1. eScience Collaboration Tools: EVO & Access Grid
Dr. Greg Wickham
APAN
24th Jan 2008

2. Overview
Overview of the Tools
Access Grid
EVO
Comparison
Summary

3. Overview
Overview of the Tools
Access Grid
EVO
Comparison
Summary

4. Access Grid What is an Access Grid? Where? Collaboration?
A collaboration environment
Where?
“a venue” - A virtual location where people can meet
Collaboration?
Audio
Video
Shared applications
Shared Desktop
Shared Web Browser
Extensible
Shared Resources

5. Access Grid Cross platform: Technology: Windows Linux Mac OSX
Transmission:
Multicast (predominately)
Unicast (alternatively)
Venue server and client
Multiple computers combined in a node

6. Access Grid Environment: Community Room based (most common)
Multiple computers controlled by the Venue Client
Desktop (same software)
Community

7. Heritage Heritage MBone tools ( 90s’ ) Access Grid V1:
VIC – Video Conferenecing Application
RAT – Robost Audio Tool
Access Grid V1:
Venue Server concept
Access Grid V2: (2002)
Same (basic) tools
Globus Toolkit (Web Services)
Access Grid V3: (Aug ‘06)
Jabber client integration
Releases:
2.3 on 10 Sep 2004
2.4 on 26 Aug 2005
Same (basic) tools
Globus Toolkit (Web Services)
Access Grid V3:
Releases
3.0 beta1 on 28 Jan 2006, beta2 on 16 Feb 2006, 3.0 on 3 May 2006
Aug 2006
3.1 Beta 1 on 29 June 2007
3.1 on 21 Dec 2007
Jabber client integration

8. AG Node

9. Access Grid
Monitors combined to increase screen area (ie: 3072 x 768 pixels)
Video Resolution:
Usually CIF (352 x 288)
c/w H.323
University of Queensland has demonstrated HD integration
Enhanced VIC to display MPEG2

10. Venue Client “control centre” of the AG software
Navigate between venues
Venues are organised hierarchically
Each Venue has:

11. Venue Client “control centre” of the AG software
Navigate between venues
Venues are organised hierarchically
Each Venue has:
List of available rooms

12. Venue Client “control centre” of the AG software
Navigate between venues
Venues are organised hierarchically
Each Venue has:
List of available rooms
has a URI

13. Venue Client “control centre” of the AG software
Navigate between venues
Venues are organised hierarchically
Each Venue has:
List of available rooms
has a URI
a list of participants

14. Venue Client “control centre” of the AG software
Navigate between venues
Venues are organised hierarchically
Each Venue has:
List of available rooms
has a URI
a list of participants
a chat client

15. VIC & RAT

16. Access Grid on a Desktop

17. Overview
Overview of the Tools
Access Grid
EVO
Comparison
Summary

18. The Tools: EVO What is EVO? Where has EVO come from?
A distributed collaboration tool incorporating:
Video
Audio
White Board
Share files
Where has EVO come from?
Funded by the High Energy Physics community (LHC)
Where is EVO going?
Gaining acceptance outside the HEP community
Support contracts available

19. “Desktop Based Access Grid”
So exactly what is EVO?
Closest Analogy
“Desktop Based Access Grid”
Features:
Uses Java – No software needs to be installed
Firewall friendly
H.323 Integration
Desktop sharing
Whiteboard
Commercial support
SIP & POTS
Shibboleth Integration
Multilanguage
10 Languages

20. EVO Running Windows XP Version shown (Uses OpenGL for fancy graphics)
Other versions are similar to Vic (different video tiles are shown in independent windows)

21. Participants wearing headsets
EVO Running
Participants wearing headsets
Most commonly EVO is used on desktop systems
It can be used in room based systems too

22. EVO Running
Speaker is emphasised

23. Layout controlled automatically
EVO Running
Layout controlled automatically

24. Terminology EVO – Enabling Virtual Organisations
Panda Server – Back end infrastructure
Koala – User client
Vievo – Video Conferencing Client
jRAT – Java Robust Audio Tool
EVOWB – White Board

25. Architecture Each Koala connects into the ‘panda cloud’
All traffic to/from a Koala is to a specific panda

26. Architecture
Panda servers exchange data (audio, video, etc) as necessary
The ‘panda cloud’ is hidden from the end user

27. Koala

28. Redundancy Panda servers are the ‘data warehousing’ point
All users data is exchanged to the EVO environment through the chosen panda server
Upon connection the closest panda server is chosen
User can prefer another panda server

29. Redundancy
If the preferred panda server isn’t available – the next closest is chosen
No action’s required by the user

30. Monitoring

31. Overview
Overview of the Tools
Access Grid
EVO
Comparison
Summary

32. Unicast (Multicast) (3)
Feature Comparison
Feature
Access Grid
EVO
CODEC
H others(1)
H H.263
Transmission
Multicast / Unicast (2)
Unicast (Multicast) (3)
Other codecs available (ie: MPEG2, HDTV) although not in the current AGTk distibution
Multicast is the default; using a bridge Unicast is possible
Multicast available through the JANET UK community

33. Feature Comparison Feature Access Grid EVO Firewall Difficult (1)
Yes (2)
NAT
No (3)
Yes (4)
Ports defined on Venue Server; Unicast ports can vary (range)
All traffic (video/audio/IM/Presence/booking/..) uses a well defined unique port
Yes if using Unicast
All video / audio handled through TCP connection to Panda

34. Feature Comparison Feature Access Grid EVO Data Transfer
Direct between participants; or through bridge
All data through Panda server
Control Channel
Venue Server (no redundancy)
Panda server (redundancy)
Installation
Platform Specific Binaries
Java & Java Web Start

35. Feature Comparison Feature Access Grid EVO H.323 No Yes (1) SIP Yes
POTS
Yes (2)
Using a gate keeper possible to dial into an MCU or the PSTN using a standard phone number
EVO Phone gateway in several places in US, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Slovakia

36. Feature Comparison Feature Access Grid EVO Recording
External Application
Yes
Chat
Yes(1)
Yes(2)
Chat is limited to the currently active room
Separate chat windows are maintained for each community and the currently active room

37. Feature Comparison Feature Access Grid EVO Presence No Yes
Multiple Cameras
Yes (1)
Yes (2)
Experience Level
Moderate
Beginner
Room Based
Common
Possible
Desktop
Different Node configurations managed through venue server; rich configuration of cameras available
Start additional cameras using ‘aux video’; camera control very simple

38. Feature Comparison Feature Access Grid EVO Shared Applications
Desktop, Browser, (1)
Desktop, Whiteboard
Open Source
Yes No
Shared Applications can be written an integrated into the AG environment

39. Overview
Overview of the Tools
Access Grid
EVO
Comparison
Summary

40. Summary
Access Grid and EVO are both powerful multi-user collaboration tools
Access Grid has:
A large user base
Strong community
EVO has:
Easy to use
Cross Platform (Uses Java)

41. Summary
Access Grid and EVO are both powerful multi-user collaboration tools
Access Grid has:
A large user base
Strong community
EVO has:
Easy to use
Cross Platform (Uses Java)

42. Summary So which one to use … Your choice! 
Depends on the community …
Access Grid works very well in room based systems
EVO is a very simple desktop based system
Your choice! 