News for and about the Internet2 community

["Greg Wood" <>]

                      Call for Participation
         BANDWIDTH-INTENSIVE NETWORK APPLICATIONS AT SC'2000
                        November 6-10, 2000
                           Dallas, Texas
                      http://www.sc2000.org/


OVERVIEW

The SC conference on high-performance networking and computing has
long been a place where high-performance computers and high-speed
networks meet.  At SC'2000 in Dallas, the Scinet team will be creating
a particularly exciting network infrastructure that will include
multiple multi-gigabit (OC192) links to the show floor and connections
to most high-speed national research networks.  In addition, the
showfloor itself will feature a state-of-the-art wireless network, as
part of the Escape event.  We hereby challenge the community to show
that this unique network can be used to demonstrate exciting
applications.

To this end, we are soliciting proposals for innovative (especially
bandwidth-intensive) application demonstrations.  The general idea
is that:
    - you will propose ideas for amazing applications that will
      both overwhelm the Scinet network infrastructure and deliver
      innovative application value, and commit to many sleepless
      nights getting these applications working
    - we will in turn commit to help you with:
        - high-speed access to networks
        - procurement and installation of specialized equipment,
          where necessary and feasible
        - space and equipment for your demonstrations, if you
          are not participating in a booth
    - we will also work to ensure that you efforts get the
      recognition they deserve, via publicity prior to and during
      the conference, publications, etc.
    - we will, in particular, award monetary prize(s) (of value
      to be determined) for the application(s) that our jury
      believes make the most effective and/or outrageous use
      of Scinet resources.

We request a statement of intent to participate by June 15th, to
assist with planning, followed by a proposal by July 15th.


EXAMPLES

The application ideas that you propose are entirely up to you, but
here are a few ideas to get you thinking.

* The National PC Cluster Switch: formed by connecting large PC clusters
   (e.g., at NCSA, SDSC, ANL, etc.) via an OC192 switch on the showfloor.
   Used for large-scale application demonstrations.

* SC'2000 High-Definition: HDTV-quality remote presentations and/or
   collaboration technology linking in multiple remote sites.

* Find the Top Quark: Use SC'2000 compute resources to analyze
   terabytes of high energy physics data transferred over the network.

* Break the world speed record for Terabyte data transfers (currently
   pegged at 900 Mb/s)


SO YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE?

We've instituted a formal "call for participation" process for two
reasons:
    - it allows us to find out what you want to do, and plan for it
      appropriately at the infrastructure level
    - it allows us to organize the publicity that will ensure that
      people get to find out about your work

Here's how you go about responding to the call for participation:

* By June 15th, send email to 

 indicating
   your interest in participating and outlining what you want to do.

* By July 15th, send us the following information:
      1. Demonstration title.
      2. Primary contact person's name, institution, e-mail address.
      3. Contact information for all collaborators (name, institution,
         e-mail address).
      4. Project description
          a. A paragraph summary of your application and its significance.
          b. A paragraph summary of hardware, software, and networking
             resources required for your application.
          c. A paragraph summarizing how you propose to communicate
             how your network uses Scinet resources
          d. URL address for further project documentation.
          e. Graphics illustrating your application are encouraged.
      5. Detailed technical requirements, including answers to these
         questions:
          a. What capacity network do you expect to require?
          b. Where are any off-site resources you will be using?
             What networks do you expect to use to access them?
          c. In what booth are any on-showfloor resources you will
             be using?
          d. Do you require multicast?  If so, to what sites will
             you connect?
          e. Do you require other than IP communications?  If so,
             provide details.
          f. Do you require specialized on-showfloor equipment for
             your demonstration, such as storage, computers,
             display devices?  If so, provide details.

A jury will review proposals for feasibility, and feedback will be
provided to assure successful presentations.

_______________________________________________________________
Ian Foster                                      http://www.mcs.anl.gov/~foster
Math & Computer Science Div.            Dept of Computer Science
Argonne National Laboratory             The University of Chicago
Argonne, IL 60439, U.S.A.               Chicago, IL 60637, U.S.A.
630 252 4619 (fax 5986)                  773 702 3487 (fax 8487)