1. Global Platform for Rich Media Conferencing and Collaboration
Philippe Galvez
California Institute of Technology
Feb 2nd, 2004
DESY Seminar

2. VRVS: What it is ?
The Virtual Rooms Videoconferencing System has been developed by Caltech since 1995 to provide a world wide videoconference service for education and research communities.
VRVS is a realtime distributed system which provide a scalable communication infrastructure for large collaboration dispersed all over the world.
Different technologies and protocols are supported (and mixed) and allow users to connect their preferred videoconference.
Supports Mbone, H.323, SIP, QuickTime, Access Grid, JMF and MPEG2.
The system is composed of 1 main server and several reflectors (network servers) spread around the world.

3. VRVS Web Service Design
Unified Web User Interface to schedule and join/leave a meeting independently of the application.
Multi-platform: Windows, Linux, MacOS and Unix
Easy to use: Everybody (from 4 to 77 years old) knows how to click on a web page today. Not true for running a VCR
Virtual Room Concept, Scheduling; Create a virtual space were people can exchange real-time information
Join or Leave a Collaborative session anytime. Do not need to know in advance how many participants and booked ports capacity. Just announce the meeting and people will join from anywhere.
Full Documentation and Tutorial
Self service: Don’t need a technician or expert to organize and join a conference

4. VRVS Reflector Implementation
Avoids Duplication of Streams on a given Link
Can be set to Unicast or Multicast mode or both
Connection peer-to-peer with neighbors network servers. Connectionless (more reliable to network breaks)
Enables Optimized Routing
Enables Bandwidth Control
Provide low latency communication
Could be use for real-time interactivity or broadcast
Provide elegant solution to cross firewall/NAT
Remote Management Features.
Compliant with IETF RTPv2 Protocol, ready for new applications.

5. VRVS Model Implementation
VRVS Web User Interface
Mbone Tools
(vic, vat/rat,..)
SIP
H.323
QuickTime
Player
MPEG
Minerva
Applications
Collaborative
VRVS Reflectors (Unicast/Multicast)
QoS
Real Time Protocol (RTP/RTCP)
Network Layer (TCP/IP)
done
Partially done
Work in progress
Continuously in development

6. VRVS Deployment and Usage

7. VRVS Reflectors Deployment
78 Reflectors deployed worlwide

8. VRVS Reflectors Deployment
79 reflectors Deployment World wide
in 27 Different Countries
USA 27
Spain 5
Brazil
Switzerland UK 3
France
Slovakia
Canada 2
Taiwan
Greece
Portugal
Israel
Japan
Pakistan
Italy 1
Germany
Chile
Poland
Venezuela
Hungary
China
Ireland
Russia
Czech Republic
Belgium
Romania
Australia
Finland

9. VRVS registered users and current usage as of Nov 4th, 2003
8029 different Users
Registered
from 102 Countries
USA
1932
Spain
1153
Italy
549
Switzerland
491
France
474
Brazil
421
Germany
402 UK
333
Japan
154
Canada
149
Taiwan, Greece, Argentina,
Russia, Slovakia, etc…

10. Machines and OS 1st : Windows 2nd: Linux 3rd: Macintosh
VRVS support different
Operating Systems
according to the need
and the demand of the
final users:
1st : Windows
2nd: Linux
3rd: Macintosh
4th: Other UNIX

11. Call Details Record (CDR)
Number of VRVS Meetings
Number of Participants
Total number of Minutes of video/audio connection
NOV 2003
692
2951
144 Days, 17h, 14mn
(3473 hours, 14mn)
DEC 2003
656
2734
129 Days, 18h, 57mn
(3114 hours, 57mn)
JAN 2004
687
2980
189 Days, 4h, 23mn
(4540 hours, 23mn)

12. Some Examples

13. VRVS on Mac OS X

14. VRVS on Windows KEK (JP) Caltech (US) RAL (UK) Brazil CERN (CH)
AMPATH (US)
Pakistan
SLAC (US)
Canada
AMPATH (US)

15. Example 1: 20 participants BRAZIL (3 sites) + SWITZERLAND (CERN) + USA (Caltech)

16. Exemple 2: 17 participants JAPAN + UK + SWITZERLAND + BRAZIL + USA (SLAC + FERMILAB)

17. Some Features

18. Network and Security
Possibility of tunneling (TCP or UDP) between reflector servers. All communications use only ONE port !
Peer-to-peer design with high scalability and flexibility
Solution for Firewall and NAT
Perform some packet recovery
VRVS Proxy Java agent for users behind NAT environement
Fix incompatibility between several H.323 end points
Remotely mute/unmute video or/and audio
Optimized network bandwidth utilization
Real-time packet loss monitoring
Support up to 16,000 Virtual Rooms (parallel meetings)

19. Administration Interface
Pure Java J2EE + XML
HTTPS/SSL secure web interface
Monitoring reflectors and users in ongoing conference
Full control on database

20. Monalisa: Real-Time Monitoring

21. With special 4 output graphic card Most powerful VRVS End Node
VRVS Virtual Setup
1 dual processors PC
With special 4 output graphic card
6400 x 4800 pixels
Most powerful VRVS End Node

22. What next ?

23. On-going and Future developments (1/2)
Adaptation to emerging standards: IPv6, SIP
Develop advanced monitoring and tracking tools for ad-hoc conference as well as scheduled multi-site conferences
Develop advanced network monitoring agents (based on Java and web services) to run on each network servers.
Possibility to automatic rerouting between VRVS network servers to find a better network path.
Improve Security (Firewall, NAT, Authentication, Encryption)
Develop a pure peer-to-peer VRVS reflectors network to be able to handle thousands of parallel sessions

24. On-going and Future developments (2/2)
Wireless/Mobile Client Integration:
User Interface dedicated for small screens
Integration of low end client:
Provide dedicated software clients (VVP, JMF)
Transcode streams to lower bandwidth
Support MPEG4
Integration of new hardware/software for high-end interactivity.
Developed a multipoint videoconferencing system based on MPEG4 compression standard.
Developed a system using HDTV standard If affordable hardware devices available.

25. VRVS, Caltech Team Philippe Galvez Gregory Denis David Collados
Project Manager
Pasadena (USA)
Gregory Denis
Main Web Developer
Geneva (Switzerland)
David Collados
Administration Developer
Kun Wei
Reflector Main Developer
Dave Adamczyk
CGI, Java and SIP Developer
Dennis Lattka
System operation responsible
Joao Correia
Support Responsible

26. Contact@VRVS.org Support@VRVS.org

27. Additional Slides

28. Virtual Access Grid
User can connect to either unicast or multicast videoconferencing with full supported features
User can create his/her own virtual AG node and virtual venues and integrated into VRVS
Different Video modes possible:
Voice switched: default mode for H.323 clients. one video stream at a time
Timer switched: browse through all the video based on preset timer. One video stream at a time.
Selected Streams: Click among the video participants to view selected video streams (one or several streams available).
All Streams

29. VAG with Mbone Clients

30. Conclusion: We believe that VRVS offers the following unique differentiators:
Usability – VRVS’ web-based user interface is easy to use and allows almost any desktop of videoconference suite to connect to a VRVS virtual room conference with only few clicks. Its default client apps enable multi-standards audio, video and data collaboration.
Scalability – VRVS scales up with the needs for quality and volume more elegantly and beyond anything possible now.
More simultaneous participants in a same virtual room
More simultaneous virtual room conferences
Wider range of video and data sharing quality

31. Flexibility – VRVS allows inter-operation of collaborative communications between end points of various audio, video and data sharing capabilities as well as different types of connectivity.
Efficiency – VRVS server software makes efficient use of bandwidth by routing required information only to various nodes.
Ubiquity – VRVS’ ease-of-use and scalability unlocks the value of network-based collaboration tools and allows anyone, anywhere, anytime to improve their collaborative experience.
Robustness – VRVS is field tested on a large scale for a long period of time. It has demonstrated exceptional reliability and simplified its deployment and use beyond anything available today (except maybe POTS and !)

32. Web based interface
VRVS provides a natural and intuitive interface to organize and manage your meetings.
Several interfaces let you see in 1 shot all current conferences, let you book a new one in 3 clicks.
Several academic communities are handled by VRVS. Each one has its specific Virtual Rooms.
VRVS manages multi international time zones in a transparent way.
Its use do not require technical knowledge nor technician action.

33. Connection Interface co-browsing of web sites
Connect / Disconnect the selected videoconference client
Provide different video modes
Allow CHAT and Private messages
Can share your computer desktop
Remote control of video cameras.
co-browsing of web sites
real time list of connected participants
share computer desktop with other participants