Experiences with the Access Grid:a tool for group conferencing for the

Computational Grid and beyond

Gavin W. Burris Senior Visualization Research Programmer Penn State Information Technology Services

Academic Services and Emerging Technologies Graduate Education and Research Services

Visualization Groupga5in@psu.edu

Access Grid

The Access Grid (AG) consists of multimedia display, presentation and interactive environments, interfaces to grid middleware, and interfaces to visualization environments, to support large-scale distributed meetings, collaborative work sessions, seminars, lectures, tutorials and training.

- http://www.accessgrid.org

What is Access Grid?

● Facilitates group-to-group interaction● AG nodes are “designed spaces”● Distributed data and visualization corridors● Provides persistent electronic spaces● The next killer app?

Origins of Access Grid

● Grew out of the Computational Grid– Funded by the National Science Foundation's Partnerships

for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI)– An initiative of the National Computational Science

Alliance (Alliance)– Argonne National Laboratory, Future Laboratory– National Center for Supercomputing Applications

(NCSA)

An Enabling Technology● Breakdown of time and space● Reduced travel cost: time, money & stress● Access to high-quality expert speakers and content● High-resolution audio/video/desktop sharing

– video H261(352x288) 25fps 800kbps– audio L16-16k-Mono 256kbps– desktop TightVNC 500-3000kbps

● Open development community● Access to a growing creative community

– currently over 150 nodes

http://www-fp.mcs.anl.gov/fl/accessgrid/nodes.htm

Available Nodes

Required Resources● Multicast networking

– 100bT for node hardware

– at least T3 or DS3 bandwidth to the Internet

● Physical space

– adequate seating, acoustics, lighting, accessibility

● Staffing

– Windows, Linux, A/V systems administrator

– senior networking technician

– non-technical scheduling/maintenance of room

– technical node operator

● Equipment costs ~ $25,000-$50,000+

● Software mostly free

Node Setup

● Put up a multicast beacon● Support persistent multicast ● Plan room● Order equipment● Assemble equipment● Install software● Testing, debugging and outreach

Equipment List

● 3x cameras● 3x projectors● display wall / projection

screen● 4x computer workstations

w/ cards● 2x audio speakers● 4x microphones● level balancing device

● 2x telephone lines● power conditioning

device● echo cancellation device● keyboard/video/mouse

switch● tables, chairs, lighting,

wall/ceiling mounts

Vendors

● Imprint Systems, Inc.● Dell● Gentner● Sony● Matrox● Hauppauge● Rartin

● Stewart Filmscreen● InFocus / Proxima● Genelec● Shure● Crown● 80/20

Room Design

● images from NCSA Access Grid Tutorial

A Compelling User Experience

● Audio seems to be the most crucial factor● Arranging equipment in a non-obtrusive manner

adds to the almost transparent nature of interaction during a well planned AG session

● Video is clear enough that natural communication takes place, even body language and normal face-to-face meeting etiquette

● Distributed PowerPoint, desktops, OpenGL and MPEG video offer rich content

AG Sessions

BU Access Grid user seminar seriesHPC & VIZ seminars

NDSU 2nd Virtual Conference in Genomics & BioinformaticsAlliance panelist meetings

Scheduled Events

http://www-fp.mcs.anl.gov/fl/accessgrid/schedule.htm

Precipitation of Activity

● After initial testing and debugging, our AG node was ready for general use

● Once a node is listed as a functional and some outreach/publicity is done, users most often find the node and ask to schedule

● The nature of the content on Access Grid is such that it precipitates interest and collaboration within the your research community

Things to Come in AG 2.0

● The current release of the Access Grid Toolkit is 1.0 for Linux and 1.2 for Windows

● AG 2.0 is a move to formalize the lessons learned from the AG 1.X software

● Globus authentication● Dynamic object oriented spaces● Transcoding for multi-modal participants, like

speech-to-text and resampling of data streams

Acknowledgments

● Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory● Boston University● Argonne● NCSA● ACM SIGGRAPH● SC 2002● ACM SIGUCCS

Further Information● NCSA Access Grid Training Project Tutorials

– http://webct.ncsa.uiuc.edu:8900/public/AGIB/● Access Grid Documentation Project

– http://www.accessgrid.org/agdp/● Information Technology Services @ Penn State

– http://its.psu.edu/● Penn State Visualization Group

– http://gears.aset.psu.edu/viz/– vizgroup@psu.edu