Design and Implementation of A Web Portal for a NeoCortical Simulator University of Nevada, Reno Department of Computer Science 17 th International Conference of Computers and Their Applications 2002 Kishor K. Waikul Lianjun Jiang E Courtenay Wilson Frederick C. Harris, Jr Philip H. Goodman Authors

Introduction Brain Computation Lab  URL:  This project is supported by the Office of Naval Research under grant What is the NeoCortical Simulator (NCS3) ?  Goal : Creating a novel classifier based a biologically realistic neocortical neural network.  Previous tools available :  NEURON  GENESIS Features:  Object Oriented Design Enables to model the relationship among neurons  Parallel processing This is the key for approaching real time simulation  Clustering Algorithm Allows load balancing and data parallelism

Introduction Hardware Overview 30 Nodes with 2 Pentium III processors 4 GB RAM 18 GB Hard disk drive 2 Ethernet ports All connected by Myrinet 2000 High bandwidth for low latency network 1.9 Gb/s network NOTE : We just received announcement from the Office of Naval Research for additional funding that will allow to double the size of this machine.

Need of the web interface for the simulator Introduction Access limited from the local machine Character based User Interface Manually writing the input setting files, hence complex Prone to mistakes Plotting results lengthy and tedious process, requires additional software such as Matlab Problems With text based interface Access from anywhere Graphical User Interface Complexities of creating object are hidden Minimized chances of mistakes as automated Plotting results is as simple as click and no additional software required. Advantages Of the web interface

Design: Web interface Developed with PHP for front-end client, MySql as database back-end on Redhat Linux operating system. Sections: User workspace Administrative workspace Requirements for user to get started: User registration and authorization by administrator A Java enabled browser

Design: Web interface Steps to get started with the simulation Sign in Upload objects and setting files or Create objects Create the input setting file from previously created objects Configure and run the setup Check status of running job View results Sign off

Menu options Design: Web interface : User Workspace 1. File : file operations,reports and job status. 2. Objects : construct hierarchical objects 3. Runtime : run job setup, check status of jobs. 4. Analysis : plots of voltage and current, frequency transforms. 5. Help : help on how to use the interface, samples

Design: Web interface : User Workspace Files options 1. New : make new brain setting file. Different File types (based on data): EPSC IPSC Spike setting Brain setting All the users can see each others files Upload files to save configuration time 2. Open : open existing files of any type. 3. Upload : upload input setting files. 4. View/Export : check job status, download, plot data files. 5. Delete : delete unwanted files. Users can delete only own files Own jobs can also be deleted.

Design: Web interface : User Workspace Two categories of Objects: Form based lowest level objects Applet based hierarchical objects dendrite Synapse Axon Soma dendrite Cell

Design: Web interface : User Workspace Lowest level objects : ( Anatomic and Physiological elements) Do not contain any other objects Form based input Input may contain more than a single parameter separated by spaces Online help for each input element of the object Element based help Reference object These are pre-created similar Objects, created by all the users including current user. Using reference objects can really accelerate the process of creating new objects.

Design: Web interface : User Workspace Higher level objects (Constructs) : Contain low level objects Hierarchical construction with applet One input element may require several dependent parameters hierarchy Reference objects

Design: Web interface : User Workspace Control Panel Easy access to common operations such as save, edit and delete. Control Panel Common operations Objects by default are temporary, unless saved Edit and delete allowed only on own objects Refresh to update values

Design: Web interface : User Workspace Status Message Panel : Used to show messages critical to the last done operation Status Message Panel - message box Error messages Alerts Suggestions for the input such as correct format

Design: Web interface : User Workspace Runtime settings : Run setup : Start new job Check status of running jobs Advanced settings notification on completion Choose Server to run job Network to run : Ethernet / Myrinet These options require administrative password as critical to performance of server.

Design: Web interface : User Workspace Runtime settings : Edit brain settings : Change default command line arguments Change brain input setting file Specify setting files directly Add/remove files List of files that can be added List of files that were added but now be removed

Design: Web interface : User Workspace Results Analysis : Current and Voltage Displays : Plotting data from simulations PHP generated PNG image sent to the browser Better than Java applet approach Plotting program keeps a cache for recent plotted data

Design: Web interface : User Workspace Help : Java applet based hierarchical help menu Comprehensive help on each menu and how to use the interface Description of the current composition of objects Complete examples of the setting files Definitions of the terms

Design: Web interface : Administrative Workspace Administrative controls : Edit format of the objects Maintenance of the tables by description MySql Database administration Job monitoring Add/Remove users Options

Design: Web interface : Administrative Workspace Object Format : Change number of parameters Data type, number of values and boundary values used for JavaScript validations Description appears at the popup help as well as applet based comprehensive help First select object from list Select attribute of object

Design: Web interface : Administrative Workspace Table descriptions : A table of description of tables Maintains special notes on tables about structure Great help for programmers

Design: Web interface : Administrative Workspace MySql Database Administration : A web based client (third party application) Access to the database from anywhere Platform independent interface Query-less table manipulation Allows to run queries List of tables

Design: Web interface : Administrative Workspace Job monitoring : Check status of jobs Filter jobs by user name, server name or brain name Delete jobs from waiting queue Change priority of the jobs in the waiting queue Job Filter

Implementation Issues: Database Design : Standard for naming tables as applet based interface involves lot of parsing e.g. “brains_table” means table for brains objects, similarly all hierarchical objects will have name in the format s_table Standard for naming columns of the table to simplify data retrieval e.g. “type_0” means attribute name is type and input for this attribute is simple form “connect_1” means attribute name is connect and it’s a hierarchical input. standardizing these names helps a great deal while writing generic code for all objects Data stored in compressed form and decompressed on the fly while retrieval

Implementation Issues: Communication issues: Remote control and monitoring of the simulator Dynamically generated scripts on the head node Parameters and input files retrieved from database User TCP socket Daemon Connect message Database Query waiting queue Waiting queue Input files, parameters Object Data tables Job submitted to the daemon with all parameters and data Run Job Upload log, results User: Web browser Querying results

Implementation Issues: Security issues: Application Level Security  All transactions encrypted with SSL, tested with OpenSSL  Web server separated from simulator ( fire-fence) User level Security  Trusted environment  Users can edit/delete only own files  Encrypted user passwords stored in database System level security  Removal of unused extensions and programs  Security patches to the web server, operating system.

Future work: Enhanced security with SSL Java applet based help Auto-wakeup daemon to linearize currently triangular relationship.

Thank You

Questions ???