Access Grid: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly ANU Internet Futures group and GrangeNet Grid Services Coordinator

Overview Realtime-Multimedia/IP Ye Olde Way IP Multicast The Access Grid (The Good) Who has one, how do you get one The Access Grid (The Bad, The Ugly, The Future)

Realtime Multimedia/IP IP TCPUDP Signal A Heart beat V RTP Apps

Ye Olde Way H.320/ISDN, H.323/IP Bandwidth Constrained Based on ISDN channels, Nx64k Site constrained One to one interaction One A/V stream per site (typically) Multi-site interaction requires MCU as “reflector” and “transcoder”

IP Multicast – The Good Bits Unicast Multicast

IP Multicast – The Bad Bits All UDP – No TCP No reliability Of delivery Of order No QoS No tcp-friendly congestion backdown No network-layer security yet…

The Access Grid – The Good - ANL project Multicast-based Many-2-many interaction Multiple A/V streams per site “Always On” approach Some Application sharing PPT, WWW Text Edit, Whiteboard No (specified) bandwidth constraints Today (h.261 x [2 - 4] + audio) ~ 2Mb/s per site

The Access Grid Good - 2 A good/great quality A/V space, if you choose Can retrofit H.32x rooms Multiple (steerable) cameras Multiple microphones, full echo cancellation, acoustically-designed spaces  You need good A/V skills (especially audio) A single (more?) large-scale display (3*XGA+) Virtual Venues – interaction is done in “rooms” Some recording capabilities Eminently Hackable – Linux/Windows and open-source

An AG Node Screen Proj Cam Mike Spkr Display PC VideoCap PC Audio PC Control PC

Sample AGN: Sydney VisLab

Sample AGN: North Dakota

Who, Where, How? 140+ sites today  80+ U.S., 30+ Europe, 10+ Asia  3 live in Oz, 15+ in plan/build (3+ at ANU)  Mostly at Universities, so far Getting one, getting access to one GrangeNet participants are supporting their roll-out – call us! Some sites in R&D versus/with users

AG nodes – The Bad, The Ugly, The Future A good baseline design Wrappers around 5-10 year old tools Reasonably standardised distribution (AGiB) Virtual Venues Some recording capability Major problems or shortcomings Rudimentary, non-intelligent spaces Performance Integration Applications

Advancing AG: Intelligent Spaces HCI/GUI Issues, A/V localisation, Large group representation Audio/Video tracking of (moving) targets, A/V Synchronisation Whiteboards, tablets, laser pointers Application Sharing One of the hardest things Screen scraping vs application awareness Centralised and automated node operation Debugging (apps, services, networks) and user feedback

Advancing AG: Performance Cluster-driven Cameras Codecs Projection High quality A/V Resolution (PAL, HDTV, Digital Cinema) Latency Audio (stereo/DTS/ immersive) Stereo animation, Stereo video, stereo interaction Performance Measurement, Analysis, Tuning Stressing Reliability/Availability Holography Haptics Non-flat and immersive projection Rear-wall projection Aids remote interaction

Advancing AG: Integration Intelligent gateways H.323, SIP Transcoding Source selection Streaming Recording and playback Support non-AG spaces, non-GrangeNet bandwidth Layered codecs Stereo to 2-D Security Access, encryption, Network Services Smarter (reliable?) multicast, QoS wireless devices Additional interaction modes Linkage of Venues, Services and applications

Advancing AG: Applications Linkage to other (any!) Grid Services computing, data, instruments, visualisation Visualisation Shared or independent views Data browser Sharing, discussion, annotation Computational Steering Instrument Consoles Screen Scraping vs application awareness It’s important! It’s independent of the space!

Advancing AG: Other issues Physical Security Use of public spaces for AGN, tempting equipment  Use AG equipment (cameras, mikes) for automated, intelligent security out of hours.  Use other sites as your security guard (follow the sun security)

Summary The AG is a (great!) tool, at an early stage AG nodes are extensible and flexible You can readily bolt in other technologies, networks, codecs, room-infrastructure, etc. But need to be reasonably standardised, for interoperability There is a lot of interest in enhancing AG spaces and technologies Use of AG by user communities (non-CS, non-Net) is only just starting