University of Illinois at Chicago

March 15, 1999

Tele-Immersion and High-Speed Networking

Maxine Brown

Associate Director, Electronic Visualization Laboratory

University of Illinois at Chicago

Electronic Visualization LaboratoryWhat is EVL?

• 25 years at UIC• Joint program between UIC Computer

Science and Art & Design departments• 2 directors and 12 associated faculty• 10 staff• 100 graduate students (24 supported)• Collaborations with

– NCSA Alliance– Argonne National Laboratory

University of Illinois at Chicago

Electronic Visualization Laboratory CAVE Research and Development

1992—Prototype CAVE

1993—10’x10’x10’ CAVE

1994—SIGGRAPH VROOM

1995—I-WAY at SC’95

1997—100 CAVES and derivatives worldwide

1997-8—NSF funding for tele-immersion, new desktop VR devices, STAR TAP, NCSA Alliance

University of Illinois at Chicago

Electronic Visualization LaboratoryCAVERN Research and Development

• Tele-immersion will enable users in different locations to

collaborate in a shared, simulated environment as if they

were in the same room—the ultimate synthesis of

networking and media technologies to enhance

collaborative environments

• Tele-immersion applications must combine audio, video,

virtual worlds, simulations, and many other complex

technologies, requiring huge bandwidth, very fast

responses, and guarantees of deliverywww.evl.uic.edu/cavernwww.ncsa.uiuc.edu/VR/cavernus

University of Illinois at Chicago

MREN—America’s First Operational GigaPoPChicago Area Sites

Northwestern

Fermi Nat’l Lab

OC12 vBNS

Ameritech NAP houses STAR-TAP and MREN Hub

U Chicago

EVL/UI Chicago

Argonne Nat’l Lab

MCI

Ameritech

UMinn

UWisc

UMich/MSU

NCSA

University of Illinois at Chicago

Supercomputing ‘95 I-WAY

• EVL/Argonne/NCSA planned and built I-WAY for Supercomputing ‘95

• Prototyped on MREN• First large-scale agency interoperability

test of IP over ATM: vBNS, AAI, ESnet, ATDnet, CalREN, NREN, MREN, MAGIC, CA*NET

• 33 Academic, National Lab and Industry institutions; 17 sites; 61 projects

• First Tele-Immersion experiments

University of Illinois at Chicago

I-WAY — Grid v1.0Blueprint for a New Computing Infrastructure

I. Foster, C. Kesselman (Eds), Morgan Kaufmann, 1999

• ISBN 1-55860-475-8 • 22 chapters by expert

authors including Andrew Chien, Jack Dongarra, Tom DeFanti, Andrew Grimshaw, Roch Guerin, Ken Kennedy, Paul Messina, Cliff Neuman, Jon Postel, Larry Smarr, Rick Stevens, and many others

http://www.mkp.com/grids

“A source book for the historyof the future” -- Vint Cerf

University of Illinois at Chicago

vBNS Logical Connectivity

University of Illinois at Chicago

STAR TAPScience Technology and Research Transit Access Point

University of Illinois at Chicago

What is STAR TAP (vision)?

• PersistentPersistent interconnection point and anchor for advanced (high-performance) networking initiatives of the USA and international partners

• Enabler for collaborative development of next-generation Internet applications

• A capability born out of frustrations of past I-WAY experience and the hopes of the G7 GIBN initiative

University of Illinois at Chicago

What is STAR TAP (details)?

• STAR TAP anchors vBNS International Connections program

• STAR TAP features a large ATM switching facility run by Ameritech Advanced Data Services (AADS) with the same physical equipment as the MREN Chicago GigaPoP

• STAR TAP’s goal is to develop the teams, tools, system software, documentation, and human interface models to enable international-scale, multi-site collaborations

University of Illinois at Chicago

STAR TAP, NGI, and Internet2

• STAR TAP is part of the USA Next Generation Internet (NGI) Initiative

• STAR TAP (NGIX) connects USA agency networks like the vBNS, ESnet, NREN, and DREN to other countries and networks

• Internet2/UCAID/Abilene peer at STAR TAP• Experimental networking is encouraged (e.g.,

Wave Division Multiplexing with CA*NET 3, NU, NCSA, IU, UIC)

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STAR TAP International Connected, Imminent, Interested

• APAN (Australia, China, Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand)

• Austria• NORDUnet (Denmark,

Finland, Iceland,Norway, Sweden)

• Brazil• Canada• CERN• Chile

• France• Germany• Israel• Netherlands• Russia• Singapore• South Africa• Taiwan• United Kingdom• US (vBNS, ESnet, NREN,

DREN, Abilene)

University of Illinois at Chicago

SC’98 iGrid: The International GridResearch Demonstrations

• 22 demonstrations that featured technical innovations and application advancements requiring high-speed networks, with emphasis on distributed computing, tele-immersion, large datasets, remote instrumentation, and collaboration

• 10 countries: Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, USA

www.startap.net/igrid/

University of Illinois at Chicago

SC’98 iGridIndustrial Mold Filling

Indiana University (USA), Argonne National Laboratory (USA), Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA), Industrial Materials Institute, NRC (Canada), Centre de Recherche en Calcul Appliqué (Canada)

University of Illinois at Chicago

SC’98 iGrid3D Magneto Hydrodynamic Equations

Sandia National Laboratories (USA), Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (USA), High Performance Computing Center, a division of the Computing Center of Stuttgart University (Germany)

University of Illinois at Chicago

SC’98 iGridTelebot and Einstein Spacetime

University of Illinois at Chicago (USA) Max Planck Institut fuer Gravitationphysik, Albert Einstein Institut (Germany), NCSA (USA), Argonne National Laboratory (USA), Washington University (USA)

University of Illinois at Chicago

SC’98 iGridTaiwan Numerical Wind Tunnel

National Center for High Performance Computing (Taiwan), National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan), National Chioa-Tung University (Taiwan)

University of Illinois at Chicago

SC’98 iGridIMS Racer

Lawrence Technological University (USA), University of Michigan (USA)

University of Illinois at Chicago

SC’98 iGrid—The NetherlandsParallel Lighting Simulation

SARA: Academic Computing Services Amsterdam (The Netherlands)

University of Illinois at Chicago

International Applications-Level Networking Challenges and Opportunities

• Building relationships – internationalization• Time zones

– Asynchronous collaboration– Annotations and recording

• Network speeds / QoS needs• Speed of light – bandwidth x latency (delay)• Audio – one of the most demanding app’s.• Culture – elitism/equality; industrial partners

University of Illinois at Chicago

International Impact: Five Years From Now

• Distributed computing, simulation, data mining, and instruments will be coupled with tele-immersion over the worldwide Grid; audio, video, gesture and haptics will be integrated with latency tolerant techniques

• Methods for recording, editing, annotating, replaying, and broadcasting tele-immersive sessions will be perfected; avatars will help convey a true sense of tele-presence

University of Illinois at Chicago

International Impact: Five Years From Now

• Tele-immersion is particularly critical for trans-oceanic science and engineering users

• Tele-immersion (CAVERN implementation) is particularly difficult and challenging as distance increases

• Significant participation expected by international researchers via STAR TAP, given support for applications development

University of Illinois at Chicago

For More Information

Websites:• www.evl.uic.edu• www.startap.net• www.vbns.net• www.internet2.edu• www.ngi.gov