LearnPad’s Neighbour Downloads feature uses peer-to-peer file transfer to exchange lesson data between devices.

In the traditional client/server model, every device in a class set of 30 LearnPad devices would connect to the LearnPad servers to download lesson content. Now, using LearnPad’s innovative Neighbour Downloads feature, each device downloads lesson content both from the LearnPad servers and other LearnPad devices (neighbours) on the same network. This offers many benefits which include:

• Faster lesson downloads, especially in schools with slower Internet connectivity, such as rural schools.
  
• Minimised bandwidth consumption.
  
• Increased resilience in the event of Internet connectivity outages.
  

This functionality works transparently and without intervention from teachers or pupils and has been designed to intelligently load-balance transfers – avoiding overloading individual devices. It is possible to check that the Neighbour Downloads feature is working from the LearnPad Information page, where details of uploads and downloads to/from neighbours can be found in the Network Statistics section. A list of the names of neighbouring devices can be found in the Neighbours section.

LearnPad’s Neighbour Downloads feature relies upon UDP broadcasts in order to function and as such, UDP broadcasts must be enabled on your wireless access points for this functionality to work. In the event that this functionality is not enabled on your wireless access points, LearnPad will download lesson content from the LearnPad servers instead.