MCS  FUTURESLABARGONNE  CHICAGO Rick Stevens, Terry Disz, Lisa Childers, Bob Olson Argonne National Laboratory The Access Grid An Introduction

MCS  FUTURESLABARGONNE  CHICAGO Origins of the Access Grid

MCS  FUTURESLABARGONNE  CHICAGO Evolution of the Grid Concept Metacomputing: late 80s –Focus on distributed computation Gigabit testbeds: early 90s –Research, primarily on networking I-WAY: 1995 –Demonstration of application feasibility PACIs (National Technology Grid): 1997 NASA Information Power Grid: 1999 ASCI DISCOM: 1999 DOE Science Grid: 2001 Commercial Startups Applications Apps Tools Middleware Networking Resources

MCS  FUTURESLABARGONNE  CHICAGO Related Work Berkeley and LBNL’s Mbone Tools (Jacobson et al.) Xerox PARC MOO and Jupiter Projects (Curtis, et al.) Argonne/NEU’s Labspace Project (Evard/Stevens et al.) EVL’s CAVERsoft (DeFanti, Leigh, et al.) ANL’s CAVEcomm and ManyWorlds (Stevens et al.) ANL and ISI Globus Project (Foster, Kesselman et al.) UNC’s Office of the Future (Fuchs et al.) DOE’s Collaboratory Pilots (Zalusec et al.)

MCS  FUTURESLABARGONNE  CHICAGO Some Questions We are Interested In What kinds of future collaboration environments are possible? How might teleimmersion enhance scientific collaborations? What is the value of persistence and spatial metaphors in collaboration and virtual environments? How can we cost-effectively improve group oriented collaboration environments ? What is needed from networking and middleware infrastructure to effectively support wide area collaboration and distributed visualization ? What are good software architectures to enable collaborative work systems?

MCS  FUTURESLABARGONNE  CHICAGO Our Approach Attack Research Questions in the context of real world experience Build Working Infrastructure as well as Prototype Software Involve multiple groups in deployment, use and research Participate (lead) in directions for new uses and applications Release software early and often (use open source model) Contribute to the Community Code base

MCS  FUTURESLABARGONNE  CHICAGO An Overview of the Access Grid

MCS  FUTURESLABARGONNE  CHICAGO Topology

MCS  FUTURESLABARGONNE  CHICAGO Ambient mic (tabletop) Presenter mic Presenter camera Audience camera Physical Node Design Spaces for small groups Wide field of view Comfortable Persistent connection

MCS  FUTURESLABARGONNE  CHICAGO Audio Hands free –No click to talk –No searching for microphones –Never have to think about microphones Interactive –Interrupt other speakers –Multiple conversations at the same time –Full duplex Clear –No background noise –Rich-sounding speech No feedback No echo

MCS  FUTURESLABARGONNE  CHICAGO Video Scale of imagery life-sized Highest quality, but affordable Multiple video streams –Presenter close-up –Audience view –Audience close-up –Display wall

MCS  FUTURESLABARGONNE  CHICAGO Data Shared –Powerpoint –VNC –Visualization Archived –Voyager

MCS  FUTURESLABARGONNE  CHICAGO Network Hardening multicast infrastructure – Large-scale networking testbed –Higher bandwidth –QoS Networking people active members of the AG community

MCS  FUTURESLABARGONNE  CHICAGO The Muds Two muds are used in the AG community –Access Grid Hangout Room Character generation is controlled Characters reside there permenantly Long-term social relationships have developed –Access Grid Venue Character generation is automatic Characters come and go Usage is event-driven

MCS  FUTURESLABARGONNE  CHICAGO Virtual Collaboration Spaces A persistent location on the grid Not a physical space A dimension in which several physical spaces can be co- located A place that can be entered and exited Supports multiple interaction modalities Text, audio, video graphics, animation, VR A scoping mechanism to support multiple concurrent meetings A resource that can be reserved Virtual Venue

MCS  FUTURESLABARGONNE  CHICAGO The Workspace Docking Concept Private Workspaces - Docked into the Group Workspace

MCS  FUTURESLABARGONNE  CHICAGO Access Grid Project Goals Enable Group-to-Group Interaction and Collaboration –Connecting People and Teams via the Grid Improve the User Experience: Go Beyond Teleconferencing –Provide a Sense of Presence –Support Natural Interaction Modalities Use Quality but Affordable Digital IP Based Audio/video –Leverage IP Open Source Tools Enable Complex Multisite Visual and Collaborative Experiences –Integrate With High-end Visualization Environments –ActiveMural, Powerwall, CAVE Family, Workbenches Build on Integrated Grid Services Architecture –Develop New Tools Specifically Support Group Collaboration