1. Manchester Computing Supercomputing, Visualization & e-Science Michael Daw 29 April 2004 Over Access Grid Access Grid An Evaluation Primer for CERN

2. Supercomputing, Visualization & e-Science2 Content Summary  What is Access Grid?  What does the community look like?  How much will it cost?  How do I get one?  Will it work with other systems?  Robustness & networking  How will I book meetings?  UK situation

3. Supercomputing, Visualization & e-Science3 Typical Views of Access Grid ETF Management MeetingSeminar SC Global WorkshopPerformance Arte-Social Science

4. Supercomputing, Visualization & e-Science4 What is Access Grid?  Large-scale display – typically a whole wall  Multiple video streams from each site  Natural, full-duplex audio with echo cancellation  An “Advanced Collaboration Environment”  Uses IP multicast for video/audio  Open Source software; commodity equipment Usually!

5. Supercomputing, Visualization & e-Science5 Access Grid Community  AG invented by ANL in 1998  More than 300 nodes in US  20 nodes in UK – set to rise  ~10 nodes in Australia  Other nodes in Europe, S. America, China, Japan

6. Supercomputing, Visualization & e-Science6 Cost of an Access Grid Node  "The Full Monty" – full AG node with nice extras like a document viewer, laptop, etc. ~ £40K  "On the cheap" – full AG node but skimping where you can, e.g. no extras, 3 cameras, minimum microphones ~ £25K - £30K  "Shove it on a desk" – AG Office Node. Can accommodate about 3-5 people, looks nice, good quality experience, fits on someone's desk, i.e. no need for room modifications ~ £8K  "What's the point?" – AG desktop solution – not to be encouraged, because you lose a lot of the benefits of using Access Grid in the first place. Assume you use existing PC, costs include web cam, microphone headset ~ £50 - £300

7. Supercomputing, Visualization & e-Science7 Getting an Access Grid Node 1.Buy one from inSORS Communications Inc. http://www.insors.com http://www.insors.com 2.Make it yourself – instructions at http://www.accessgrid.org/agdp http://www.accessgrid.org/agdp  My advice – do option 1: –Less hassle –About as cheap as option 2 –Bespoke, easy to use software

8. Supercomputing, Visualization & e-Science8 Interoperability Between Videoconferencing Systems* Host/dominant technology Access Grid VRVSH.323H.320Phone Access Grid YesWith VRVS server Problematic Yes VRVS Yes With H.323 / H.320 bridge Yes H.323 ProblematicYes With H.323 / H.320 bridge With most codecs H.320 ProblematicWith H.323 / H.320 bridge Yes Phone Yes Guest technology

9. Supercomputing, Visualization & e-Science9 Networking Issues & Robustness  AG uses IP multicast for video / audio streams (Mbone tools)  Multicast-unicast bridges fill the gaps where no multicast  Currently, bridges are informally run (many sites are willing to host a bridge)  AGSC will run a production-quality bridge service for UK users (from 30 June)  But AG does need big bandwidth (about 1 Mbps for each site taking part in the meeting)

10. Supercomputing, Visualization & e-Science10 Booking Meetings  Virtual venues are (potentially) as numerous as multicast addresses, therefore no real need to book  But… –ANL run a scheduler: http://www-fp.mcs.anl.gov/ag/schedule.htmhttp://www-fp.mcs.anl.gov/ag/schedule.htm –NCSA run a scheduler: http://agschedule.ncsa.uiuc.edu/default.asphttp://agschedule.ncsa.uiuc.edu/default.asp  The NCSA scheduler has extra features such as a repository for shared files  UK AG sites may use JANET Videoconferencing Booking System in the future

11. Supercomputing, Visualization & e-Science11 Videoconferencing Comparison Report  Oct 2002 – publication of “Multi-Site Videoconferencing for the UK e-Science Programme” http://www.nesc.ac.uk/technical_papers/UKeS-2002- 04.html http://www.nesc.ac.uk/technical_papers/UKeS-2002- 04.html  Comparison between Access Grid, H.323/H.320, VRVS, Non-Studio Based Videoconferencing  * Table above used information from this report

12. Supercomputing, Visualization & e-Science12 Access Grid Support Centre  Based at Manchester  Support for users, operators, procurement advice  Quality Assurance tests  Multicast-unicast bridge  Virtual Venue Server  IG Pix  IG Recorder

13. Supercomputing, Visualization & e-Science13 Reports for Specific Funding Recommendations  Subjects: –Collaborative technologies R&D effort –Mbone tools –Booking system for Access Grid and related research –VRVS – Access Grid interoperability –H.323 – Access Grid interoperability –Improvements to local networking for videoconferencing  To be submitted to JCSR for funding

14. Manchester Computing Supercomputing, Visualization & e-Science Contact Details http://www.sve.man.ac.uk/General/Staff/daw michael.daw@man.ac.uk SVE @ Manchester Computing