News for and about the Internet2 community

["Greg Wood" <>]

CONTACT:
Jeff Ogden
Merit Network, Inc.


New High-Speed Connections are Now Available for Internet2 Applications
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Six Michigan organizations now have better access to other sites connected
to the Internet2 high-speed Abilene and very high-speed Backbone Network
Service (vBNS) data networks, which will greatly enhance their use and
development of Internet2 applications. Michigan State University, Michigan
Technological University, the University of Michigan, Wayne State
University, Merit, and the University Corporation for Advanced Internet
Development (UCAID) office in Ann Arbor all share access to the Michigan
GigaPoP and through the GigaPoP on to Abilene, the vBNS and other high
performance research networks.

During August, an OC12c network attachment was installed between Ann Arbor
and Cleveland, which provides the Michigan GigaPoP with a 622-Million bit
per second (bps) data pipe to the Abilene Network. The Michigan GigaPoP has
had access to Abilene or the vBNS since August 1997, but that access was
limited to at most 155-Million bps, and that bandwidth was not available
exclusively for high performance use. The new OC12c attachment is only used
to carry high performance traffic. The 155-Million bps attachment remains
in place and continues to carry both commodity and high performance network
traffic.

Also during August a 155M bps attachment for Wayne State University and a
45M bps attachment for Michigan Technological University were put into
service. These attachments give both universities access to the Michigan
GigaPoP and on to Abilene and the vBNS. Both attachments carry commodity as
well as high performance network traffic.

"The new Abilene connections represent a huge improvement in our Internet
capabilities," said Dr. Alan McCord, Director in the University of
Michigan's Information Technology Division. "Until now, researchers have
had to contend with high levels of commodity Internet traffic because of
our limited access. Today, our researchers can take full advantage of this
very high-speed connection without competition from other Internet traffic."

According to Jeff Ogden, Associate Director, Merit Network, "High
performance networking, such as that which is now available over Abilene
and which will become increasingly available as new end-to-end Quality of
Service protocols are implemented, will support research activities by
providing the highest quality network access to other national and
international research organizations. But the goal is not only to provide
good networking or higher speed networking, but more importantly, to allow
the creation of new network applications that are simply not possible on
today's commodity Internet. For example, the remote control of scientific
instruments or colaboration environments that include high quality real
time audio and video between multiple participants."

The high-speed Abilene attachment is made possible in part with financial
support from the National Science Foundation and with assistance provided
by Ameritech Advanced Data Services.

For more information on Internet2, Abilene, vBNS, UCAID and other high
performance network connections, check the Web at http://www.merit.edu/i2/
or send questions via e-mail to Jeff Ogden at Merit 
().

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From: "Vinay D. Anand" 
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Subject: NetAid concert and IP Multicast
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IP Multicast:  Delivering NetAid Live to Your PC!

On October 9, Cisco Systems and the University of Oregon will 
conduct the first large-scale Internet Broadcast trial enabled 
by two key Cisco technologies, IP Multicast and IP/TV. The University 
of Oregon will source the NetAid concert as well as back-stage 
interviews with artists from New York, London and Geneva to 
Internet2 universities worldwide. University students will 
experience the Internet of the future -  today. With no bandwidth 
issues and no image quality degradation!

Technology Behind Internet Broadcast
------------------------------------
Two Cisco technologies are key to bringing this Internet Broadcast 
trial to life. IP Multicast, delivered by Cisco IOS Software, enables 
the transmission of high-bandwidth applications, including live video 
and audio, over the Internet to PCs at multiple sites - with no impact 
on bandwidth or quality degradation. The second key technology is 
IP/TV, a complete network video solution that delivers TV-quality 
video program to PCs. With IP/TV, every networked user can watch 
management broadcasts, training programs, university classes, business 
TV and other programs from their own desktop. Cisco is spear-heading 
efforts to build the network infrastructure necessary to unicast the 
NetAid concert on the Internet, and simultaneously multicast the 
concert on the Internet2.

NetAid:  Helping to End Extreme Poverty
---------------------------------------
NetAid is a unique partnership led by Cisco Systems and the United 
Nations Development Programme (UNDP), working with world-class 
artists and producers to raise awareness and create opportunity for 
one of the most far-reaching problems in the world today - extreme 
poverty. NetAid marks the first time that an Internet site, webcasting, 
television and radio have been integrated on a global scale, creating 
a uniquely powerful force to support social change. Three live, 
overlapping concerts on October 9 in New York, London and Geneva will 
be broadcast around the world on television, radio and the web, 
launching NetAid with unprecedented visibility and energy. 

This event gives us all a chance to work together to combat poverty, 
and we are delighted to be teaming with you on this critical project. 
Our collaboration, will help increase viewership for the NetAid 
concert on October 9, boosting the United Nations fund-raising effort 
to fight hunger around the world.

NetAid will empower millions of individuals to help fight poverty by 
providing education, opportunities for engagement with anti-poverty 
projects and leaders, and through an e-pledge capability, enabling 
people to contribute money, time or other resources to anti-poverty 
efforts of their choice. Proceeds from the concerts, web donations 
and other resources raised by NetAid will go to the NetAid Foundation, 
an independent foundation run by the major NetAid partners. The NetAid 
Foundation will disperse money to UNDP and its projects, other UN 
agencies and private relief organizations.

Getting Your School Connected
-----------------------------
As one of the participating universities in this inaugural large-scale
Internet2 multicast, we are pleased to provide your university community
with free Cisco IP/TV Viewers for viewing the NetAid concert multicast.
 
Cisco IP/TV includes IP Multicast technology, which transmits one 
stream of data to many people without straining network bandwidth, 
thereby delivering high-quality live video and audio to all viewers.
 
The Cisco IP/TV Viewer offers users an easy-to-use interface. With
point-and-click simplicity, the requested program appears in a separate
viewing window.  Then the user can adjust volume and scale the viewing 
window to full-screen size for a TV-like experience.
 
We encourage you to set up and refer your user community to an internal
Web site where they will find information on how to download the IP/TV 
Viewer software, some commonly asked questions about IP/TV, a reference 
manual in PDF format and an e-mail form to return to Cisco to receive 
support before, during and after the broadcast.
 
We will be setting up a Cisco web site to access and retrieve all this 
information. There will also be HTML pages available there to aid you 
in setting up your own site.
 
The immediate benefit of downloading the IP/TV Viewer is that anyone 
will be able to watch the NetAid multicast from the convenience of 
their PC. But the benefits continue for a full year. Upon download, 
users will automatically receive a license to use the IP/TV Viewer 
for 12 months.

After the NetAid concert, the University of Oregon will be a continual 
source of content on the Internet2, and will provide a wide range of 
programs including public broadcasts, pre-recorded NASA flights, and 
music programs.

If you have questions, please contact Christine Falsetti at 
.
 
Once again, we look forward to working with you to make the NetAid 
concert a successful fund-raising event.

Best Regards.
Christine Falsetti
Vinay Anand

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Important Information and URLs 
------------------------------

1. Information needed to view content on IP/TV

[Please note that more technical details will be announced in a 
followup message next week. More then 10 sessions will be available 
to view the NetAid event]


Tune your IP/TV to the following sessions:

Ongoing (beginning next week):
Primary Content manager:   iptvhost.uoregon.edu
Secondary Content manager: iptvhost2.uoregon.edu

Session names: NetAid Test (H261)
               NetAid Test (MPEG1)
 
Speeds:        H261 bitrate: 325 K 
               MPEG bitrate: 1.5 M 

To view the live NetAid Concert 
--------------------------------
Tune in on October 9th, from 9:00am to 9:00pm PDT:

Session names: NetAid (H261)
               NetAid (MPEG1)
               [More session names will be announced shortly]


2. For more information, visit the following websites.

IP Multicast 
Technical Overview:     http://www.cisco.com/ipmulticast
For technical details:  ftp://ftp-eng.cisco.com/ipmulticast.html
IPTV                    http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/732/net_enabled/iptv/
NetAid                  http://www.netaid.org

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From: Karen Green 
<>
Subject: NEWS: SC99 Webcasts Will Feature Key Events 
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***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***

Contact: Karen Green, 217-265-0748, 


***SC99 Webcasts Will Feature Key Events****

PORTLAND, OR, September 29,1999--Since the first Supercomputing conference
took place in 1988, the number of participants has increased by more than
400 percent. As the conference's popularity has grown, the opportunities to
become involved in conference proceedings have grown too. 

At this year's conference, now called SC99,  people who cannot attend in
person can still participate through live webcasts of selected
presentations. The webcasts will be available through SCinet99, an
integrated network environment constructed specifically for the conference.
Also featured will be a robotic camera allowing viewers to pan the exhibit
hall and zoom in on exhibit floor booths from their home or office computers.

"Today's high performance computing (HPC) technologies will make their way
onto the public's desktops and into everyday life just a few years down the
road," said Greg Johnson, a programmer/analyst at the San Diego
Supercomputer Center and head of the SC99 webcast team. "The SC99 webcasts
will give a much broader audience the chance to hear and see the future
through the eyes of the leaders in the HPC world."

This year's webcasts will be offered in multiple formats: RealAudio at 20
Kb/ps for users with low bandwidth Web access; RealAudio and RealVideo at
200 Kb/ps for users with unicast capabilities; and, tentatively,
RealAudio/Video at 500 Kb/ps for users with mutlicast capabilities. All
webcasts will be compatible with RealNetworks 5.0 and G2 players.  Because
the talks will be available on video through either the ACM or the IEEE,
the SC99 committee will not archive them.

Talks that will be Webcast are:

*The keynote address by Donna Shirley, former head of NASA's Mars
Exploration Program, 9 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 16;

*State of the Field talk by Vinton G. Cerf, senior vice president for
Internet architecture and technology at MCI WorldCom, 8 a.m. Wednesday,
Nov. 17;

*State of the Field talk by Salvatore J. Stolfo, professor of computer
science at Columbia University, 9 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 17;

*State of the Field talk by Greg Papadopoulos, chief technology officer at
Sun Microsystems, 8 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 18;

*State of the Field talk by Daniel Reed, professor and chair of the
computer science department at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, 9 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 18; and

*Presentation by Henry Fuchs, University of North Carolina, who will speak
following the SC99 awards presentation, 3:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 18.

Instructions for accessing the Webcasts are available at
http://www.sc99.org/webcasts. A Webcast Help Desk will be available shortly
before, during, and after the events.

Feasibility of Webcasts for the Deaf to be Demonstrated

The webcasts, now in their second year, will also be used to demonstrate
the feasibility of including sign language and real time captioning as a
service on high-performance grids. The SC99 webcast team will work with the
Trace Center at the University of Wisconsin at Madison on this effort. The
long term goal of the Trace Center project is to make using a grid (an
array of services and resources linked by high-speed networks) more user
friendly to the deaf and hearing impaired. Eventually, these users should
be able to launch an application and have a window appear on their computer
screen, which would show either sign language interpretation or closed
caption text of any conversation taking place within the application.

SC99, the annual high-performance networking and computing conference, will
be held Nov. 13 - 19 at the Oregon Convention Center. The general advance
registration deadline is 5 p.m. Eastern Time, Friday, Oct. 8. For more
information on registration and SC99 programs, see http://www.sc99.org/.

###

---------------------------------------------------             
Karen Green
Assistant Director for Communications
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
605 E. Springfield Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820

ph: 217-265-0748, fax: 217-244-7396 
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/
----------------------------------------------------

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