News for and about the Internet2 community

["Michelle Pollak" <>]

JOINT TECHS ATTENDEES EXPERIENCE RICH PRESENCE AND LOCATION SERVICES

WASHINGTON, D.C. - February 3, 2004 - Internet2(R) today announced that its
Presence and Integrated Communications (PIC) Working Group successfully
completed an experimental communications trial during the advanced
networking, Joint Techs Workshop in Hawaii last week.  The trial
demonstrated SIP-based (Session Initiation Protocol) voice, video, and
instant messaging over wireless fidelity (WiFi), and SIP voice conferencing
- all in the context of rich presence derived from WiFi location service and
enterprise calendaring.

"The rich presence efforts at Internet2 point the way towards
next-generation communication services, reaching far beyond the limited
presence and phone systems in use today," said Henning Schulzrinne,
professor in the Departments of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
at Columbia University.  "Beyond the old goal of reachable anywhere,
anytime, rich presence gives control back to users, so that communications
becomes planned and desired instead of disruptive and haphazard."

Participants downloaded and installed one of several integrated
communications clients onto their laptops allowing them to initiate voice,
instant messaging, and video calls to other participants - using the
receiver's email address as a single, converged electronic identity.

With the inclusion of rich presence services, participants were able to see
not only which of their buddies were online or offline, but also, for each
buddy, a current location, activity, and expected call quality.  As
participants used the meeting's wireless LAN infrastructure and moved from
one meeting room to another, their locations were tracked by WiFi location
technology from HP.  "The open-source SIP Express Router (SER) provided a
solid base for this demo," said Jiri Kuthan, member of the Internet2 PIC
Working Group and director of engineering at iptel.org.  "We were able to
extend SER to perform as a SIP presence agent serving rich location,
calendar, and expected call quality presence to clients."

"Location services can add enormous value to integrated communications
applications and can provide life-saving location information to emergency
responders," said Ben Teitelbaum, Internet2 program manager for voice and
integrated communications.  "Internet2 is working to ensure that these
technologies are designed and deployed to protect users' privacy and allow
users to control and filter what information about them is published."

Participants were also able to experience placing SIP voice calls to any
user at a SIP.edu-enabled institution (http://voip.internet2.edu/SIP.edu/)
and were able to eavesdrop on meeting sessions by calling special "room
buddies." 

"The result of this experiment, as well as the results of future
experiments, is a critical means of helping to determine what presence and
integrated communications means to the end user," said Jamey Hicks, member
of the Internet2 PIC Working Group and principal member of the technical
staff, HP Labs.  "Our goal is to develop an improved mode of communication
with a focus on location-based services using 802.11 - for people constantly
on the go and requiring constant contact, such as healthcare providers or
those in the business community."

The individuals who contributed to the success of this experiment are from
the following Internet2 member institutions (in alphabetical order):

+ Columbia University
+ Ford Motor Company
+ HP
+ University of Hawaii
+ University of Pennsylvania
+ Wave Three Software
+ Yale University

# # #

About the Internet2 Presence and Integrated Communications Working Group
The Presence and Integrated Communications (PIC) working group will foster
the deployment of network-based communication technologies through
demonstrations, tutorials, and initiatives in collaboration with both the
private sector and open-source initiatives.  This growing area will have an
effect on nearly every individual within higher education and also have the
potential to be a significant driver for network design, security, and
middleware.  For more information, visit: http://pic.internet2.edu.

About Columbia University's IRT Laboratory
The Internet Real-Time Lab (IRT) in the Department of Computer Science at
Columbia University conducts research in the areas of:
+ Internet telephony;
+ Streaming Internet media;
+ Internet quality of service;
+ Network measurements and reliability;
+ Service location;
+ Ad-hoc wireless networks;
+ Scalable content distribution; and
+ Ubiquitous and context-aware computing and communication.

About HP Labs Cambridge
HP Labs Cambridge (HPLC) is the primary advanced research facility for HP on
the East Coast.  For more information on HP Labs, please visit
http://www.hpl.hp.com.

About iptel.org
Based in Berlin, Germany, iptel.org is a leading innovation organization in
SIP technology.  iptel.org is a consultant to vendors and network operators
and is known for having created a unique open-source SIP server with premium
service in flexibility and high performance.  iptel.org's server, SIP
Express Router, has been powering public VoIP services of numerous providers
around the world.  For more information, visit http://www.iptel.org/.

About Internet2(R)
Led by more than 200 U.S. universities, working with industry and
government, Internet2 develops and deploys advanced network applications and
technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the creation of
tomorrow's Internet.  Internet2 recreates the partnerships among academia,
industry, and government that helped foster today's Internet in its infancy.
For more information about Internet2, visit: http://www.internet2.edu/.

Contact:
Michelle Pollak
Internet2
(202) 331-5345


---------------------------------------------------------------i2-news-+
For list utilities, archives, subscribe, unsubscribe, etc. please visit the
ListProc web interface at

    http://archives.internet2.edu/

---------------------------------------------------------------i2-news--