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David Collados California Institute of Technology European Organization for Nuclear Research. October 25, 2001. What Is VRVS?. Web oriented multipoint videoconferencing system. Multi-platform system: Windows, Linux, Solaris, Irix and Mac.
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David Collados California Institute of Technology European Organization for Nuclear Research October 25, 2001
What Is VRVS? • Web oriented multipoint videoconferencing system. • Multi-platform system: Windows, Linux, Solaris, Irix and Mac. • The mechanism to interconnect different videoconferencing clients/tools: MBone: VIC, RAT. H.323: Polycom (ViaVideo, ViewStation), Microsoft (NetMeeting), Zydacron (OnWan), SmithMicro (VideoLink Pro), etc. MPEG2: Minerva Networks (VCP).
The Origins Of VRVS • Born in 1995 at Caltech to provide a low cost system for videoconferencing and remote collaboration over networks for the HEP community. • ISDN versus IP videoconferences: High costs for international ISDN videoconf. Manpower for scheduling and operation of ISDN and IP systems (but not using VRVS.) IP from any machine. IP more flexible: different OS and applications. IP for different multipoint working environments.
Structural Layers In VRVS VRVS Web User Interface Others ?? MPEG H.323 Mbone Tools (vic, vat/rat,..) QuickTime 4.0 & 5.0 Collaborative Applications VRVS Reflectors (Unicast/Multicast) QoS Real Time Protocol (RTP/RTCP) Network Layer (TCP-UDP/IP)
Virtual Rooms Concept • Enter a Virtual Room Through Your Nearest Reflector American side European side
Reflectors’ Deployment 2/2 33 Reflectors Running Around The World. Europe: Switzerland: CERN (2) Spain: IFCA, RedIRIS UK: Rutherford (2), JET, Swansea Israel: Weizmann, Hebrew Univ. Italy: INFN Finland: Funet Poland: Cracow Portugal: LIP Czech Republic: Cesnet Asia: Taiwan: Academia Sinica Japan: KEK South America: Venezuela: CeCalcula Brazil: UFRGS (Univ. Fed. Rio Grande do Sul) North America: Canada: University of Quebec United States: West: Caltech (2), SLAC Midwest: FNAL, ANL (Chicago) East: BNL (New York) Internet2: New York, Ann Arbor (Detroit), Denver, Georgia Tech (Atlanta), Indiana, Orlando, Texas
Steps To Use The System Have a PC with a full duplex soundcard (a video camera if you want to send video). Go to http://www.VRVS.org Register your machine. Download the latest VRVS package. Check recommendations before buying additional devices: http://www.VRVS.org/Doc/Hardware/hardware.html Check your local audio/video setup. Book a Virtual Room and “Join” it.
Booking A Virtual Room 1/2 • The Scheduler Booking a Virtual Room is performed in the same way as you would book a local conference room. If all the Virtual Rooms are booked, it means that the (pre-set) maximum number of parallel conferences has been reached. Select the Virtual Room Select the scope of your videoconference Continental Virtual Rooms World Wide Virtual Rooms
Booking A Virtual Room 2/2 • The Booking Process • Different calendar views: one Year, one Month, or one Day. The user can easily appreciate what is already reserved,and which are the available time slots. • Options A password can be entered to control the access. Documents (URLs) can be attached to the conference(or “pop-up” URLs during the conference to the other participants through the chat window.)
MPEG2* Integration 1/2 Acquisition of Minerva VCP MPEG2 Encoder/Decoder. Very low latency, ~120 ms + supporting RTP (Real Time Protocol.) MPEG2 integration into VRVS: Perform bi-directionaland interactiveP2Pcommunications between 2 boxes. Adapted/modified VRVS reflectors to make MPEG2 multipoint videoconferencing possible among 3 or more sites. New site to administrate the MPEG2 videoconferences. [*] At present time, VRVS is the only MPEG2 software/system available in the world for MPEG2 multipoint videoconferencing.
MPEG2 Integration 2/2 VRVS MPEG2 Reflectors (Just the video from the current speaker is sent to the MPEG2 clients. The current speaker keeps on receiving video/audio from the previous one.) VCP MPEG2 CODEC LNBL VCP MPEG2 CODEC CERN VCP MPEG2 CODECLLNL VCP MPEG2 CODEC Caltech Instance of MPEG2 topology. Video: 3.0 Mbps Audio: 224 Kbps stereo
Desktop Sharing • VNC (Virtual Network Computer) desktop sharing technology is integrated in VRVS. • Possibility to share the working desktop betweenseveral participants in 2 differentmodes: Broadcast mode: The desktop is seen by all the participants but they cannot control it. Full shared mode: All participants see and can control the shared desktop (mouse, keyboard, … ) • Need the VNC server application running in the machine in order to share your desktop. • On the Client side, No application is needed. A Java applet is downloaded from the Web server. The Client is Web-based and Multi-platform.
At Present Time Moving outside HEP community. To Educational and Research communities: CESNET: Czech National Research & Edu Network EFDA: European Fusion Development Agreement GLAST: Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope Internet2 RedIRIS
VRVS Deployment in Internet2 1/3 Internet2 is a U.S. national initiative that regroups more than 180 U.S. Universities in close collaboration with partners (including most of the international research networks.) See at http://www.internet2.edu VRVS has been selected as one of the primary technologies to support as part of the Internet2 Commons initiative (a Large-Scale, Distributed Collaborative Environment for the Research and Education Community.) I2 will provide software and documentation along with leadership in the area of developing gateways among different videoconferencing technologies.
VRVS Deployment in Internet2 2/3 Installation of 7 Reflectors in several GigaPoPs over the Abilene backbone (Summer 2001) Creation and announcement of a new I2 mailing-list for people interested in VRVS related announcements: vrvs-announce@internet2.edu Creation of a second support/help mailing list: vrvs-support@internet2.edu. The goal is to allow experts in the community to help newcomers. Help on VRVS online documentation and packaging.
VRVS Deployment in Internet2 3/3 VRVS REFLECTORS Sept. 2001
AcessGrid Integrationhttp://www.vrvs.org/accessgrid.html See all AccessGrid video See participants list Start the tools (Mbone or H.323) Select the video mode: - Select video - Timer video Enter to a AG Virtual Venue
VRVS Statistics 1/3 • VRVS is currently in widespread production: • At present time, more than 6800 machines used by 4100 users at 50 countries are registered in VRVS. • During 2000 year, 1300 Multipoint Conferenceswere performed (Total 3800 Hours). • More than 3000 point to point connections were established. • Since January 2001: 190 multipoint (600 hours)videoconferences per month have been hold on average.
Examples 4/5 • LEPC broadcast from CERN • 35 participants connected to VRVS (ex. QuickTime Player)
Questions ? David Collados CALTECH/CERN David.Collados@cern.ch