The Access Grid

MCS FUTURESLAB ARGONNE CHICAGO

Rick Stevens, Terry Disz, Lisa Childers, Bob Olson

Argonne National Laboratory

www.mcs.anl.gov/fl/accessgrid

([email protected])

The Access Grid

An Introduction


Origins of the Access Grid


Evolution of the Grid Concept

• Metacomputing: late 80s– Focus on distributed computation

• Gigabit testbeds: early 90s– Research, primarily on networking

• I-WAY: 1995– Demonstration of application feasibility

• PACIs (National Technology Grid): 1997• NASA Information Power Grid: 1999• ASCI DISCOM: 1999 • DOE Science Grid: 2001• Commercial Startups

Applications

Apps Tools

Middleware

Networking

Resources


Related Work

• Berkeley and LBNL’s Mbone Tools (Jacobson et al.)• Xerox PARC MOO and Jupiter Projects (Curtis, et al.)• Argonne/NEU’s Labspace Project (Evard/Stevens et al.)• EVL’s CAVERsoft (DeFanti, Leigh, et al.)• ANL’s CAVEcomm and ManyWorlds (Stevens et al.)• ANL and ISI Globus Project (Foster, Kesselman et al.)• UNC’s Office of the Future (Fuchs et al.)• DOE’s Collaboratory Pilots (Zalusec et al.)


Some Questions We are Interested In

• What kinds of future collaboration environments are possible?

• How might teleimmersion enhance scientific collaborations?

• What is the value of persistence and spatial metaphors in collaboration and virtual environments?

• How can we cost-effectively improve group oriented collaboration environments ?

• What is needed from networking and middleware infrastructure to effectively support wide area collaboration and distributed visualization ?

• What are good software architectures to enable collaborative work systems?


Our Approach• Attack Research Questions in the context of real

world experience• Build Working Infrastructure as well as

Prototype Software • Involve multiple groups in deployment, use and

research• Participate (lead) in directions for new uses and

applications• Release software early and often (use open

source model)• Contribute to the Community Code base


An Overview of the Access Grid


Topology


Ambient mic(tabletop)

Presentermic

Presentercamera

Audience camera

Physical Node Design

• Spaces for small groups• Wide field of view • Comfortable• Persistent connection


Audio• Hands free

– No click to talk– No searching for microphones– Never have to think about microphones

• Interactive– Interrupt other speakers– Multiple conversations at the same time– Full duplex

• Clear – No background noise– Rich-sounding speech

• No feedback• No echo


Video

• Scale of imagery life-sized

• Highest quality, but affordable

• Multiple video streams

– Presenter close-up

– Audience view

– Audience close-up

– Display wall


Data

• Shared

– Powerpoint

– VNC

– Visualization

• Archived

– Voyager


Network

• Hardening multicast infrastructure

– http://beaconserver.accessgrid.org:9999/

• Large-scale networking testbed

– Higher bandwidth

– QoS

• Networking people active members of the AG

community


The Muds

• Two muds are used in the AG community– Access Grid Hangout Room

• Character generation is controlled• Characters reside there permenantly• Long-term social relationships have developed

– Access Grid Venue • Character generation is automatic• Characters come and go• Usage is event-driven


Virtual Collaboration Spaces

• A persistent location on the grid

• Not a physical space

• A dimension in which several physical spaces can be co-

located

• A place that can be entered and exited

• Supports multiple interaction modalities

• Text, audio, video graphics, animation, VR

• A scoping mechanism to support multiple

concurrent meetings

• A resource that can be reserved

Virtual Venue


The Workspace Docking Concept

Private Workspaces - Docked into the Group Workspace


Access Grid Project Goals

• Enable Group-to-Group Interaction and Collaboration

– Connecting People and Teams via the Grid

• Improve the User Experience: Go Beyond Teleconferencing

– Provide a Sense of Presence

– Support Natural Interaction Modalities

• Use Quality but Affordable Digital IP Based Audio/video

– Leverage IP Open Source Tools

• Enable Complex Multisite Visual and Collaborative Experiences

– Integrate With High-end Visualization Environments

– ActiveMural, Powerwall, CAVE Family, Workbenches

• Build on Integrated Grid Services Architecture

– Develop New Tools Specifically Support Group Collaboration

Documents

The Access Grid