Connect. Communicate. Collaborate

educonfCoordinated support ofEuropean videoconferencing under the GN2 SA6 framework

Dimitris Daskopoulos, GRNET, AUTHAndras Kovacs, NIIFTNC2008, Bruges, 21/5/08

Connect. Communicate. CollaborateContents• Background• Problems targeted by educonf• What is educonf• educonf objectives• educonf services• Roadmap• More info

Connect. Communicate. CollaborateBackground• The community: VC administrators of the European

NRENs, academic and research institutions• Supporting high-end VCs in room and desktop setups• Voluntary hosting of third-party meetings for research

collaboration between various orgs in numerous countries• VoIP/VC connectivity between islands of deployments

– Currently H.323 based on ad-hoc world gks (GDS)– ENUM emerging for H.323 and SIP (NRENUM)

Connect. Communicate. Collaborate

Problems targeted by educonfPreparatory 1-year study of issues by TERENA TF-VSS• Lack of coordination between NREN VoIP/VC support• No interconnect monitoring tools• Difficulty discovering VC/VoIP deployment information• Volunteered multipoint resources for international meetings

Connect. Communicate. CollaborateWhat is educonf?A service development activity extending GÉANT2 services to

VC and VoIP collaboration across Europeeduconf matches the overall goals of the project by

developing services to take advantage of:• GÉANT2 high-speed, reliable and quality assured

international connectivity • GÉANT2 core services such as monitoring, QoS and AAI• The network of administrators (NREN and other

organizations)

Connect. Communicate. Collaborateeduconf objectives• Coordinate and support the effective resolution of

international VoIP and VC related problems• Monitor inter-NREN VoIP and VC connectivity• Advertize VoIP and VC communities and deployments to a

wider community of end users• Disseminate know-how for national and local deployments• Provide multipoint videoconferencing resources

Connect. Communicate. Collaborateeduconf project details• Service name: educonf• Partners:

CARNET, CESNET, GRNET, HEANET, HUNGARNET, NORDUnet, PSNC, REDIRIS, SWITCH, TERENA, UoM

• Budgeted effort:~54MM (GN2 Y4 + 6 months)

• Phases– WI1: Design and service definition– WI2: Implementation

Connect. Communicate. Collaborateeduconf servicesTowards inter-institutional VoIP / Video Conferencing• Multi-domain monitoring• Directory of deployments• Support services and procedures• Central resources

Connect. Communicate. Collaborateeduconf monitoringObjective: troubleshoot inter-domain VoIP/VC reachability

• Multi-domain VoIP/VC monitoring• Distributed monitoring nodes• Nagios monitoring platform• Status web interface

Connect. Communicate. Collaborate

educonf monitoring architecture

GDS/ENUMHU-GK

CH-GK

CZ-GK

GR-GK

SA6 HU-MP

SA6 CH-MP

SA6 GR-MP

SA6 CZ-MP

Test callDB conn

Nagios

monitoring visualization

SQL DB

Monitoring check parameters• Protocol: H.323 or SIP• Source / Destination• Date / Time• Status: yes/no/error

Connect. Communicate. Collaborateeduconf directoryObjective: support all inter-domain VoIP/VC operations

Collection of deployment info:• Infrastructure elements (gatekeepers, proxies, MCUs)• Dial-plan and calling methods• Advertising open NREN resources• Administrative and tech contact points (VC/VoIP admins)• Availability of endpoints / VC venues, MCUs, free GKs,etc

Public vs. private dataAvailable through web interface and map API

Connect. Communicate. Collaborate

educonf directory architecturePeriodic collection of deployment info:

• Start simple with a PULL model• Minimal installation requirements• Security considerations• Aging and validity of collected data

Connect. Communicate. Collaborateeduconf support services• Mailing lists • TTS with federated AAI access (EduGAIN)• Web site - Knowledge base• Troubleshooting procedures

– NREN admin initiated tickets– Response by target-side NREN admins– Interaction with educonf experts

• International scope problems– Country VoIP/VC service not reachable– Connection to MCU session cannot be made

Connect. Communicate. Collaborateeduconf website

Connect. Communicate. Collaborateeduconf central resourcesObjective: provide resources to international research

projects and organizations in need (address the digital divide)

• Open gatekeeper and proxy to allow easy connection to common dialling schemes (GDS, ENUM)

• Multi-point VC resources to provision international multi-party VC meetings, with guaranteed support

Connect. Communicate. Collaborateeduconf service matrixServices staff NREN admins Org admins end usersWebsite ● ● ● ●

Trouble Ticket System ● ● Future plans

Mailing list ● ● ●

Knowledge-base wiki ● ● ● ●

Directory Services ● ● ● ●

Connectivity monitoring ● ● ● ●

Echo-test services ● ● ● ●

Open gatekeeper/proxy Future plans

Central multi-point VC resource Future plans

Connect. Communicate. Collaborateeduconf roadmap• May ’08 - Website introduction• Jun ’08 - Initial deployment of support tools• Aug ’08 - Initial partner directory of deployments• Oct ’08 - Monitoring in place• Dec ’08 - Revision of Service Definition Document based

on pilot findings

Service phases• Pilot phase (Mar ’09 - end of GÉANT2)• Production services and improvements (GÉANT3)

Connect. Communicate. CollaborateFor more information • http://educonf.geant2.net

educonf web site

• http://intranet.geant2.net/server/show/nav.2013 SA6 on GÉANT2 intranet

Thank you!