News for and about the Internet2 community

["Lauren B. Kallens" <>]

INTERNET2 SHOWCASES TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVES AT SC2004

Internet2 Staff to Highlight Latest Networking and Application Advances 


PITTSBURGH, PA, November 9, 2004 - The annual SC conference highlights the
most innovative developments in high-performance computing and advanced
networking. This year, Internet2 is playing an active role in SC2004 by
providing advanced networking capabilities to the conference and showcasing
community expertise and accomplishments through an impressive schedule of
workshops and presentations.

In conjunction with various leading organizations in advanced networking,
Internet2 will provide engineering and connectivity for SCinet, the
collection of high-performance networks built each year to support the
conference, and will support SCGlobal, which links Access Grid communities
from around the world to exchange information and ideas through
presentations, workshops, and other interactive forums.   

Additionally, the Internet2 booth (#2241) at the SC2004 exhibit area will
feature a series of presentations hosted by Internet2 staff, and members of
the Internet2 community, on the latest advances in network performance
tools, security, digital video, next-generation networking, and more.  

For the complete schedule of sessions, visit:
http://events.internet2.edu/2004/sc2004-schedule.html

Internet2's SC 2004 program highlights include: 
HOPI
This presentation will provide an overview of the Hybrid Optical and Packet
Infrastructure Project (HOPI). The goal of HOPI is to examine future network
architectures that combine capabilities, from both the packet switched and
circuit switched worlds, and create a hybrid of these two types of
infrastructures. To enable the testing of various hybrid approaches, the
HOPI testbed will utilize resources from Abilene, from the RONs (regional
optical networks), from National Lambda Rail (NLR, of which Internet2 is a
key participant), and from other internationally connected facilities such
as MAN LAN (Manhattan Landing) in New York City. 

Internet2 Commons
The Internet2 Commons offers subscription H.323 Videoconferencing services,
along with streaming and archiving of conferences, firewall traversal and
SIP bridging capabilities. This session will explore how the Commons
supports adoption and development of useful collaboration technology. In
addition to continuing its support for Access Grid and VRVS, recent advances
in server-based collaboration tools has led the Commons to explore these new
technologies and ways to facilitate their use by the broad Internet2
community. A pilot program with Internet2 Corporate Member, Wave Three
Software will be rolled-out later this year. 

Internet2 DVGuide 
The Internet2 DVGuide will list institutional content that is being
multicast across the Internet2's Abilene Network.  It will allow Internet2
members to take advantage of the Internet2 network to share their local live
events, local video productions, as well as the content from their local
student television networks. The DVGuide provides member institution an
opportunity for greater visibility while providing the Internet2 community
further understanding and deployment of advanced network technologies such
as multicast, and IPv6.  This session will overview the capabilities and
features of the DVGuide and how it may be useful in various settings.

Internet2 Land Speed Record 
The Internet2 Land Speed Record contest provides researchers a venue to
demonstrate how well TCP can stream data over the global Internet. In the
past several years we have seen TCP speeds increase by an order of magnitude
(800 Mbps to 6.6 Gbps) while the distance has increased by a factor of 6
(5,000 Km to 29,000 Km). This session will cover a variety of topics on the
LSR contest, including a history of the contest, the current records, and
future directions. 

Logistical Networking 
The use of Logistical Networking (LN) technology by the Computational
Science community has been growing rapidly for the past few years. Both end
users and application developers are finding that this revolutionary
synthesis of shared storage and high speed networking makes it easy for them
to get outstanding performance (10s-100s of Mbps) for data intensive and
collaborative applications of all types. This presentation will highlight
the LN tools including Logistical NetCDF, Logistical Distribution Network,
Logistical Runtime System which are critical to LN technology. 

piPEs Overview
This presentation will talk about the Internet2 End-to-End (E2E) Performance
Initiative piPEs system of network measurement and how these capabilities
can be used by research groups to understand the network path used by their
applications.  This understanding allows the researcher to determine limits
and problems in the performance of their networked applications. 

piPEs Web Services
This presentation and demonstration will show the mechanisms used to obtain
performance data from the piPEs system running on the Abilene Network.  The
web services can also be used to request specific tests.

SALSA 
This session will provide a description of Internet2's activities in the
security arena, focusing on the work led by SALSA.  SALSA is an oversight
group consisting of technical representatives from the higher education
community and forms working groups as needed to explore specific issues.
Currently, SALSA has two working groups: NetAuth and Netc.  Activities for
both groups will be highlighted during the session. 

Network Diagnostic Tool 
The Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) is one component of the Internet2 piPEs
project.  The NDT provides network configuration and performance testing to
the users desktop or laptop computer.  This allows testing of the critical
"first mile" portion of the end-to-end network path.  A Web100-enhanced
server to performs both the testing and diagnostic functions.  Multi-level
results allow novice and expert users to view and understand the test
results.  This presentation will focus on the development, operation, and
future enhancements to this system. 

Bandwidth Control Tool 
This session will include a description of BWCTL (Bandwidth Control Tool), a
tool that was designed to add scheduling and policy controls around Iperf (a
widely used bandwidth tester, developed by NLANR). The basic architecture
and a complete feature description of BWCTL will be presented. 

Internet2's SC 2004 technology contributions include:
SCINET
Internet2 and several members of the Internet2 community are making
significant contributions to SCinet, the collection of high-performance
networks built each year to support the SC Conference. In partnership with
Qwest Communications, Level 3 Communications, and MCI -- SCinet is providing
direct wide area connectivity to Internet2's Abilene Network and to many
other networks worldwide. In addition, SCinet is working with National
Lambda Rail to provide very high bandwidth transit for several national
optical network testbeds into Pittsburgh for the conference. Internet2 will
provide a map showing current utilization on all SCinet external links,
based on the technology used for the Abilene weather map, developed by the
Abilene Network Operations Center (NOC) at Indiana University. In addition
to general network monitoring, an Internet2 team has set up performance
measurement points running OWAMP, NDT, and BWCTL at the NOC. Regularly
scheduled tests will be run to both ESnet and to Abilene nodes, monitoring
the quality of the peering between SCinet and other research networks.
On-demand tests to all three nodes will be used to debug network performance
issues.

SC Global and Webcasts
SC Global 2004 features presentations on innovative uses of interactive
technology and also provides a behind-the-scenes look at the technology
required to produce this geographically distributed event, which takes place
November 9-11, 2004 in conjunction with SC2004. 

Using Access Grid (AG) nodes worldwide, SC Global will feature participation
from several remote locations distributed across four continents. Several
Internet2 members are presenting at or providing technical support for SC
Global. SC Global presentations emphasize advances in AG technology and
describe how the AG is being used for scientific and artistic collaborations
and for reaching out to underserved communities and areas. 

SC Global is accessible to sites running the AG Toolkit, sites are
encouraged to run version 2.2. In addition, the Internet2 Commons is
providing a VBrick MPEG-2 stream (accessible to anyone using the free VBrick
Streamplayer client), a Windows Media stream, and an HD over DVIP stream at
19.2 Mbps.


For the complete information, visit:
http://events.internet2.edu/2004/sc2004.html

About Internet2
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:
Lauren Kallens                  
Internet2
+1-202-331-5345





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