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Video Conference Services Development in China During SARS

Congxiao Bao , Xing LiChina Education and Research Network Center(CERNET)

Tsinghua Univ.

Congxiao@cernet.edu.cn, xing@cernet.edu.cn

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Main points

Why we did?

What we did?

How we did?

What we learnt?

Next step

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Outline

CERNET Introduction

Severe SARS situation during April –June, 2003

CERNET video conference services during SARS

Experiences and observations

Future plan

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CERNET Introduction

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General Statistics

20,000km DWDM transport network

2.5 Gbps and multiple 155 Mbps links to 38 Pops covering all the provincial capitals

300 Mbps to Global Internet

100 Mbps to Advanced Networks (APAN、 STARTAP、 JANET)

1,200+ universities connected located in 200+ cities

12M end users

320M Students in China

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CERNET Topology

徐闻

长春

哈尔滨

乌鲁木齐

拉萨

西宁兰州银川

呼和浩特

台北

沈阳

南昌

西安 徐州

武汉 合肥

郑州

石家庄

北京

南宁

广州

福州

杭州

上海

南京

天津

贵阳

海口

三亚

湛江

无锡

大连

太原 济南 烟台

成都

长沙

重庆 黄梅

九江

昆明

青岛

汕头

唐山

汉中

宜昌

珠海深圳惠州

柳州百色 厦门

Backbone Regional

GigaPop

Pop

桂林

深圳

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CERNET Multicast Backbone

Native Multicast Service across 36 Pops all over country

PIM-SM/MBGP/MSDP and 10 Anycast RPs

Multicast routing ACL control

National peer– NSFCNET

International peers– APAN

– STARTAP

– JANET

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CERNET Multicast Network

STARTAP APAN-TXP

NSFCNET

nqhuBR+rp

R1.1rr s

CERNET

R2.1rr s

R3.1rr s

R4.1rr s

R5.1rr s

R6.1rr s

R7.1rr s

R8.1rr s

R0lBR

R0bBR

Rx6BR

R1arp

R8arp

R7arp

R6arp

R5arp

R4arp

R2arp

R2arp

rp rprp

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CERNET Multicast Monitoring

Two-layer monitoring system– Backbone

– Provincial nodes

Real time and history statistics– CERNET multicast beacon

– Multicast traffic monitoring

– MBGP monitoring

– MSDP monitoring

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Severe SARS situation during April –June, 2003 in Beijing and China

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Severe Situation

Beijing, from April 21-April 30– Newly diagnosed SARS patients: 150+/per day– New suspects: 200+/per day

The whole country– Reached 26 provinces

Travels, visits or face to face communications were not encouraged– International, national units; universities; student dormitories; or even canteens– Students dated behind iron rail fences

All public activities were canceled– Public meetings, classes in primary and high schools

Disinfections were required everyday (during peak epidemic time）– working half time– Disinfect 3 times/day

transportation tools, offices, shops, homes, students dormitories, classrooms, even books

Everyday excises were encouraged

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Influences

People were more cautious and were voluntary to cooperate with government

People spent more time at homes and depended more on Internet

More important tasks were needed to keep CERNET daily operation

CERNET Videoconference Service System was started

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CERNET Videoconference Services

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CERNET Videoconference Service Framework

video/audio encoder/decoder data sharing

Network Access Provider

Videoconference Service Provider

Users

Videoconference

monitoring

Videoconference security

Video conference management

Bandwidth management,multicast service,QoS,

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CERNET Video Conference Systems

Multicast– AccessGrid

– Windows Platform

Unicast– H.323

– PolyCom Platform

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Multicast VC System

CERNETmulticast Service

AG termAG term

AG term AG term

unicastAG term

AG Term

Reflector

multicast

AG TermAG Term

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Multicast VC Service (1)

Scale

– 20+ Multicast based AG compatible clients

– 100+ unicast clients using multiple reflectors

Activities

– University presidents reported SARS situations to MOE

– Researchers reported SARS research progress to MOST

– University presidents working meeting

– CERNET NOC day to day routine meetings

– Academic exchanges

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Multicast VC Service (2)

Lessons

– Large scale multicast video conference is a very useful tool especially

during SARS

– Running large scale multicast video conference system is a great

challenge.

– Trained human resource is key to success.

– Training in the day to day operation is a very effective method.

– Full dresses rehearsals before the formal meeting is necessary

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Everyday NOC meeting

Reporting to MOST

Univ. presidents reporting to MOE

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H.323 VC System

System

– Polycom 20 sites

– MCU 1 at CENET center

Mainly for international exchange and cooperation activities

– Global Presidents working meeting (APRU2003)

– Senior government staff training hosted by the World bank, Beijing office

– Overseas applicants reviewed by NSFC

– International conferences, International seminars

– Internet2 Spring member meeting

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APRU 2003

Spring Internet2 Member meeting

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Future Plan

CERNET2

– Native IPv6 backbone

20 cities (2.5Gbps - 10 Gbps)

200 universities

Next Generation Video Conference System to address

– Scalability

– Security

– Mobility

– QoS