Global Platform for Rich Media Conferencing and Collaboration Joao Fernandes California Institute of Technology June 22nd, 2004Videoconferencing Day, EPFL

What is VRVS ? u The Virtual Rooms Videoconferencing System has been developed by Caltech since 1995 to provide a world wide videoconference service for education and research communities. u VRVS is a realtime distributed system which provides a scalable communication infrastructure for large collaboration dispersed all over the world. u Different technologies and protocols are supported (and mixed) allowing users to connect their preferred videoconference. u Supports Mbone, H.323, SIP, QuickTime, Access Grid, JMF and MPEG2. u The system is composed of 1 main server and several reflectors (network servers) spread around the world.

VRVS Web Service Design u Unified Web User Interface to schedule and join/leave a meeting independently of the application. u Multi-platform: Windows, Linux, MacOS and Unix u Easy to use: Everybody (from 4 to 77 years old) knows how to click on a web page today. Not true for running a VCR u Virtual Room Concept, Scheduling: Create a virtual space were people can exchange real-time information u Join or Leave a Collaborative session anytime: Do not need to know in advance how many participants and booked ports capacity. Just announce the meeting and people will join from anywhere. u Full Documentation and Tutorial u Self service: You don’t need a technician or expert to organize and join a conference

VRVS Reflector Implementation u Avoids Duplication of Streams on a given Link u Can be set to Unicast or Multicast mode or both u Connection peer-to-peer with neighbors network servers. Connectionless (more reliable to network breaks) u Enables Optimized Routing u Enables Bandwidth Control u Provides low latency communication u Can be used for real-time interactivity or broadcast u Provides an elegant solution to cross firewall/NAT u Remote Management Features. u Compliant with IETF RTPv2 Protocol, ready for new applications.

Mbone Tools (vic, vat/rat,..) VRVS Model Implementation done Partially done Work in progress Continuously in development QoS VRVS Reflectors (Unicast/Multicast) Real Time Protocol (RTP/RTCP) SIP Network Layer (TCP/IP) H.323QuickTimePlayerMPEGMinerva CollaborativeApplications VRVS Web User Interface

VRVS Deployment and Usage

VRVS Reflectors Deployment

USA27 Brazil6 Spain5 Switzerland5 UK3 France3 Slovakia3 Canada2 Taiwan2 Greece2 Portugal2 Israel2 Japan2 Pakistan2 Venezuela2 Italy2 Germany1 Chile1 Poland1 Hungary1 China1 Ireland1 Russia1 Czech Republic1 Belgium1 Romania1 Australia1 Finland1 79 reflectors Deployment World wide in 28 Different Countries

VRVS registered users and current usage USA2408 Spain1392 Italy706 France638 Switzerland612 Brazil510 Germany425 UK349 Slovakia314 Canada198 And much more: Japan, Australia, Greece, Taiwan, Argentina, Russia China,…

10000 Users Milestone Users Milestone reached! 104 Countries from 104 Countries and more than machines VRVS registered users and current usage We have, in average ONE new registered user per hour!

Machines and OS VRVS supports different Operating Systems according to the need and the demand of the final users: 1 st : Windows 2 nd : Linux 3 rd : Macintosh 4 th : Other UNIX

Call Details Record (CDR) Number of VRVS Meetings Number of Participants Total number of Minutes of video/audio connection NOV Days, 17h, 14mn (3473 hours, 14mn) DEC Days, 18h, 57mn (3114 hours, 57mn) JAN Days, 4h, 23mn (4540 hours, 23mn)

Some Examples

VRVS on Mac OS X

VRVS on Windows

Example 1: 20 participants BRAZIL (3 sites) + SWITZERLAND (CERN) + USA (Caltech)

Example 2: 17 participants JAPAN + UK + SWITZERLAND + BRAZIL + USA (SLAC + FERMILAB)

Some Features

Network and Security u u Possibility of tunneling (TCP or UDP) between reflector servers. All communications use only ONE port ! u u Peer-to-peer design with high scalability and flexibility u u Solution for Firewall and NAT u u Performing of some packet recovery u u VRVS Proxy Java agent for users behind NAT environment u u Fixed incompatibility between several H.323 end points u u Remotely mute/unmute video or/and audio u u Optimized network bandwidth utilization u u Real-time packet loss monitoring u u Support up to 16,000 Virtual Rooms (parallel meetings)

Administration Interface o o Pure Java J2EE + XML o o HTTPS/SSL secure web interface o o Monitoring reflectors and users in ongoing conference o o Full control on database

Monalisa: Real-Time Monitoring

VRVS Virtual Setup 1 dual processor PC With special 4 output graphic card 6400 x 4800 pixels Most powerful VRVS End Node

VRVS usage at CERN u Currently there are a total of 11 videoconferecing Rooms at CERN in production (1 more coming soon) u 7 of this Rooms have VRVS as the Core Videoconferencing platform. u 4 of this rooms are H.323 equipped. These equipments are fully supported by VRVS. u We have currently 4 reflectors installed at CERN, 2 of them for internal usage u In 2003, we had 4812 hours of VRVS videoconferencing at CERN for collaboration activity

What is next ?

VRVS Main Technical Trend Evolution V3.(0,1): VRVS core infrastructure is statically and manually configured and operated V3.(2,x): VRVS core infrastructure is automatically configured and monitored. The core software is self dependent and can take self decisions to improve performance/quality without manual intervention V4.0 and beyond: This is a Globally Distributed Self Managed End2End Real-time Infrastructure. It provides the best quality/performance possible Extends the core intelligence to the edge. Has a full End2End control and monitoring The self managed infrastructure has a full knowledge of all the critical/sensitive parameters (all network layers, hardware and software at the end nodes, resources allocated and available,..) in order to take adequate decisions (alarms, automatic rerouting of traffic, disconnection, remove/add services,..) Administrator is fully aware with operational status via constant feedback (via UI, , phone,..) from the self managed core software x 4.0 End users End applications Reflectors Extend intelligence to the edge

On-going and Future developments   Adaptation to emerging standards: IPv6, SIP   Improve Security (Firewall, NAT, Authentication, Encryption)   Develop advanced network monitoring agents (based on Java and web services) to run on each network servers. è. è Possibility to automatic rerouting between VRVS network servers to find a better network path.   Wireless/Mobile Client Integration:   User Interface dedicated for small screens   Integration of low end client. VVP, JMF, MPEG4

VRVS Team Philippe Galvez Pasadena (USA) Kun Wei Pasadena (USA) Dave Adamczyk Pasadena (USA) Dennis Lattka Pasadena (USA) Gregory Denis Geneva (Switzerland) Juraj Sucik Geneva (Switzerland) Joao Fernandes Geneva (Switzerland) Pavel Farkas Kosice (Slovakia) Michal Pauliny Kosice (Slovakia) Mikulas Kankula Kosice (Slovakia)