Internet2 Showcase
Internet2 regularly showcases our members' efforts on behalf of advanced research and education networking. We not only encourage Internet2 members to share their achievements with the community, but also the interesting people, events, developments and collaborations that make those achievements possible. If you have suggestions for news, events, projects or people that might be featured, please contact info@internet2.edu and include a brief description, appropriate links and images and contact information. Thanks for helping us spread the word.
Science and technology leaders from the United States and Mexico are gathering this week at the The University of Texas at El Paso to launch the first-ever, university-owned fiber optic connection between the U.S. and Mexico. The new high-capacity connection between UTEP and the Universidad Autónoma de Cíudad Juárez (UACJ) opens the door to unprecedented collaboration opportunities between the two sister universities, the Internet2 community and 78 Mexican universities and research centers interconnected by Mexico's Corporación Universitaria para el Desarollo de Internet, A.C. (CUDI) backbone network.
Texas A&M University (TAMU) will host an Internet2 Day on February 7. This day long event will feature opening remarks by Richard Ewing, TAMU Vice President for Research. Internet2 President and CEO Doug Van Houweling will deliver the keynote address. The agenda also includes a presentation by Jim Williams, Executive Director for Lonestar Education and Research Network (LEARN). LEARN—a cooperative effort of 31 institutions and organizations of higher education in Texas—provides high bandwidth transport to national networks and systems including the commodity Internet, the National LambdaRail, Internet2's Abilene Network, and TeraGrid. In the official release announcing the launch of LEARN, Williams stated, "With the realization of LEARN, the returns on investment for Texas will range from lower cost and higher reliability access to the Internet and Internet2's Abilene Network to support for a state-wide educational Intranet for K-20 to service deployment for telemedicine and homeland defense."
Other speakers at the TAMU Internet2 Day include Ben Teitelbaum, Internet2 Program Manager for Voice and Integrated Communications. Teitelbaum will be presenting an overview of Internet2 advanced applications activities. For those who cannot attend in person, TAMU is providing a live RealPlayer stream throughout the event from 8:00am-3:00pm CST (UTC -6).
The Internet2 Commons is deploying a new service pilot that will provide Internet2 members with access to a variety of real-time communications (RTC) tools. Providers of RTC services from across the Internet2 member community are invited to participate and offer their services through the pilot to Internet2 members. Jonathan Tyman, Program Manager for the Internet2 Commons, explained, "The mission of the Internet2 Commons is to promote and facilitate remote collaboration throughout the Internet2 research and education community. This new pilot will allow us to extend our service offerings to the desktop with real-time collaboration suites." Internet2 corporate member Wave Three Software was selected as the first participant in the pilot. Tyman continued, "Wave Three was selected because they offer a suite of standards-based, multi-platform products with proven interoperability, as they demonstrated to our member community during the Fall 2004 Internet2 Member Meeting." Bob Randall, the CEO of Wave Three Software added, "We are extremely pleased to partner with Internet2 Commons to deliver Session Communications Services. We believe our voice, video and data collaboration tools within the Internet2 environment will move communications to the next level by dramatically enhancing personal relationships and collaboration throughout the research and education community." More information, including the ability to try the Session Communications Services, can be accessed at the Commons RTC Pilot webpage. Internet2 corporate members, as well as university and affiliate members, are welcome to participate as service providers in the pilot. Please contact Jonathan Tyman for more information <tyman@internet2.edu>.
By bringing together technology leaders from, research institutions,
networking organizations, and the networking industry, the Internet2 Hybrid Optical and Packet Infrastructure (HOPI) initiative has designed a national network testbed infrastructure that will serve as a
foundation for cutting-edge experimentation and a model for the next
generation of Internet2's network architecture. With strategic planning
and technical guidance provided by a design team and a corporate advisory team, the initial deployment of the HOPI testbed is expected over the next three months.
The Visible Human and Digital Anatomy areas now have a large number of imaging and learning resources at various states of development and deployment. At the same time, anatomy teaching faculty at all medicals schools are experiencing cutbacks in teaching hours and staff. A new Internet2 Digital Anatomy BOF ("Birds of a Feather" group) is forming to explore the creation of an anatomy teaching resource accessible over Internet2. This will be a cross-cutting initiative with broad applicability and requiring the involvement of a diverse collection of communities. It will seize an opportunity created by a convergence of needs and technical capabilities, and will require the unique capabilities of the Internet2 community. The immediate result of the project will be the identification of technologies and standards needed to support a sophisticated collection of tools for teaching anatomy. Parvati Dev of Stanford University and Steven Senger of University of Wisconsin—LaCrosse convened a session during the Fall 2004 Internet2 Member Meeting to discuss the potential for a Digital Anatomy BOF within the Internet2 community and have now drafted a proposal entitled The Visible Human and Digital Anatomy Learning Initiative to officially launch the BOF.
ProQuest Company, an Internet2 corporate member, is a leading publisher of information solutions for the education, automotive, and power equipment markets. The company recently completed internal prototyping of the Shibboleth target component, with troubleshooting from Internet2 member UCSD, and now has a functional implementation in the ProQuest environment. ProQuest will continue to work with UCSD to implement a pilot, and plans to add additional universities to its Shibboleth pilot in 2005. ProQuest hopes to provide Shibboleth functionality to clients after the pilot phase is complete.
ConferenceXP is a Microsoft Research project that explores how to integrate real-time collaboration and distance learning with wireless-enabled classrooms and advanced audio/video technologies. ConferenceXP simplifies the development of collaborative tools and applications by providing high-quality, pre-packaged collaborative infrastructure, eliminating the need to build applications from the ground up. The ConferenceXP Research Platform enables researchers and developers to create distributed real-time collaborative applications with native support for high-fidelity audio and video while also providing mobility by taking advantage of Tablet PCs and high-speed wireless networks. To help further research and teaching in the areas of real-time collaboration, wireless-enabled classrooms, and distributed learning—Microsoft Research is seeking proposals for projects that will extend the Conference XP research platform and/or support the development of innovative learning applications. With this request for proposals, Microsoft Research encourages developers and researchers to incorporate collaborative technologies within their applications, testbeds, and frameworks to further enhance learning and research processes by funding creative projects that will have an impact and advance the state of the art within their domains. The deadline for the first submission of proposals is February 1, with a final deadline of March 3.
Extending the upgrade completed last year, every link of the Abilene Network is now operating at 10 gigabits per second, or nearly 10,000 times faster than a typical home broadband connection. Abilene, which connects 230 Internet2 member organizations as well as education networks in 34 states, provides advanced network capabilities such as scalable multicast and IPv6, and routinely supports the most demanding network applications. For network researchers, the Abilene Observatory project provides unprecedented data and support from a nationwide production network.
Training professionals for real-world application of knowledge and skills is a major challenge; simulations can be used in training to enhance understanding, improve performance, and assess competence. Dale Alverson, one of the co-principal investigators for Project Touch (Telehealth Outreach for Unified Community Health) explains, "Each year more than 46,000 people die as a result of medical errors. Medical simulation improves patient safety by offering new ways to 'train and maintain' skills." Alverson will be among the presenters at the Emerging Trends in Medical Simulation workshop, taking place in conjunction with the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality conference (26-29 January in Long Beach, CA). The workshop will describe how tools such as fully immersive, interactive virtual reality (VR) simulations—presented using advanced technologies, such as multiple Access Grid nodes connected across Internet2 and other advanced networks—allow dissemination of these simulations and enable collaborative learning independent of distance. This cutting-edge research integrates computing, advanced networking, and human-computer interfaces to provide new approaches to how people learn by creating interactive experiential training environments. In terms of learning outcomes, students who participate collaboratively in problem solving and managing of a simulated patient find that opportunities to make mistakes and repeat actions using the VR interface are extremely helpful in learning specific principles. They also feel more engaged with the "patient" than in standard text-based scenarios. Alverson concludes, "VR simulations create a safe environment to make mistakes and endless opportunities to repeat and practice, as well as provide a platform for training refreshment."
This project was supported partially by grant 2 D1B TM 00003-02 from the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth, Health Resources and Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Health Resources and Services Administration.
Two separate international teams have each set new Internet2 Land Speed Records (I2-LSR) by sending data at more than 6 gigabits of per second (Gbps) across distances spanning more than half the circumference of the Earth. A team with members from Caltech, CERN, and CENIC set the latest IPv4 multiple stream record using Caltech's FAST TCP, and a team with members from the University of Tokyo, Fujitsu Computer Technologies, and the WIDE project set a new IPv4 single stream record with a transfer rate of 7.21 gigabits per second.
The Big
Video project group, a subcommittee of the Internet2-ResearchChannel
Working Group, is developing an online DV Guide to provide increased visibility for video content distributed by Internet2 members that leverages advanced networking. For example, DVTS
uses widely available cameras, PC's, software, and hardware to multicast DVD-quality video at 30 megabits per second. This technology will be demonstrated with
streams from five separate campuses at the upcoming PTC '05 conference.
Internet2 and the New World Symphony are hosting a hands-on audio/video production workshop. The emphasis will be on real-time experience connecting with remote sites over Internet2, setting up incoming and outgoing audio, creating a multi-camera shoot, placing lights and projectors and operating codecs. This workshop will explore in depth the elements needed to do everything from simple one-on-one interactions to larger scale stage productions via Internet2. The workshop takes place 24-26 January at the New World Symphony campus in Miami Beach, Florida. The workshop is designed for an audience of technologists responsible for setting up distance learning and remote interactive media events. Administrators, deans and CIOs will find January 24th of most interest, while network and audio engineers and other hands-on technicians will find the 25th and 26th most relevant.
Do you have a project or event you'd like to bring to the attention of the Internet2 community? The Internet2 Showcase is open! Please submit suggestions for Showcase. See the Past Showcases archive for a wide variety of examples. Thanks, and happy holidays!
The Internet2 applications web page Showcase will be taking a brief break during the holiday season. Please check our web site again on January 3 for a new applications Showcase feature. In the meantime, you can review some of the highlights from the past year in our Showcase Archive. We are always eager to feature advanced networking applications, research, events, or people in our weekly web page Showcases. If you have something you would like to feature on the Internet2 applications web page, please contact Susan Topol <stopol@internet2.edu >.
Qwest Communications, an Internet2 corporate partner since 1997, and Internet2 have announced an agreement by which Qwest will continue providing optical and SONET network
services to Internet2. In this latest agreement, Qwest will continue as the backbone transport provider for the Abilene Network through September 2007. Under the extension, the Abilene Network will continue using nearly 10,000 route-miles of Qwest's 10-Gigabit-per-second optical network, providing Internet2 members with advanced, reliable connectivity for ongoing collaboration and innovation. The new agreement builds on an original agreement executed in April 1998 and subsequently extended for five years in October 2001.
Photo courtesy of the University of Delaware.The University of Delaware (UD) and collaborators are working cooperatively on an Internet2 project to improve services to students and teachers at the Delaware School for the Deaf at the Margaret S. Sterck School. This educational initiative uses Internet2 advanced technologies and videoconferencing to provide top-flight tutoring for students who are deaf and hard-of-hearing, as well as quality training for teachers from remote sites across the US. The project was unveiled during a special event on 15 November 2004 at the Sterck School, marking the first time Internet2 has been used in a Delaware public school. UD Provost Dan Rich commented, "As a state university committed to partnerships that benefit the people of Delaware, we see this use of Internet2 as a logical extension of the services available on our campus." In addition to providing quality tutoring for students who are deaf and hard-of-hearing, the Sterck School project addresses the shortage of trained instructors who are knowledgeable in both the academic subject areas and in sign language. The project will use Internet2-based videoconferencing to bring tutoring by pre-service teachers in the deaf education graduate programs at the University of Tulsa and Kent State University to the students at Sterck. According to Richard Sacher, a manager in UD's Information Technologies-User Services office, "This collaboration provides an excellent example of bringing scarce human resources to locations of need in cost-efficient ways." The Sterck School project is part of a larger UD initiative to demonstrate the benefits of providing Internet2 access to Delaware schools and colleges, museums, hospitals and other nonprofit organizations with educational and research missions.
Internet2 SIP.edu program now reaches over 140,000 users who can now receive voice over IP (VoIP) calls at their university email address. Spanning campuses across the world, SIP.edu has been adopted by leading institutions including Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, University of Hawaii, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Colorado State University, University of Alaska, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich. Begun in March 2003, SIP.edu seeks to promote the convergence of email and voice identities, the rapid growth of SIP accessibility, and the widespread deployment of enterprise SIP servers to serve as learning platforms for schools and research institutions looking to experiment with new enterprise SIP services.
What do schoolchildren in Berrien County, Michigan and scientists at the Supercomputing and Networking Center in Poznan, Poland have in common? They'll all be participating in the Megaconference worldwide videoconferencing event on 9 December 2004 (8:00 am to midnight EST, UTC -5). Participants from around the globe will join this interactive conference via videoconference over advanced networks, which will be streamed live for viewing by anyone with an Internet connection. Now in its sixth year, the Megaconference has been a hallmark event for learning about cutting-edge uses of videoconferencing. This year's program focuses on the theme "Let's Talk: Global Communications, Innovation, and Participatory Videoconferencing." Megaconference also pushes the state of the art in videoconferencing, allowing both H.323 and SIP software participants for the first time, with more than 300 sites and an estimated audience of more than 3,000 people worldwide, not counting those who watch the simulcast streams.
ResearchChannel participants AARNet and ResearchChannel demonstrated the first use of live uncompressed High Definition (1920x1080/60i) video between Canberra Australia, Seattle WA and Pittsburgh at the recent SuperComputing 2004 event.
Built using “off the shelf” commodity hardware, the system, developed by ResearchChannel supports uncompressed High Definition video using advanced IP networks. The quality amazed conference attendees, who were able to interact in real time from the show floor with guests in the Canberra and Seattle studios.
Intercontinental data flows of 6gigabits per second were maintained throughout the event utilising the high bandwidth capabilities of the National LambdaRail and SXTransPORT networks.
The partnership between ResearchChannel and AARNet has spurred the development of high speed networks and enabled data transfers previously unavailable between the two continents opening a whole range of scientific and research collaborations that exploit new Internet technologies.
The National Library of Medicine (NLM), Internet2, and the Metropolitan Research and Education Network (MREN) are collaborating to present a series of tutorials and demonstrations of advanced networking technology and its future application in the healthcare arena. The tutorials and demos—taking place at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago on November 28 to December 3—will provide attendees with interactive access to these advanced technologies, while highlighting their relevance to the practice of medicine. The Internet2/NLM tutorials and demos will be part of the infoRAD exhibit space at RSNA. The infoRAD area is designed to showcase the most innovative technology solutions in an interactive, educational environment. MREN provides the high-speed link from McCormick Place to Internet2's Abilene Network, allowing radiologists and researchers to get hands-on experience with high-performance networking applications that show promise for the future of medical education and practice. McCormick Place is the first convention facility to have permanent Internet2 capabilities.
