Virtual Room Videoconferencing System

1
Virtual Room Videoconferencing System

H. Newman P. Galvez G. Denis, Caltech
C. Isnard, CERN CHEP2000
February 6, 2000
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VRVS Current future

• VRVS is now a production system
• As of today, more than 2010 machines from 1310
  different users are registered into the system.
• During year 1999, 872 Multipoint Conferences has
  been Conducted (Total 2325 Hours).
• More than 3000 point to point connection
  established.
• 7 Virtual Rooms are available for World Wide
  Conferences in addition to the 4 available for
  each Continent (America only, Europe only, Asia
  only).
• VRVS Future evolution/integration (RD)
• Deployment and support of VRVS.
• High Quality video and audio (MPEG1, MPEG2,..).
• Shared applications, environment and workspace.
• Integration of H.323 I.T.U Standard into VRVS.
• Quality of Service (QoS) over the network.
• Documentation and user-configuration
  recommendations.
• Improved security, authentication and
  confidentiality.

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Reflectors Software deployment

• 23 reflectors Running in U.S. Europe and Asia
• Switzerland CERN (2)
• Italy CNAF Bologna
• UK Rutherford Lab
• France IN2P3 Lyon, Marseilles
• Germany Heidelberg Univ.
• Finland FUNET
• Spain IFCA-Univ. Cantabria
• Portugal LIP
• Russia Moscow State Univ., Tver. U.
• U.S
• Caltech, LBNL, SLAC, FNAL,
• ANL, BNL, Jefferson Lab.
• DoE HQ Germantown

- Asia Academia Sinica. Taiwan - South America
CeCalcula.Venezuela - Latest Weizmann Institute.
Israel
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VRVS Statistics
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RD Medium Term Plan
A Next Generation Integrated Environment for
Collaborative Work Across Internets

• Principal Investigator Caltech and ESnet
• Collaborators CERN, Internet2/UCAID
• The new system aimed at using the capability of
  Internet2 and ESnet for rapid data exchange, will
  be based on VRVS
• Develop, prototype and start deployment of high
  performance next generation Integrated
  Environment for Collaborative work
• We will adapt and extend VRVS API to accommodate
  and support high performance multimedia
  application suites (MPEG1 and MPEG2 streaming
  video, shared iGRID applications, integration
  with H.323.)
• QoS tests over ESnet and Internet2 networks

6
VRVS Model Implementation
done
Partially done
Work in progress
Continuously in development
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VRVS Web Distributed Model
2 - Update local databases with registered host
www.vrvs.org
VRVS Root
VRVS Asia
Community Y
VRVS Europe
Community X
A
VRVS America
C
B
VRVS root - vrvs America - vrvs Europe - vrvs
Asia - Community X - Community Y - ...
1- vrvs host registration with automatic or
manual assignation to the local vrvs web server
- ex C
2- http vrvs redirect
3- vrvs connection
1- direct access to vrvs services
1- http vrvs request
VRVS Europe - UP - Italy - France - ..
Community Y - UP - A - ..
..
...
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WorkPlan FY00

• Continue Deployment and Support of VRVS.
• Extend Reflector topology in new sites/countries.
• More users registered implies more questions and
  supports.
• More meetings implies more monitoring of the
  system.
• High Quality video and audio (MPEG1, MPEG2,..).
• See next slides
• Shared applications, environment and workspace.
• Study a set of tools around the collaborative
  environment
• VNC (Virtual Network Computer under
  investigation)
• Modify/Integrate them in the VRVS framework.
• Features foreseen (all Web based) Chat,
  Synchronize Web browsing, exchange of file
  between participant, shared desktop
• Quality of Service (QoS) over the network
• Tests over the transatlantic line using different
  protocol (CAR, ATM QoS, DiffServ,..) will be
  performed.
• Test will be extended to End to End nodes
  (Caltech, CERN, others sites).

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Workplan FY00 (2/2)

• Integration of H.323 I.T.U Standard into VRVS.
• step 1 Develop a H.323 VRVS Gatekeeper.
• step 2 Allow H.323 clients to initiate a point
  to point videoconference using VRVS user
  interface.
• step 3 Use VRVS reflector to perform H.323
  multipoint videoconference.
• step 4 Develop the necessary software to have
  interoperability between H.323 clients and Mbone
  (Vic, Vat/Rat) applications.
• step5 Possibility to perform VRVS multipoint
  videoconferencing independently of the
  videoconferencing clients (Mbone/H.323)
• Documentation and user-configuration
  recommendations. (http//vrvs.cern.ch/Doc/Hardware
  /hardware.html)
• Test and advice different Cameras, microphones,
  projectors, ..
• Regular Update of the recommendation document.
• Work in close collaboration with ESnet and all
  VRVS users in order to provide a large choice of
  working and tested devices..

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MPEG2 deployment plan (1/2)
Goal To deploy MPEG2 technology among HENP
community. MPEG2 will provide full TV quality,
full frame and full interactivity in a range of 2
to 15 Mbps

• Acquisition of Minerva MPEG2 Encoder/Decoder
  boxes.
• Support for the RTP (Real Time Protocol)
• Very low latency (around 120 ms for full duplex
  mode) during real-time communication
  (videoconference).
• Availability of a Video Development Toolkit (VDK)
  for integration with existing applications or
  with the VRVS framework.
• ESnet already selected Minerva as the preferred
  solution for MPEG2 deployment inside ESnet.
• One box has been installed at two sites Caltech
  and CERN
• Are others HENP Institutes interested in
  participation to the test and deployment phase ??

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MPEG2 deployment plan (2/2)

• Integration plan of MPEG2 into VRVS framework
• step 1 Perform and valid bi-directional point to
  point and interactive communication between 2
  sites
• Caltech and CERN -- Done Successfully December
  14, 1999 --
• Caltech and Esnet sites
• CERN and ESnet sites -- Done Successfully January
  15, 2000 --
• step 2 adapt/modify VRVS reflector in order to
  make MPEG2 multipoint videoconferencing between 3
  or more sites
• Caltech, CERN and ESnet sites
• step 3 adapt/modify VRVS Web interface and use
  the MPEG2 development kits in order to initiate
  MPEG2 videoconference in a click and start
  fashion.
• step 4 Use the whole VRVS system and philosophy
  (registration, scheduling, etc..) with automatic
  attribution to the closest reflector and start
  the conference by just clicking after joining a
  Virtual Room as of today.

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Example GLAST meeting (October 14,1999) 10
participants connected via VRVS
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ExampleLEPC broadcast from CERN (November
9,1999) 35 participants connected via VRVS
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Example 9 Participants, CERN(2), Caltech,
FNAL(2), Bologna (IT), Roma (IT), Milan (IT),
Rutherford(UK)
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Conclusion

• VRVS is now a production system with more than
  2010 registered host computers located in more
  than 40 countries. The frequency of VRVS
  conferences is tending to increase rapidly
• I2-DV (Internet2 Digital Video) Initiative
  steering committee looks forward to use VRVS
  framework as a foundation for new video and
  multimedia services to be deployed throughout
  Internet 2
• VRVS will support all type of videoconferencing
  from the Mbone and H.323 applications to very
  high video and audio quality like MPEG2
• QoS study and tests over the transatlantic line
  is more then ever a very important task in order
  to run Differentiated Service for real-time
  applications as well as other sensitive
  applications (distributed database)
• Strong effort will be done to investigate
  development in new areas such as Shared Virtual
  Spaces and Data Applications