VC in HEP (besides VRVS) RCWG, EsNet, IN2P3 MCU, CSMM A glimpse to the H323 world

April 28, 2004RTAG12-Christian Helft, LAL2 RCWG Remote Conferencing Working Group Sort of steering committee for the deployment of VC in the US Many years of activity (early ’90s), since pre-H320 era (<94) Chair: Kipp Kippenhan (FNAL), now Ed May (ANL) since 2000 Most active sites: FNAL, LBL, ANL, SLAC, and Europe now (Hans Frese, Desy and Christian Isnard, CERN) One meeting per week (Monday, 18:00 EUR), alternatively formal and informal.

April 28, 2004RTAG12-Christian Helft, LAL3 EsNet Collaboration services Main service: MCU, that permits standard based multipoint video- and audio-conferencing For long years, very stable operation, based on an 80 channel H320 MCU and home grown DCS (in 10 years, international ISDN communications dropped by a factor of about 20, landing now at a cost of twice that of a phone call) Move to H323 long and painful (change of hardware AND control software), due to the large and diverse community involved (real challenge for the reservation system) Operation of the mixed (H320+H323) MCU discontinued at the end of the year (H320 support only thru a gateway)

April 28, 2004RTAG12-Christian Helft, LAL4 French MCU Mixed H320 (12 channels)+H323 (12 ch.) MCU operated by the IN2P3 computing center in Lyon Funded by IN2P3, INSERM and CNRS (3 communities to serve) In operation for 2 years now Home grown reservation system (VACS) First tests of using a gatekeeper two weeks ago

April 28, 2004RTAG12-Christian Helft, LAL5 CSMM HepCCC has asked for years to have a working group on VC deployment, but nobody really seriously volunteered Almost one year ago, HTASC asked me to chair such a working group: Computer Supported Meeting Management First meeting in Feb 2004 at CERN, second one the next two days.

April 28, 2004RTAG12-Christian Helft, LAL6 CSMM mandate 25 June, 2003 HTASC Subgroup on Computer Supported Meeting Management (CSMM) Mandate The HTASC CSMM Subgroup should advise HTASC and HEPCCC on current and future needs for CSMM within the HEP community. “CSMM” in this context refers to all means used to enhance traditional meeting experience with digital technologies, notably scheduling, video conferencing video streaming and document sharing. For this purpose, the current situation with respect to available technologies and trends in this area as well as usage profiles should be reviewed. As a first step the specific topic of videoconferencing should be addressed. The group should  Survey present practices within the HEP community  Review available technologies and their use and applicability within HEP,  Make recommendations concerning coordination between different laboratories and institutes, The group should report back to HTASC and HEPCCC on the topic of videoconferencing within no more than one year and produce a written report.

April 28, 2004RTAG12-Christian Helft, LAL7 CSMM WG membership Sheila Cisko FNAL Christian Isnard CERN Gillian Bezard-Brown CERN Dave Bailey UK, Bristol Jose Maria Fontanillo Spain, RedIRIS Hans Frese Germany, DESY Al Thomas FNAL Stefano Zani Italy, CNAF Mick Draper CERN

April 28, 2004RTAG12-Christian Helft, LAL8 CSMM: topics already (partially) discussed GDS (numbering scheme), Gatekeeper neighboring (inc. DFN approach) Existing practices at FNAL, DESY, CERN Reservation systems (inc. CRBS presentation)

April 28, 2004RTAG12-Christian Helft, LAL9 CSMM: on going activities VRVS assessment eConf assessment Gatekeeper deployment scenarios HEP E164 numbering scheme definition Reservation systems assessment Survey on current practices

April 28, 2004RTAG12-Christian Helft, LAL10 CSMM: agenda for next meeting VRVS Access Grid Gatekeepers and firewall issues Reservation systems Review of current practices, cont. (Germany, Italy) Review of end user systems (PC and room based) Report writing

April 28, 2004RTAG12-Christian Helft, LAL11 CSMM: future activities Setting up a personal system, a VC room, a VC capable auditorium High speed systems Technology : SIP, H264, H350, H239 Industry offering trends within the next few years (FT, Aethra, Tandberg, Polycom, Radvision, Vcon, …) The “chat” approach (Apple iChat A/V, MS Messenger) Document sharing and presentation

April 28, 2004RTAG12-Christian Helft, LAL12 The H323 world H323 is the current industry offering for videoconferencing activity Defines a standard for MCUs, gatekeepers and end-user systems Quite efficient today Quality increasing Costs decreasing

April 28, 2004RTAG12-Christian Helft, LAL13 H323 deployment caveats Is SIP going to replace H323 ? Low cost system (eg eConf+recent Webcam) almost here, but not quite Firewall issues not yet so easy to solve (Cisco, proxys), and impossible to solve for the end-user A global reservation system (an H323 independent issue), or better a global integration system still to be found (defined?)

April 28, 2004RTAG12-Christian Helft, LAL14 H323 and HEP Many MCUs are already in use (ESNet, IN2P3, KEK, national academic networks, end-system embedded MCUs, …) Several gatekeepers are operational All this systems are operated independently from each other (except a few GK neighboring) As a first guess, it would be enough to add a “main” system in Europe to cover present needs; then normal upgrades would easily meet the “new” needs that would arise from the availability of a comprehensive, integrated, stable, usable system for the community