Information Technology for Hall D Experiment Building the Digital HallD Geoffrey Fox Florida State University Department of Computer Science and CSIT (School of Computational Science and Information Technology) 400 Dirac Science Library Tallahassee Florida 32306-4130 fox@csit.fsu.edu 2/5/2019 halldsept00
What is a Portal It is a “just” a web-based application Education Portal is a Web-based University Computing Portal is a “Problem Solving Environment” Goal to build more productive environments by integrated access to distributed resources From a Java point of view, one can view them as “Frameworks for Computing” or “Frameworks for Education” respectively Well defined Interfaces based on Grid Forum -- Computing IMS/ADL/IEEE LTSC -- Education And a set of Services and Tools 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Commodity Portals are Web Interfaces for Consumers Yahoo, NetCenter, Amazon.com, Ebay.com etc. are portals for e-commerce, news etc. 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Basic Portal Architecture and Inter Relationships of Education, Computing and other Portals Enterprise Information Portals from Merrill Lynch 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Hierarchy of Portals and Their Technology Portal Building Tools and Frameworks (XUL, Ninja, iPlanet, E-Speak, Portlets, WebSphere, www.desktop.com) Generic Portals Collaboration Universal Access Security ……. Generic Services User customization, component libraries, fixed channels Information Services Databases ……. Enterprise Portals Quizzes Grading ... www.computingportals.org Education Services Compute Services Grid Services Visualization ... Education and Training Portals MathML etc Science Portals ……... ……... K-12 University Biology Chem Egy 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Services in Computing Portals Security Fault Tolerance Object Lookup and Registration Object Persistence and Database support (as in EIP’s) Event and Transaction Services Collaboration among scientists around world Job Status as in HotPage (NPACI) and myGrid (NCSA) File Services (as in NPACI Storage Resource Broker) Support (XML based) computational science specific metadata like MathML, XSIL Visualization Programming Application Integration (chaining services viewed as backend compute filters) “Seamless Access” and integration of resources between different users/application domains Parameter Specification Service (get data from Web form into Fortran program wrapped as backend object) Any Portal 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Portals think of things as objects and services System View User View Rendering Engine CORBA or Java Broker or Server Objects XML Request for service followed by return of XML result XML Browser (HTML) Rendering Engine Universal Interfaces IDL or XML “Computing Portals” Interface www.computingportals.org “Grid Forum” Interface www.gridforum.org Community Activities set standards enhancing interoperability 2/5/2019 halldsept00
GEM (Earthquake Science)Portal Architecture Seismic Sensors Field Data Geophysical “Web” Info Backend Services Databases (HPCC) Computers General “Web” Info Middleware Bunch of Web Servers and Object Brokers Collaboration Security Lookup Registration Agents/Brokers Application Integration Visualization Server Seamless Access (Java) Interactive Analysis Client Visualization Clients GEM (Earthquake Science)Portal Architecture 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Caltech JPL USGS JPL JPL JPL Boulder JPL disp page ALARM WAKE UP! quake location, size -- page WAKE UP! disp disloc JPL sorted station potential -- modem USGS Dial Stations(and database) station raw files -- page JPL GIPSY/auto_p WAKE UP! station motions -- JPL simplex disloc JPL single-fault model --maps for civil authorities multi-fault model Virtual_California Boulder (University of Colorado) web simplex JPL --graphics --refined fault model collaboration --graphics --hazard model 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Earthquake Analysis System Collaboration in GEM Earthquake Analysis System 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Control (Small Messages) Example: LMS NCSA Alliance General or WebFlow Specific Authoring Prototype Version Example: DoD HPCMO ASC/ARL Layered PSE WebFlow Object Oriented WebFlow Data Flow Custom GUI Different Computing Paradigms https, IIOP/SECIOP Computing Portal portalML Middle-Tier Resource Spec. Task Spec. Control (Small Messages) WebFlow Middle Tier Grid Forum API(resourceML) HPCC: Globus Separated from Data DBMS: JDBC user codes Small tasks: Java Other as needed 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Digital HallD Ground Rules Distributed Objects Define all programs and data as objects – define in XML and implement in Object Model de jour (CORBA, Java, COM, SOAP …) Do not use an Object Database All HallD objects are labeled “HallD” and use a Jini like mechanism to announce their existence to a net of HallD brokers HallD brokers allow a Napster-like mechanism for distributed systems to export HallD objects for external access (with built in rules) Assume everybody has wireless access to the “Digital HallD” through hand held and conventional computers Moore’s law:Computer Performance increases by a factor of 2 every 18 months Gilder’s Law:Network bandwidth triples every 12 months -maybe easier to use scattered resources as no cost in sending data? 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Digital HallD Technologies Globus allows you infrastructure to access computer resources around the world forming a HallD Grid Maybe you don’t need Globus as the “real world” might provide what you need – several startups addressing issue of harnessing idle computer time Use a multi-tier software architecture separating resources, servers/brokers, display engines, display devices Structure access to Digital HallD as a Portal Do not write any HTML – use XML and convert Program in C++ or Java Need distributed and not parallel computers 2/5/2019 halldsept00
MyHallD Collaborative Portal MyHallD is the portal door to the Virtual HallD Experiment Control Room Virtual HallD Monte Carlo Farm Virtual HallD DST Factory Virtual HallD Physics Engine Virtual HallD Board Room HallD Education and Outreach Area These share access to HallD digital objects but access (and make) them in different ways and are optimized in different ways They share certain features and services All actions are logged (in XML) and archived Common security infrastructure Access can be from PC or Hand Held device 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Message Center Interface Yahoo Messenger is an interesting model for a portal interface Application that invokes browser – more robust than browser Runs on PC or Palmtop and “only” contains summary information suitable for Palms Has services like file manipulation, send a message and set of custom buttons Access News, Weather, Stocks etc. Develop “HallD Messenger” as control centers for HallD functions 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Features of MyHallD and it’s HallD Virtual Places MyHallD would have: “Handles” to open 6 Community Virtual Places as well as ability to open private virtual rooms HallD/Jefferson/HEP Calendar, Phone lists etc. News Items with browser links Experiment Status etc. Invoke basic Collaboration Tools – Internet Phone; Local and remote cameras; Chat; Whiteboard Automatic Update (to myHallD) Feature Indicator as to which places you are in and who else is active there. To do list for you in HallD Gentle and Crass ways of getting people’s attention 2/5/2019 halldsept00
What’s Involved in MyHallD? Probably needs some money but < $30.9442 Commitment to use the “HallD Digital Object Framework” Basic functions are available in existing commercial systems; start to use these and to prototype some of the special capabilities needed What is involved in making HallD objects collaborative? First use objects and then we have choices – which vary in ease of use and functionality. First we discuss Collaborative Objects in general These are particular digital objects shared by more than one people Best known is asynchronous sharing: you create/modify an object. Others access it at a later time Synchronous Collaboration involves real-time updates of objects being shared by several people in distributed locations 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Features of Virtual MyHallD Places HallD Board room can be done today for some capabilities using WebEx Placeware or Centra DST Factory and Monte Carlo Farm do not require significant synchronous collaboration; build computing portals for standard HENP packages Need strong management functions HallD Physics Engine could benefit from innovative user interfaces and collaboration in analysis of results Here is where difficult decisions made (how to run Minuit) and distributed experts could be useful Share analysis results and choice of parameters for future large analysis (which partial waves to include) HallD Education and Outreach can use Virtual Classroom model being developed by several vendors 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Typical Virtual Classroom Centra, Placeware, WebEx, Anabas …. Control buttons for Audio/Video/Floor Control etc. Lecture Page Annotations (student, teacher) Pointers etc. index Alert/ Raise Hands Invoke Quiz Chat Room 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Features of Virtual MyHallD Places Virtual Experiment Control Room could be a big win as (unexpected) real-time decisions need “experts-on-demand” I have proposed this model to NASA for remote spacecraft mission control and real-time scientific analysis of earthquakes Needs to evaluate collaborative decision making (vote?) and planning tools Needs to allow shared streaming data as well as shared read-outs of experimental monitors (output of all devices must be distributed objects which can be shared) Needs to support experts caught on their sailboat with poor connectivity or in their car with just a cell phone and a PDA 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Techniques for Collaboration I Shared Display: One object and share “frame buffer” produced by this object Can modify (resolution of) frame buffer to customize for each client Clever algorithms to only send “updates” to frame buffer as object rendering changes Can trap user interactions (mouse, keyboard) on any client Microsoft NetMeeting and public domain VNC well known examples of this Collaboration Server Sends messages between clients to replicate frame buffer and trapped user interface events Technology base for “customer help” systems Expert in Seattle sees your screen and can click mouse etc. 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Techniques for Collaboration II Shared Event: Separate copies of application (object) for each client and collaboration server exchanges events that record “changes in state” of “master object” E.g. Shared Web Page:every client runs a separate browser and one “just” sends the URL to record state change Low message volume and can customize E.g. if one client is a palmtop, one “automatically” modifies URL sent by PC to access WML version of web Page optimized for small devices In collaborative visualization, can share image but each client can chose viewpoint 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Asynchronous Archive and Access Persistent Store of Shared Courseware Events, User Info Data base Collaborative Portal Asynchronous Archive and Access ResourceML Store Local Event Queue User Specific Session Logic Real time Share Personal Server Synchronous Lesson PortalML “Client” Web Page HTML WML W3C WAI Rendering Standards 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Collaborative University Network Learning Instance managed by one university Mentoring Teaching Delivery Collaborative University Network Learners Shareable Courseware Repository Assessment Feedback 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Education Specific Portal Support I Administrative Structure degrees, departments, lecturers, Deans ... Performance (grading) information Homework submission Quizzes of various types (multiple choice, random parameters) Assessment data and an analysis Hierarchical Curriculum structure from document fragment to page to lecture to course Napster/Gnutella type distributed information system with personalized dynamic collections (analogy between CDROM of pirated music and dynamic lectures/personal info resource as in RealJukebox) 2/5/2019 halldsept00
Education Specific Portal Support II Glossaries with a middle tier glossary service to automatically link glossary entries to document fragments Student Annotations Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) enables simple authoring of TV-like multimedia presentations such as training courses on the Web SVG, VML X3D etc. for pictures MathML Mathematical Expressions Agent type support for “Computer Tutor/Learning Management System” 2/5/2019 halldsept00