News

Happy Holidays from Internet2

We at Internet2 would like to thank you for your involvement and support throughout 2011, and we look forward to working together in 2012. Please note that Internet2's offices will be closed from December 24 through January 2, and will reopen on January 3. We wish you very happy holidays and all the best for the new year.

Musicians Perform Together, Hundreds of Miles Apart

During the Internet2 Fall Member Meeting, Violinist Marjorie Bagley, from the University of North Carolina – Greensboro School of Music, Theatre and Dance, and Cellist Cheng-Hou Lee, from the Northern Illinois University School of Music demonstrated "LOLA" during a track session.The LOLA technology is a low latency, audio and videoconferencing technology that enables real-time, simultaneous, live musical performances across long distances over advanced research and education networks. The North Carolina Research and Education Network and the Illinois Century Network supported the demonstration. More information is available online.

A demonstration of LOLA and instruction on configuring a LOLA node will be presented at the Performing Arts Production Workshop, co-hosted by Internet2 and New World Symphony March 4-6 2012.   For details and to register, please visit http://events.internet2.edu/2012/nws/.

NDDI/OS3E Service Launch Overview Webinar

Software-defined networking (SDN) has the potential to provide the same level of customization for networks that apps have brought to cell phones. The NDDI/OS3E Service Launch Overview Webinar held earlier this month showcased the Open Science, Scholarship and Services Exchange (OS3E). This is the first service built on the next generation innovation platform for research and networking in the United States – NDDI (Network Development and Deployment Initiative) – a collaboration between Internet2, Indiana University, and the Clean Slate Program at Stanford University.

OS3E is being launched to support global research and create new opportunities for Internet2 members to innovate.  The webinar showcased exciting new SDN solutions to support astronomers, climatologists, physicists, medical researchers—anyone whose work depends on the exacting exchange of massive data files. The webinar slides (pdf) and Netcast (Adobe Connect) are available for download on the NDDI/OS3E Homepage. To speak more about obtaining an OS3E Port, please email: nddi@internet2.edu.

OARnet Rolls Out Standard InCommon Agreement for Ohio

The Ohio Academic Resources Network (OARnet) and Internet2 have developed a standard InCommon participation agreement for all public universities and community colleges in the state. These Ohio colleges and universities can save the time and legal resources they would have spent vetting and negotiating individual contracts. Recently, both PASSHE (the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education) and MEEC (the Maryland Education Enterprise Consortium) have signed such standard agreements for their states. The standard agreements help to streamline the process for joining InCommon, given that they ensure that provisions in the participation agreement are compatible with state law.

Taking Remote Instruments to a New Level with the VGo Robot

Stakeholders from the Region 12 Education Service Center in Waco, Texas, Baylor University, and the Texas Education Telecommunications Network are collaborating on a unique interactive project involving the remotely driven robotic telepresence device called the VGo robot. Working with Victor Cuellar, a vendor at SKC, a coordinated demonstration of the VGo was arranged at Armstrong Browning Library on the Baylor University Campus. By giving K-12 classrooms control of the robot, Baylor hopes to reach out to classroom with interactive, student driven (literally), collaborations with higher-ed library and museum resources. Learn more about this project.

InCommon Certificate Service Passes Milestone

More than 140 campuses have subscribed to the InCommon Certificate Service, which provides unlimited certificates for all domains owned by a college or university for one fixed annual fee. The service includes unlimited SSL, extended validation, client (personal), and code signing certificates. Subscribers report significant cost savings, as well as savings in time and overhead by the elimination of internal charge-back systems.

DYNES Update

The Dynamic Network System (DYNES) is an NSF-funded project that will develop and deploy a nationwide cyber-instrument spanning approximately 40 US universities and 11 Internet2 connectors aiming to provide network engineers with more efficient options to manage large data flows on their networks, control congestion, and optimize large, long-distance scientific data flows for the broader scientific community.

A collaborative team including Internet2, Caltech, University of Michigan, and Vanderbilt University is working with regional networks and campuses to support the installation of hardware amongst the 50+ sites.  Installation is scheduled in a phased approach among three distinct groups and should complete in early 2012.

DYNES capabilities were featured at SC11 and showcased the reach and capabilities of the instrument across the country, and ongoing efforts to peer the service with similar capabilities in South America and Europe through the NSF IRNC program. US DYNES sites had successful connections to South American sites (connected to RNP, via AMPATH in Miami) and Europe (AutoBAHN, the GEANT project, as well as to CERN).  DYNES is well on its way to demonstrating the ability of R&E networks to support data intensive science on a global scale and is an example of the types of advanced network services Internet2 is bringing to the US R&E community.

Winter 2012 ESCC/Internet2 Joint Techs (January 22 - January 26, 2012) will feature sessions to learn more about DYNES – REGISTER NOW

For the latest announcements concerning DYNES, subscribe to the dynes@internet2.edu mailing list. To ask questions of the DYNES project team, email: dynes-questions@internet2.edu.

Direct to the Wild: The Appalachian Trail

The Direct to Discovery (D2D) program at Georgia Tech brings world-class researchers and their laboratories directly into the K-12 classroom. D2D enables teachers and researchers to collaborate in providing rich, up-to-date science content that inspires, motivates, and empowers experiential learning. Direct from the Wild: The Appalachian Trail is a Direct to Discovery project whose purpose is to connect K-12 students from around the world in real time to an outdoorsman as he completes a 2,000 mile thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine.

Gary Summers, a Georgia native and avid outdoorsman, will hike the Appalachian Trail end-to-end beginning in mid-March and finishing in mid-October, 2012. Gary will be equipped with the latest in miniature high-definition video camera technology enabling students from around the world to see what Gary sees and engage with him in real time as he encounters the wonders of nature at points along the trail.

The project is currently being developed by Marshall Chambers at Georgia Tech. Marshall is looking for partners at Internet2 member universities located in close proximity to the Appalachian Trail to explore ways to establish the connectivity needed for the project. If you're interested in learning more about the project, Marshall can be reached via email at marshall.chambers@oit.gatech.edu or 404-407-7497.

EVENTS

Winter 2012 Joint Techs Conference

The Winter 2012 Joint Techs conference, which is the premier international conference of network engineers, will focus on software-defined networking (SDN), cloud computing, emerging technologies, and infrastructure support for data-intensive science. The meeting, co-sponsored by the ESnet Site Coordinating Committee (ESCC) and Internet2, will be held Sunday, January 22, through Thursday, January 26, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at the C.B. Pennington Jr. Building, C. B. Pennington Biomedical Research Center, and will be hosted by the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI). The deadline for early registration discounts and hotel reservations is Wednesday, December 21. To register, click here.

Mike McPherson of the University of Virginia and Mike Bennett of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will lead the discussions on cloud computing and emerging technologies on Monday, January 23. Steve Corbato of the University of Utah and Eli Dart from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) will chair the sessions on infrastructure support for data-intensive science on Tuesday, January 24. Matt Davy from Indiana University and Jason Lee from the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) will lead the software-defined networking meetings on Wednesday, January 25. In addition, tutorials will be held on constructing an OpenFlow network, installing equipment in a Colocation/Telco facility and building a successful infrastructure to support data intensive science.

Registration, general information, and a full schedule, are available online.

2012 Workshop on Performing Arts Production over Advanced Networks

Registration is now open for the 2012 Workshop on Performing Arts Production over Advanced Networks, hosted by New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida. Explore in depth the elements needed to do everything from simple one-on-one interactions to large scale stage productions and distance learning via advanced networks. The workshop is designed for an audience of educators, technologists, administrators, deans, CIOs and all interested parties are invited to attend. Registration and additional details are available online.

Governance Updates

AMSAC

The Applications, Middleware, and Services Advisory Council (AMSAC) met in December to review updates on the Net+ initiatives underway, as well as on various InCommon projects making significant progress, including the Assurance and Research & Scholarship Category programs. It also discussed various developments in the Internet identity space which affect R&E, including the Open Source Identity Management for Higher Education (OSIdM4HE) effort.

AOAC

The Architecture and Operations Advisory Council (AOAC) met on December 14. There was a discussion about transforming the opportunity that the new network provides into a new era of network innovation and leadership for the research and education community, including not only an 80x increase in capacity, but also the opportunity to include software defined network and application integration into the network capabilities in new ways. Staff also described progress on the new network build out with additional segments coming on line in the east and west. Wendy Huntoon, who has joined Internet2 as Senior Director of Research Support, joined the AOAC to describe the recently approved RAC Research Wave Program. On behalf of the AOAC, George Loftus, chair, thanked Cas D'Angelo, outgoing NTAC Chair, for leading the NTAC in working with the AOAC in the past year.

RAC

The Research Advisory Council (RAC) met in December and approved the Research Wave Program, which is now formally announced and available on the Internet2 website. In addition, the RAC reviewed and approved the core set of slides for a presentation aimed at computer science and network research faculty interested in using Internet2 infrastructure and services in their research projects. A presentation for the discipline science community will be developed next. Finally, the RAC identified three research areas to focus on in the coming months, forming subcommittees to collect information and then provide updates to the RAC during the next two advisory committee meetings. It also received an update from the CTO's office, including the R&E Network Research Liaison Program.