News for and about the Internet2 community

["Greg Wood" <>]

PROPOSALS FOR INTERNET2 PKI LABS NOW BEING ACCEPTED

Proposals for the Internet2 Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Labs are now
being accepted from campus units at Internet2 universities. The Labs will
focus on interoperability and manageability, trust models, and scaling in
technical and human dimensions of basic theoretic approaches to PKI.
Respondents to the RFP should share these interests and have demonstrated
effective collaboration with campus and corporate partners.

The two sites selected will receive significant equipment, resources, and
funds for graduate student support, with a large portion of initial support
provided by AT&T. These research relationships are expected to last at least
three years, but will depend on the extent of the need for development
within higher education. The Labs' research agenda will be guided by a
national advisory board of leaders in PKI development and deployment.

Responses to this request are due by June 30.  The responses should be brief
(3-5 pages), identifying the backgrounds and qualifications of the group,
including current research directions.  Responses and questions should be
sent by email to 
.
  Additional materials can be found
on the web at:
http://www.internet2.edu/middleware/pkilabs/

Contact
Greg Wood
Internet2

+1-202-872-9119
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From: "R. Sean Fulton" 
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Subject: News Release: Cisco Funds Network Research at Pittsburgh
 Supercomputing Center
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NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 15, 2000

Cisco Funds Network Research at Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center

PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center has received 
$100,000 from Cisco Systems to support a research project called 
Web100, the objective of which is to facilitate network transmission 
rates of 100 megabits per second. The gift provides initial funding 
for research into software that can "tune" computer operating systems 
to fully exploit available network bandwidth.

Connections across networks are managed by Transfer Control Protocol 
(TCP) software and research has shown that, in many cases, operating 
systems are configured in ways that can inhibit optimum TCP 
performance.

"For the evolution of the Internet on both the gigabit to terabit 
scale,  it is very important that applications are able to make 
optimal use of TCP to enhance their performance," said Robert Aiken, 
manager of Cisco's University Research Program which funds academic 
research in support of advancing Internet technologies. "The enhanced 
TCP network management instrumentation of the Web100 project is an 
essential and crucial first step towards this goal."

Web100 engineers at PSC and other participant research centers will 
develop software that works with the operating system and user 
applications to automatically tune the performance of TCP. By 
adjusting how TCP handles network connections, applications will be 
able to make full use of the available network bandwidth. Researchers 
will initially work with the Linux operating system but plan to 
assist all operating system vendors with incorporating their 
improvements.

"The goal of Web100 is to enable ordinary users to attain full 
appropriate network data rate without help from network experts," 
said Matt Mathis, PSC network research coordinator and one of the 
principal investigators of Web100. "This would be done in part by 
embedding appropriate diagnostics and automatic controls in the end 
systems, freeing the end user from needing a detailed understanding 
of the network." The Cisco gift will directly support Mathis' TCP 
tuning research.

The Web100 Project is a joint venture of the National Center for 
Atmospheric Research, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and the 
National Center for Supercomputing Applications.

More information on the Web100 Project can be found on the WWW: 
http://www.web100.org/

The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center is a joint effort of Carnegie Mellon
University and the University of Pittsburgh together with the Westinghouse
Electric Company. It was established in 1986 and is supported by several
federal agencies, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and private industry.


# # #

Contact:
         Sean Fulton
         Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
         412-268-7141
         


[R. Sean Fulton | Public Information Specialist  |  
]
 

[***** Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center | 412/268-7141 *****]
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Penn State and Ohio State Share Architectural Designs via Abilene

Architecture 481: Digital Design Media, Spring, 2000.
Professors: Michael Jemtrude, Loukas Kalisperis, Raymon Masters, 
Katsuhiko Muramoto

Architecture 481 (ARCH 481) is an advanced undergraduate course at 
Penn State's University Park campus that focuses on digital modeling, 
rendering, animation and video, image processing, and Web 
technologies in the context of architectural investigation, study, 
and presentation.

This past spring the professors and students of ARCH 481 pushed the 
borders of the course beyond the limits of Adobe Photoshop, Adobe 
Premiere, Electric Image, and Form-Z software, by using virtual 
reality tools via the powerful Abilene network to meet in cyberspace 
and share their designs with architecture students and faculty at 
Ohio State University.  Working with software created at the 
University of Illinois, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and Penn 
State (on facilities provided by Penn State's Center for Academic 
Computing and the Ohio Supercomputer Center) students created virtual 
buildings in a "tele-immersive," collaborative virtual world where 
they could simultaneously navigate and experience their designs. 
Software-provided "avatars" represented each individuals' location 
and orientation in this context, allowing participants to see and 
communicate (talk and gesture) with one-another virtually while, in 
physical reality, remaining  hundreds of miles apart.

The new software is expected to help increase student's comprehension 
of architectural concepts, since it enables them to tele-immersively 
explore each other's designs as well as access the thoughts, 
observations, criticisms, and recommendations of mentors and 
fellow-students located in other institutions.

Penn State's Department of Architecture, College of Arts and 
Architecture, is one of the first to incorporate Immersive Technology 
into undergraduate instruction.  The Department plans to extend 
tele-immersive collaborative design environments to include 
architectural students and faculty at SUNY-Buffalo in the fall 2000 
semester.

Contact Prof. Ray Masters, 
,
 for additional information.
Karen M. Hackett
Web Coordinator/Writer-Editor
Center for Academic Computing
The Pennsylvania State University

---------------
Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity, and 
the diversity of its workforce. 

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Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 16:21:53 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Lucy E. Lynch" 
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To: 

Subject: Prefontaine Classic Multicast to I2
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University Of Oregon To 'Multicast' Prefontaine Classic

GO ONLINE FOR FULL COVERAGE OF THE PREFONTAINE CLASSIC

While television viewers will be able to watch only one hour of the June
24 Prefontaine Classic on CBS, Internet viewers will be able to see the
entire competition, and those viewers with multicast capable networks can
get full broadcast quality. 

The University of Oregon Computing Center will will team up with Cisco
Systems to make the event available at full broadcast quality over the
Internet2 network.  Internet2 is a collaborative project among
universities, government and industry partners to develop advanced
Internet applications that are not viable using today's Internet
technology. 

"In Oregon, institutions with Internet2 access include UO, OSU, PSU, EOU,
SOU, OIT and WOU," says Joanne Hugi (director of the University Computing
Center).  "Individuals with direct access to these institutions' networks
and the right hardware and software will see the entire event at full
broadcast quality."  The UO will multicast ABC-TV's video and audio feed
at true broadcast quality from the crack of the first starter's pistol to
the final crossing of a finish line, using what's called MPEG2 technology. 
This technology takes advantage of the expanded broadband capabilities of
the Internet2.  UO Computing Center staff will broadcast the Prefontaine
Classic, through the Oregon GigaPoP, the state's access point to the
powerful fiber-optic network linking all Internet2 participants.  UO has
operated the Oregon GigaPoP since January 1999.  "With this multicast and
many other projects we are trying to extend the usefulness of the world's
increasingly powerful computer networking capabilities," Hugi says.  "It
is a big effort and in this case the UO Computing Center is working
closely with Cisco Systems and Nike to make this multicast possible."  For
those who don't have the computing power to receive the hefty MPEG-2
stream of information, but who nonetheless have direct access to
Internet2, UO Computing will also be sending out lower bandwidth, "near
broadcast quality" MPEG-1 and H.261 streams. 

Downloadable software and instructions for how to access the streaming
multicast of the Prefontaine Classic is available at:

http://videolab.uoregon.edu/pre-event.html. 

Modem users with regular Internet access can watch a still lower-quality
version of the track and field events in RealMedia format, accessible at
http://nikepreclassic.com/.  "Right now seeing a track meet in MPEG-2
format is a fairly advanced use of networked computing, but things are
moving forward so fast.  In a few years we expect this sort of opportunity
to be nothing out of the ordinary" Hugi says. 

Web References:

http://videolab.uoregon.edu/pre-event.html
http://preclassic.com/
http://nikepreclassic.com/

Lucy E. Lynch                           Academic User Services
Computing Center                        University of Oregon

                (541) 346-1774
Cell: (541) 912-7998                    

Key fingerprint =  2C 80 2F 8C 5F 68 37 E3  AC 16 09 F1 36 E4 61 15 

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From: Susan Andrews 
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Subject: Northwestern University Dorms Go Digital
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                by Nicole Ziegler Dizon
                   Associated Press Writer
                   Wednesday, June 21, 2000; 3:37 a.m. EDT

                   CHICAGO –– College couch potatoes, take heart: Schools 
across the
                   country are considering high-quality online video 
networks for dormitories,
                   meaning lectures could be only a mouse click away.

                   Northwestern University is in the middle of a $2 million 
network upgrade
                   that will deliver digital video to all of its dorms, 
allowing students to watch
                   lectures or other instructional videos without ever 
leaving their homes
                   away from home. Other colleges are following suit.

                   University computing chiefs said Tuesday that the 
technology is one step
                   toward linking hundreds of institutions through a new 
type of Internet.

                   "What the Internet did with its present capability, it 
made it possible for
                   anyone to become a publisher," said Mort Rahimi, 
Northwestern's vice
                   president of information technology. "The environment we 
are creating at
                   Northwestern is going to allow each one of our students 
at Northwestern
                   and our faculty members ... to become producers."

                   Digital video conveys crisp images into a computer 
through extremely
                   high-speed connections, eliminating jumpy images and 
long download
                   times associated with typical Internet video.

                   Northwestern plans to finish its upgrade within a month, 
allowing all 6,000
                   students in its dorms to send and receive digital video, 
Rahimi said.

                   The university already has developed instructional 
videos in Spanish,
                   French and German, and has hooked up a new lecture hall 
with digital
                   capabilities. Students will be able to watch lectures in 
real time or hook up
                   to the video later.

                   The video capability was made possible through 
Northwestern's
                   participation in Internet2, an experimental computer 
network with speeds
                   45,000 times faster than the best telephone modems used 
to surf the
                   Web. The network is limited to the academic world.

                   Other schools participating in the Internet2 project 
include the University
                   of Pennsylvania, which expects to have its dorms wired 
and ready by
                   2002.

Susan Andrews, Director of Communications
Division of Information Technology
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.  USA
Phone: 847.467.5930     Fax: 847.467.6500

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