track from long duration
modules which consist of many learning objectives, to a micro-learning. In the future, the e-Learning
might possibly be a private hosting channel for the video property of income.
3. Reduces Cognitive Load
If we take this into consideration, just imagine about learning how to operate a camera. It’s
more easier to watch a demo video than to read a manual.
4. Engages, Entertains and Delights
Virtualization video plays an important role in e-Learning by making it more easier and
attractive for the people and learners to gain the attention towards itself. YouTube and other social
medias are one of the platforms or sources for the learners to get more and more awareness. The
Learner can watch a video and decide what's better for them.
5. Creating HD Quality Videos
With time things changed and developed for the betterment, as well as virtualization (no more
blurry images and broken pixels). We can experience more crystal clear HD images and videos which
are looking very realistic. Adobe presenter video express allows the designing of high-quality videos
for e-Learning. No editing software is needed anymore [14].

IV. MULTIPARTY VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS FOR EFFICIENT LEARNING

Multiparty video communications help already in the business domain to achieve their main
goal: improved productivity. The benefits of adopting a multiparty video communication solution are
mainly related to the replacement of various types of group meetings and face-to-face meetings with
virtual meetings. Multiparty video communications, if it is well integrated into business processes, will
provide significant reductions in travel costs, will make intra-organizational collaborative work with
partners more effective and will accelerate the decision-making through more efficient
communication, frequent meetings and information sharing.
Another important fact is the reduction of the carbon footprint of the company and the
growth of the overall productivity; in fact, the less time traveling to employees translates into more
time in the office and, also, to an improvement in the quality of work: less time, energy and stress for
business trips. The intangible benefits of multiparty video communications also stem from meetings
that are more efficient by exchanging a non-verbal communication that contributes to a stronger sense
of community; in fact, to see other participants' reactions makes communication significantly more
engaging and rich.
Multiparty video communication allows the involved people to take snapshots of virtual
meetings, a useful characteristic in case of urgent decisions. Also, it involves more people who are
basically remote. The central point remains the network which must be capable of handling video
traffic appropriately. Video traffic requires more data transfer than voice data packages. Because of
this, a network with a high-quality bandwidth and a reliable WAN must exist.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) is a decentralized communications model which was originally used for
file sharing, and more recently for real-time communications and media streaming. The proposed
multiparty video communications for efficient learning is based on Docker cloud containers, using
standardized protocols such as SIP, XMPP and WebRTC available on any browser or STB (Set Top
Box) devices, connected through load balancer which is controlled by scaling and orchestrator
application (Figure 3).

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 Figure 3. Video conferencing Technology - Structural Block Diagram

Due to the utilization of resources, the demand of peer-to-peer network is increasing rapidly
and today a significant part of the Internet traffic is generated by peer-to-peer (P2P) applications.
There are still some current unsolved problems that are discussed below:
 Overlay Efficiency: it must be equal to the network and the application representation.
 System Considerations: all system issues must be addressed in the design process of a
complete broadcasting system. For example, include the choice of transport protocol and the
interaction with video players.
 Scalability and load balancing: web applications must be able to run on multiple servers to
accept an ever-increasing number of users, featured called scaling.
 Self-organizing: the construction of overlay must be done in a distributed style and must be
robust to dynamic changes in group membership. Also, the overlay must adapt to long-term
variations in Internet path characteristics (such as bandwidth and latency), while being
resilient to inaccuracies. The system must be self-improving in that the overlay should
incrementally evolve into a better structure as more information becomes available.
 Honor per-node bandwidth constraints: the total bandwidth a user requires to contribute
should not exceed its inherent access bandwidth capacity. Users have heterogeneous inbound
bandwidth capabilities. Because of this it’s desirable to have mechanisms to ensure they can
receive different qualities of video, proportional to their abilities.
A very important component of wireless cooperative live video streaming networks is the
efficient overlay. A large number of proposals have emerged in recent years for peer-to-peer video
broadcast. In particular, the proposals can be broadly classified into two categories, namely, tree-based
and data-driven randomized overlay construction, which we discuss below.
The majority of the proposals to date can be categorized as a tree-based approach. Those
approaches are push-based, which means that when a node receives a data packet, it will forward
copies of that packet to each of its children. Since all data packets follow this structure, it becomes
critical to ensure the structure is optimized to offer good performance to all receivers. Tree-based
solutions are perhaps the most natural approach and do not require sophisticated video coding
algorithms. One concern related to tree-based approaches is that the failure of nodes, particularly those
higher in the tree may disrupt delivery of data to a large number of users, and potentially result in poor
transient performance.

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 On the other hand, data-driven overlay designs sharply contrast to tree based designs (they do
not construct and maintain an explicit structure for delivering data). The underlying argument is that,
rather than constantly repair a structure in a highly dynamic peer-to-peer environment, we can use the
availability of data to guide the data flow. In case of gossip algorithms, a node sends to a set of
randomly selected nodes a newly generated message. These nodes will perform similarly in the next
round, and so do other nodes until the message is spread to all.

V. CONCLUSIONS
Cloud Computing represents a technology based on distributed information systems
which has the role to organize and implement services over the Internet. Cloud computing has
made access to education easier because the teachers and students now can process
multimedia information from any device. In this paper we discussed in detail about the
benefits of using cloud computing and virtualized video in e-Learning. Also, in this article we
presented a solution using multiparty video communications for efficient education and
analyzed some major unsolved problems regarding virtualization such as system
considerations, overlay efficiency and few more. As future work we envision to develop the
platform as a public cloud service.

Acknowledgements
The work has been supported by UEFISCDI Romania under grants VIRTUOSE and 5C, and
funded in part by European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant
agreement No. 643963 (SWITCH project).

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