Vidyo at CERNSwisscom – CERN meeting – 9th April 2013

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Universal Videoconference with Vidyo

• Videoconference at CERN• Vidyo@CERN: scale and infrastructure• Service Access• Service Support• Integrations• QA processes• Future plans

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Videoconference at CERN• H323 rooms since early 00’s

• Now ~70 equipped rooms

• H323 MCU services• Collaboration with French CNRS on MCU

service• Own service since 2007 (based on Codian

MSE8000)

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Videoconference at CERN• EVO since the late 90s• Built on the requirements of HEP communities• Tender needed in 2008 following EVO’s change of

business model• Setup of a committee with representatives of major user

communities• Establishing requirements• Informal market survey• Only two products could cope with specs• Pilot for 6 months

• Selection of Vidyo• 1st January 2013: end of EVO support at CERN

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Vidyo at CERN• Since December 2011• Universal videoconference system

• From Vidyo clients (connection through Vidyo routers)• Desktops (Windows, MacOSX, selected linux flavors)• Mobile devices (iOS and Android)

• From 3rd-party clients (through Vidyo gateways)• Rooms (CERN VC rooms) to the H323/SIP protocols• Phones

• Strong points• Extensible (several hundreds in a single meeting)• Very small latency (natural interactions)• Good A/V quality and resilience/adaptability to poor network conditions• Simple interface• Good integration possibilities

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CERN Vidyo Service Scale

• ~20000 users• 800-1600 simultaneous connections• 21-168 simultaneous H323 (rooms)• 12 simultaneous recordings

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Vidyo Eligible Users• Anyone with a valid CERN account

• Register at https://account.cern.ch/account/ “Services” link

• can participate in meetings• create virtual rooms• invite other users• moderate meetings

• Non-CERN users • can participate as guests

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CERN Vidyo Worldwide Service Topology

Portals

Routers

Gateways

Router

Proxy

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Vidyo: Usage Evolution

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Vidyo: Usage Evolution

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Usage Evolution• Current peaks

• max Simultaneous connections: ~750• max number of people in one meeting: 252• max phone usage: 100k minutes in 1 month• more than 3200 meetings per month• more than 5000 distinct users and 3000 Guests

per month• more than 18000 clients have been installed

(mobile and desktop)

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Indico Service

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Indico Service

• THE CERN hub for event management• Meeting and conference

organisation (schedule, document management, registration, e-payment, etc.)

• Central repository and long-term archive of event-related documents

• Physical room bookings• Collaboration services

bookings• Chat interface

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Indico – Events Management

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Access From Desktops• Indico Vidyo portal

• Participants

• Managers

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Access from CERN Meeting Rooms

Room VC equipment

ThisPC

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Access from non-CERN meeting rooms

IVR: dial gateway IPCERN or Internet2

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Access from Phones• Dial one of

• Geneva (CH): +41225330322• CERN (CH): 71400 or +41227671400• Tool free number (US): +18665777460• London (UK): +442030510622• Madrid (SP) +34911233708• Tokyo (JP) +81345790501• Nikhef (NL): +31207165248• Desy (DE) +494089981350• Cesnet (CZ) +420950072376

• Enter the meeting extension and «#»

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Service Support• 1st level:

• 2nd level:

• 3rd level:

CERN Service Desk

Onsite specialised technicians

VidyoEngineers

CERNEngineers

Rooms, presence

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Service Support

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Service Support• Major disruptions

• Related to Vidyo bugs• Mostly on gateways: h323 disconnections• Linux clients

• Related to infra configuration• Badly set firewalls: regular disconnections• Reached maximum connections: saturated router pools

• Related to integration issues• Indico integration: users isolated in meeting «islands»• Status notification server

• 2.5h down time in March

• Related to peripheral services• Phone.com initial failures

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Service Support

• Users training• Internal CERN technical training

• Users information• How to best use VC in general• Best equipment

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Integrations• CERN users database

• Synchronisation script running every 30 mn• Using Vidyo web service APIs• Using LDAP link option on portal

• CERN Indico server• Direct call to Vidyo web service APIs

• CERN Vidyo dashboard• Direct SQL queries to CDR DB

• Infrastructure monitoring interface (in progress)• Added Nagios to all servers• Calls to the CDS DB

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• Weekly meetings with Vidyo• Keep sync with service changes• Discuss issues

• Beta tests of new features• Defined set of tests (~200) executed before

any upgrade• Portal• Client• Integration

• Staging environment

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QA Processes

• Staging

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QA Processes

• Beta tests

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QA Processes

VC/Vidyo use cases• Standard

• Work meetings• Point2point calls• Distance learning• Recruitment interviews

• Challenging• Remote Operation Centers• CERN Collaborations Meetings• Public outreach: Masterclasses

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Service Evolution• New client with integrated chat - Q2 2013• New phone access points in CERN

collaborating institutes - 2013• Skype gateway – Q2 2013• Linux consolidation – Q2 2013• Recording – Q3 2013• Webcasting• Infrastructure virtualisation• SSO?

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Vidyo Service at CERN• info:

• http://cern.ch/vidyo

• status page: • http://avc-dashboard.web.cern.ch/Vidyo

• contact:• Joao.fernandes@cern.ch• Thomas.baron@cern.ch• vidyo-support@cern.ch

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Thank you for your attention

Questions ?

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Backup Slides

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Indico Service• site

• http://indico.cern.ch

• info• http://

information-technology.web.cern.ch/services/fe/indico

• status page• http://avc-dashboard.web.cern.ch/Indico

• contact• Indico-support@cern.ch

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Vidyo: Company Profile• Based in Hackensack NJ, USA

• Founded 2005• 250+ employees• 60+ in R&D

• Industry traction• Based on multiple patents around h264 SVC• Several major OEMs: Google+ hangouts, HP,

Nintendo Wii U• 50+ worldwide service providers• 3000s customers

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Vidyo Client Main Features• Main features

• Up to 8 videos displayed – last speakers• Number and display format selectable• Self view

• Multiple screen and window sharing• List of participants• Firewall traversal

• Using Vidyo proxy

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