Middleware Announcements

["Lee Perlis" <>]

***Internet2(R) Members Update***
       October 2003

<> Internet2 Fall 2003 Member Meeting
<> International Update
<> Middleware Update
<> End-to-End Performance Initiative (E2Epi) Update
<> Applications Update
<> Internet2 K20 Initiative Update
<> Joint Techs Meeting Recap
<> 100Mbps to 100 Homes Research Project
<> New Internet2 Members
<> Future Internet2 Events
<> Internet2 Days
<> Showcase and Spotlight Opportunities
<> Internet2 Related Events

Member updates are now archived at:
http://members.internet2.edu/memberupdates/index.html

<> Internet2 Fall 2003 Member Meeting
The Fall 2003 Internet2 Member Meeting in Indianapolis, October 13-16, is
rapidly approaching!  An exciting array of sessions, speakers, and special
events is planned. You will be receiving email messages highlighting details
of the Meeting over the next week.
General information about the meeting is at:
http://events.internet2.edu/2003/fall-mm/
For program details, see:
http://events.internet2.edu/2003/fall-mm/agenda.cfm

<> International Update
+ Qatar Research and Education Network Connects to Internet2's Abilene
Network in New York City
The Qatar Foundation - a not-for-profit entity in Qatar - has funded an
initial set of network connectivity for institutions of higher education in
Qatar, including campuses of several US institutions (Cornell Medical
School, Virginia Commonwealth, Texas A&M and Carnegie Mellon). The Qatar
Foundation Network peers with Internet2's Abilene network by connecting via
two 155 Mbps circuits to the MAN LAN international research and education
exchange point in NYC site. MAN LAN is run in cooperatively by Internet2,
the Indiana University Global NOC, and NYSERNET as a Gigabit Ethernet
exchange point and already interconnects networks such as Abilene, GEANT,
HEANET, NYSERNET and SINET.

Internet2 is in the process of finalizing a Memorandum of Understanding with
the Qatar Foundation that would represent the first international
partnership between the Internet2 community and the research and education
networking community of a country in the Persian Gulf region.
http://www.qf.edu.qa/

+ New 10 Gbps Connection Between CERN and Chicago's StarLight Facility
A new 10 gigabit per second (Gbps) connection has been established between
CERN - the world's largest particle physics laboratory located in Geneva,
Switzerland - and the StarLight international optical exchange facility in
Chicago, Illinois. The new 10 Gbps link is part of the DataTAG project,
funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy
in the United States, and the European Commission in Europe. The DataTAG is
focused on advanced networking aspects of creating interoperable grid test
beds between the United States and Europe. Internet2's Abilene network is
already connected at 10 Gbps to the StarLight facility, providing the
Internet2 community with access to the new 10 Gbps link to CERN. For more
information, see:
http://datatag.web.cern.ch/datatag/index.html

<> Middleware Update
+ NSF Award Extends Middleware Development Efforts
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded the Enterprise and Desktop
Integration Technologies (EDIT) Consortium, led by Internet2’s Ken
Klingenstein, a second three-year grant as part of its ongoing NSF
Middleware Initiative (NMI).  EDIT will continue to develop, deploy, and
support an integrated National Middleware Infrastructure to support
scientific and engineering applications.  The award is effective from
September 2003 to August 2006.
http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/03/pr0399.htm
http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/03/fs03_nmi.htm

+ Tutorials on Federations and Shibboleth at the Internet2 Fall Member
Meeting
NMI-EDIT will be offering two tutorials focused on Federations and on
Shibboleth as supporting technology on Monday, October 13 at the Internet2
Fall Member Meeting:  “Deploying a Collaboration Infrastructure Across State
and Higher Education Federations” at 8:15 am followed at 1 pm by “Using
Shibboleth to Support Credential Exchange.”

+ Shibboleth
With the release of production-ready software, the Shibboleth pilot program
has concluded. In addition to the formal pilot participants, additional
universities, National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), and resource
providers are testing and deploying Shibboleth software. All continue to
provide the project team with valuable feedback and suggestions for
improvement.  Planning and development of Shibboleth version 2.0 is under
way.

New adopters of Shibboleth include Sympa, the mailing list manager produced
by Comite Reseau des Universites in France, which is actively working to
Shibboleth-enable their product.  Internet2 has also implemented a
production use of Shibboleth for the upcoming Fall Member Meeting; a
Shibboleth-protected page provides the email addresses of attendees for
fellow registered attendees.
http://events.internet2.edu/2003/fall-mm/roster.cfm?sort=name

For more information about Shibboleth, see:
http://www.shibboleth.internet2.edu/

+ Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
Plans for the future of the former CREN CA are being finalized by the
EDUCAUSE/Internet2 Higher Education PKI -Technology Advisory Group
(HEPKI-TAG).  An announcement is expected shortly.

+ CourseID Project
The CourseID Project Team has drafted a data structure, data definitions,
and several scenarios and use cases.  The team is encouraging interested
individuals to join them when they present these documents and seek feedback
during an open discussion session on Monday morning, October 13 at the
Internet2 Fall Member Meeting.
http://middleware.internet2.edu/courseID/

+ Integrated Infrastructure for Instant Messaging (I2IM) Working Group
The recently formed I2IM working group is researching the issues surrounding
enterprise integration of IM services with respect to authentication and
authorization, and exploring the feasibility of creating a
national/international framework for instant messaging once enterprise
issues are understood. Toward this end they are also looking at the
applicability of leveraging technical methods like SAML/Shibboleth, and the
policy frameworks coming from federations.
http://middleware.internet2.edu/i2im/

<> End-to-End Performance Initiative (E2Epi) Update
+ E2E piPEs (End-to-End Performance Improvement Performance Environment
System)
Warren Matthews (Georgia Tech) and Raj Swaminathan (Syntel Corporation) have
joined the existing E2E piPEs team as short-term contractors.  The team is
working on short-term Iperf deployment, an Iperf scheduler re-write (to
facilitate on-demand tests), and trace route deployment.  They are expanding
the scope of the web-based display of data and integrating data with NLANR’s
Advisor and the MonALISA project (HENP).  More information can be found at:
http://e2epi.internet2.edu/E2EpiPEs/e2epipe_index.html

+ H.323 Beacon
The H.323 Beacon software has been released via Sourceforge in an effort to
get community feedback on its value and to prioritize future development
activities.  Prasad Calyam is working with a Polycom representative on a
case study of user experiences.  For more information, see:
http://www.itecohio.org/beacon/

+ National Science Foundation (NSF) Grants
A workshop, scheduled December 11-12 at SDSC, will bring together experts in
the area of measurement, networking, and E2E performance issues to develop a
Roadmap for the topic area.  An NSF grant awarded to Matt Zekauskas will
fund this workshop.

+ Campus Network Infrastructure Guide (CNIg)
Michel Davidoff of the California State University system  (CSU) provided
the team with a draft case study on the centralized infrastructure upgrade
at all 23 CSU campuses that began in 1996.  When the case study is complete,
it will be posted online under Policy Guidelines, along with another case
study (Caltech) that is still in early development stages.
http://e2epi.internet2.edu/CNIGuide/CNIGuide-CFP.html

+ National Library of Medicine (NLM) Pilot Study
The first draft of the Final Report was submitted to NLM on September 10; a
session, reporting the results, is scheduled at the Fall Member Meeting.

<> Applications Update
+ New World Symphony Technology Grant
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded the Miami Beach-based New
World Symphony (NWS) a technology grant of $102,200.  The grant will support
NWS' pioneering research and experimentation with high performance network
connections in music education and interactive music collaboration via
Internet2 networks.  This tremendous increase in bandwidth will open up new
opportunities for NWS's innovative Distance Learning Program that connects
world-class artist-teachers at over 200 Internet2 connected universities
around the U.S and other institutions abroad with NWS Fellows.
http://www.nws.org

+ Meeting Attendees Invited to Participate in Integrated Communications Demo
The Internet2 Presence and Integrated Communications (PIC) Working Group
will resent a "first light" experiment in integrated communications
featuring rich presence, automated location services, SIP.edu addressing,
voice over WiFi, instant messaging, and more. All attendees of the Fall 2003
Internet2 Member Meeting are invited to participate in this interactive
demo.  Shortly before the Member Meeting, meeting registrants will receive
an email from the PIC Working Group outlining the details on how to
participate.
http://events.internet2.edu/2003/fall-mm/demos.html#pic

+ Internet2 Commons Activities at the Fall Member Meeting
The Internet2 Commons will serve many roles at the Fall 2003 Internet2
Member Meeting, from allowing track session speakers to present from remote
locations via multipoint videoconferencing to hands-on demonstrations of
MCU-based H.323 videoconferencing, now available to members on a
subscription basis. The Commons demonstration will feature live visits with
Site Coordinators throughout the Internet2 membership who use the Commons
service and interaction with the Internet-To-Go remote satellite trailer
demo. Several track sessions at the Fall Member Meeting will highlight
Commons-related activities, including a NEES Update session describing how
participants in earthquake engineering research are using the Commons to
facilitate communication and coordination across 16 project sites and a
Lewis and Clark re-enactment using live H.323 videoconferencing to bring the
expedition to classrooms everywhere. These Member Meeting activities offer a
great opportunity to see first-hand the benefits of face-to-face
videoconferencing through the shared resources of the Internet2 Commons
Videoconferencing Service via H.323.
http://commons.internet2.edu/train/200310/
http://events.internet2.edu/2003/fall-mm/demos.html#commons

+ The Medium and the Message: Tomorrow's Technology and Today's Health
Education Needs
The Internet has transformed the education landscape in terms of both
content and delivery for learners at all ages.  On Tuesday, 14 October 2003
from 6:00 - 9:00 pm, the Ruth Lilly Health Education Center, in partnership
with Indiana University School of Informatics, is hosting a reception that
provides the opportunity for attendees to interact with a variety of
institutions and communities on solutions that address the evolution of
teaching and learning environments for education on a global level. Discover
how Internet2 and its members have created programs and technology to
address these challenges. This event will present an excellent opportunity
to meet Internet2 participants from the Internet2 K20 Initiative, State
Education Group Participants (SEGP’s), International Partners, and the
Health Sciences.
http://www.healtheducationcenter.org/Events/

<> Internet2 K20 Initiative Update
+ New Sponsored Educational Group Participants (SEGP) States
In the last few months the K20 Initiative has been growing. Recently
welcomed, as SEGP states were, Texas, Kansas, Connecticut, Massachusetts,
and Alabama. For more information on these new SEGPs please visit the K20
website at:
http://k20.internet2.edu/segp/currentparticipants.html

<> Joint Techs Meeting Recap
The 12th Joint Techs Workshop took place August 3-7 at the University of
Kansas. Foci included optical networking, continuing the network build out,
security, network transports, and network measurement.
Summary: http://eng.internet2.edu/joint-techs-aug-2003.html
Presentations: http://ncne.nlanr.net/training/techs/2003/0803/agenda.html

<> 100Mbps to 100 Homes Research Project
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $7.5 million through its
Information Technology Research (ITR) Program to support research into the
design, implementation, and management challenges of providing economical,
robust, secure, and scaleable very high performance networking capabilities.
The project, called "100 Megabits to 100 Million Homes," includes
researchers from Carnegie Mellon University; Fraser Research, Inc.; Rice
University; the University of California at Berkeley; Stanford University;
Internet2; the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center; and ATT Research.

<> New Internet2 Members
+ University Members
   - Arkansas State University, http://www.astate.edu
   - Claremont Colleges, http://www.cgu.edu

+ Corporate Members
   - Global Crossing, http://www.globalcrossing.com

+ Affiliate Members
   - Food and Drug Administration, http://www.fda.gov

<> Future Internet2 Events
+ Internet2 Multicast Hands-On Workshop
Logistics and registration will be announced soon for the Internet2
Multicast Hands-On Workshop.  This workshop will be hosted by the San Diego
Supercomputing Center, December 2-4, 2003.  After attending this workshop,
an attendee will be able to engineer multicast networks within his/her
campus or gigaPoP, explain multicast engineering concepts to peers, and, in
some cases, help teach or facilitate future multicast workshops. Note:
Participation is limited to 20 students.

+ Joint Techs Workshop/Techs in Paradise (TIP) 2004 Meetings
Plan now to attend the Winter Joint Techs meeting, January 25-28, 2004.  The
Joint Techs meeting is one of several meetings planned for Techs in Paradise
2004 in Honolulu, Hawaii.  The location is the East-West Center on the
University of Hawaii campus.  An Internet2 IPv6 Workshop is scheduled for
all day on Saturday, January 24 and Sunday, January 25.  The ESnet
Coordinating Committee (ESCC) will meet on January 28-29, and the
Asian-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) meeting will take place January 28-30.
Tutorials and Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) sessions will also be held.   Several
Engineering Working Groups are planning to meet as well. Registration is now
available at:
https://services.internet2.edu/tip2004/index.jsp

For additional details on the Techs Workshop as well as information on and
links to the other meetings, see http://www.hawaii.edu/tip2004/

<> Internet2 Days
Hold an Internet2 Day for your Internet2 member organization. Technical
support for live demonstrations and informational materials are available.
For more information contact Marianne Smith 
<>
 or see:
http://apps.internet2.edu/Internet2-Days.html

<> Showcase and Spotlight Opportunities - Projects and People
A Showcase on the Internet2 Web site is a great way to highlight the
milestones, events, collaborations and efforts that are a result of your
work in the advanced networking community. You are also encouraged to submit
a profile of anyone in the Internet2 community whose efforts merit notice.
Include a brief description (less than 100 words), all appropriate links and
images, and contact information. If you have suggestions about projects,
people or news that might be featured, please contact Adam Csillag
<>.

<> Internet2 Related Events
+ Online Calendar
For a complete listing of events for and of interest to the Internet2
community, see the online Internet2 Calendar. Be sure the Internet2-related
event you are holding or know about is listed at:
http://events.internet2.edu/calendar/main.php

If you are holding an event of any kind related to Internet2, we will be
glad to assist members with resources such as printed publications,
equipment or speakers. Please contact Marianne Smith for more information
<>.

+ NANOG 29
19-21 October 2003
Chicago, IL
http://www.nanog.org/

+ EDUCAUSE 2003
4-7 November 2003
Anaheim, CA
http://www.educause.edu/conference/annual/2003/

+ SC2003
15-21 November 2003
Phoenix, AZ
http://www.sc-conference.org/sc2003/index.html

Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)
30 November - 5 December 2003
Chicago, IL
http://www.rsna.org/rsna/index.html


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