The Content Delivery Infrastructure (CDI)
The content delivery infrastructure (CDI) is designed to give all publicly funded schools in Scotland access to rich content and it’s probably the largest system of its type in the world.
Rich content includes things like videos, audio and interactive games - essentially anything which engages children and gets them excited about learning.
These files tend to be large, and take up a lot of bandwidth. Even with a fast connection to the network, it simply wouldn’t be practical for schools to download this content when they’re going to use it. And for schools with slow connections to the network, the problems would be greater.
The main features
- Content pre-positioning
- Dynamic caching
- Media streaming
Pre-positioning
The CDI system will deliver rich content with the minimum of fuss. Pre-positioning is a simple idea - information is downloaded and stored locally before it needs to be accessed in the classroom. This could happen, for example, when a teacher asks the system to download a large file the day before using the file in a lesson.
The system simply downloads the file and places it on the local network - ready to use.
Dynamic caching
When anyone in the school accesses a file from the internet, it will automatically be stored on the CDI device on the school network. So if anyone else in the school needs the file, they don’t need to download it again from the internet - it’s automatically ready for them to use, straight from the cache.
Media streaming
Media streaming is another technology which will help deliver all this rich content. Rather than having to download the entire media file before viewing it, which can be audio or video, streaming allows the file to be viewed or listened to while it is downloading. This saves a huge amount of time.
It will also be possible to ‘broadcast’ live using the streaming service, which could include events such as conferences and presentations.
Making sure it all works
We’re setting standards to make sure the CDI works in all Scotland’s local authorities. We’re also setting standards for the people who will supply the content. For example, we’re working to make sure pre-positioned content will still be able to interact with the main server, to offer true interaction.