Middleware Announcements

["Lee Perlis" <>]

Internet2 (R) Members Update
February 2004

<> First Inter-City Segment of Dark Fiber Through FiberCo
<> National Internet2 Day
<> Spring 2004 Internet2 Member Meeting
<> Internet2 Presence and Integrated Communications (PIC) Demo
<> Board and Council Nominations
<> International Update
<> Middleware Update
<> End-to-End Performance Initiative (E2Epi) Update
<> Applications Update
<> Redesigned Security Web Pages
<> Internet2 K20 Initiative Update
<> New Internet2 Members
<> Future Internet2 Events
<> Internet2 Days
<> Showcase and Spotlight Opportunities
<> Internet2 Related Events

The monthly member updates are archived at:
http://members.internet2.edu/memberupdates/

<> First Inter-City Segment of Dark Fiber Through FiberCo
On 12 January 2004, FiberCo, established by Internet2 to support the
community's goals of developing and deploying advanced network applications
and technologies, announced that Indiana University became the first
assignee of FiberCo optical networking assets through the acquisition of a
pair of dark fiber between Indianapolis, Ind. and Chicago, Ill. Indiana
University intends to use this dark fiber pair to light two 10
Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) circuits to connect the IP-Grid, a collaboration
between Indiana University and Purdue University, to the National Science
Foundation-supported Extensible Terascale Facility (ETF) in Chicago. The
fiber also will support the universities’ connection to the new National
LambdaRail facility and ultimately other connection services to Chicago. In
addition, the assigned fiber will enable additional Chicago-based peering
connections for the two Indiana research institutions.
http://www.fiberco.org/press-indiana.html

<> National Internet2 Day – 18 March 2004
Your chief research scientist wants access to a petabyte of new data from
the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, but the data is geographically dispersed
across multiple datasets. You want Pinchas Zukerman to hear the violin
prodigy you are coaching, but Zukerman is in New York and the student is in
Oklahoma. Learn how Internet2 members use advanced networking technologies
to address these and other challenges at the first-ever virtual National
Internet2 Day. This daylong, netcast event will feature a series of virtual
presentations, demonstrations, and performance events across several
disciplines. National Internet2 Day will demonstrate the value of your
institution's investment in Internet2, share the potential and reality of
advanced network applications, and generate additional awareness of
Internet2 capabilities across our member community. Additionally, many
member campuses are taking advantage of this virtual event to host local
National Internet2 Day activities, with presentations by campus-based
faculty to complement the netcast national speakers.
http://events.internet2.edu/2004/Internet2Day/

<> Spring 2004 Internet2 Member Meeting
The spring Internet2 Member Meeting is fast approaching!  Watch the
Internet2 web space in mid-February for information about registration,
lodging, travel, and the preliminary program.
http://events.internet2.edu/2004/spring-mm/

+ Call for Posters Announced
All Internet2 members and International MoU Partners are invited to submit
proposals for poster sessions at the Spring 2004 Member Meeting.  Poster
sessions are a consciously low-tech forum for the exchange of information
and ideas about collaborations, projects and works-in-progress. Stories are
conveyed by the use of graphs, diagrams, pictures, data, and narrative text
displayed on ~4' x 3' corkboard. Participants discuss their presentations
informally with meeting attendees.  Each poster session proposal must
contain the title, organization name, brief abstract, and contact name and
email address.  Send submissions to 
<>
 by 20
February 2004.  Notification will be sent by 1 March 2004.  For more
information contact Ellen Vaughan 
<>.

+ Call for Sponsors
We are seeking sponsorship contributions for the evening welcome reception,
which will be held at the hotel the evening of 19 April.  In addition we are
seeking support for meeting lunch and refreshment breaks on 20-21 April.
Sponsors will be acknowledged via signage at the event site and recognized
in the published meeting program and on the meeting web site.  We are open
to suggestions regarding other ways to acknowledge generous support.  For
more information please contact Ellen Vaughan 
<>.
http://members.internet2.edu/EventSponsorship.html

<> Internet2 Presence and Integrated Communications (PIC) Demo
At Joint Techs Hawaii last month, the Internet2 Presence and Integrated
Communications (PIC) Working Group successfully completed an experimental
communications trial. 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. 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 whether their buddies were
online or offline, but their exact locations and activities as well.  For
more information, visit:
http://pic.internet2.edu/

<> Board and Council Nominations
Nominations for the Internet2 Board of Trustees and Advisory Councils are
now being accepted. Any member of Internet2 may nominate a candidate for the
Board or a Council. Advisory Councils have the following openings:
Applications Strategy Council (ASC), 4 openings; Industry Strategy Council
(ISC), 3 openings; Network Planning and Policy Council (NPPAC), 4 openings.
The Network Research Liaison Council (NRLC) also has openings, the exact
number of which is to be determined. The Nominating Committee will meet to
review the nominations and recommend a slate of 3 Trustees to the Board. The
new Council and Trustees will be announced at the Spring 2004 Member
Meeting, April 19-21. Nominations may be submitted on the Web, sent to
<>,
 or faxed to (734) 913-4255. All nominations must be
received by 20 February 2004. For more information see:
http://www.internet2.edu/about/nominationinfo.html

<> International Update
+ First Extensible International Peering Collaboration
The Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWP) and the Corporation for Education
Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) recently announced they would work
together to establish a new extensible peering facility. Extending along the
US Pacific Coast (from Seattle to Los Angeles), the new Pacific Wave new
facility will enable international networks to connect at either location as
well as being able to peer with any other Pacific Wave participant
regardless of the site of their physical connection.  Currently, many
networks are already peering at these locations (Seattle and Los Angeles):
AARNet (Australian Academic & Research Network) at 310 Mbps, CA*Net4
(Canada's Research and Education Internet Backbone) with 1 Gbps, GEMnet with
155 Mbps, SingAREN (Singapore Advanced Research and Education Network) with
155 Mbps, and TANET2 (Taiwan Academic Network) with 2.5 Gbps connection.
The Internet2 community has access to these networks via the Internet2
Abilene backbone network, which is connected to the Seattle location of
Pacific Wave at 10Gbps and will soon be connected to the L.A. location at
10Gbps as well.
http://www.pacificwave.com

+ APAN 2004 meeting
On 28-30 January 2004, APAN held its first meeting of the year in Honolulu,
HI where representatives and speakers from the Asia-Pacific region joined to
share information on advanced networking efforts, international connections,
and applications. This meeting was held in conjunction with the
Internet2/ESCC Joint Techs meetings. For more information, agenda and
presentations, please visit:
http://apan.net/meetings/honolulu2004/

<> Middleware Update
+ Shibboleth
The 1.2 release of Shibboleth is still on track for the first quarter. The
new version will be backwards compatible with 1.0 and 1.1. Major changes are
support of Apache 2.x and IIS 6 as target platforms, and the introduction of
multi-federation support.  For more information see:
http://shibboleth.internet2.edu/

+ InCommon Executive Committee
The Internet2 Shibboleth technology, developed to enable protected resource
sharing, is intended to be used in the context of a federation. A new US
research and education federation is being formed. An Executive Committee
has been established for oversight and to make recommendations to Internet2
on issues arising from the operation and management of this federation.  It
has begun meeting to set management direction.  We thank the following
individuals for their willingness to serve in this crucial role on the new
InCommon Executive Committee: Jerry Campbell, University of Southern
California, Clair Goldsmith, University of Texas System, Lev Gonick, Case
Western Reserve, Mark Luker, EDUCAUSE, Tracy Mitrano, Cornell University,
Susan Perry, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Carrie Regenstein, University of
Wisconsin-Madison, Mike Teets, OCLC, and David Yakimischak, JSTOR.

+ NMI - Shibboleth Presentation at the EDUCAUSE Southwest Regional
Conference
At the EDUCAUSE Southwest Regional Conference in Dallas on February 25-27,
Barry Ribbeck from the University of Texas at Houston – Health Sciences
Center will present a session featuring their integration of Shibboleth and
the Blackboard learning management system entitled, "Digital Diversity:
Multi-institutional Access to Distributed Course Resources." For more
information, refer to:
http://www.educause.edu/conference/swrc/2004/

+ Save the Date:  3rd Annual PKI R&D Workshop
12 – 14 April 2004 in Gaithersburg, MD
This workshop considers the full range of public key technology used for
security decisions. PKI supports a variety of functionalities including
authentication, authorization, identity (syndication, federation and
aggregation) and trust. Registration opening soon at:
http://middleware.internet2.edu/pki04/

+ Directories
The MACE-Dir subgroup focusing on management of Groups is creating a roadmap
for development of the Grouper toolset. The proposed sequence involves
adding functionality in three phases. This document will identify elements
of the Group Tools Architecture to be developed, elements of the toolset
itself, potentially contributed elements, feature support, and points of
articulation with other activities.

+ Middleware End-To-End Diagnostics Advisory Group (MW-E2ED)
The group is currently pursuing three primary efforts: requirements
gathering, architecture development, and survey data collection for the
diagnostic space. Attention will then turn to the first phase of the pilot,
whose objectives are: to study the normalization strategies of the
diagnostic data, to collect and distribute the data in a highly flexible
manner, via piping of diagnostic data streams, to provide simple operators
to manipulate data, and to enable forensic applications.  There has been
much interest from those working in the security area for this effort.
http://middleware.internet2.edu/e2ed/

<> End-to-End Performance Initiative (E2Epi) Update
+ E2Epi at Joint Techs
E2Epi hosted 5 sessions at the January Joint Techs Workshop; summaries for
these and other E2E-related sessions are available at:
http://e2epi.internet2.edu/JT04/JT-winter04-sessions.html

+ Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Working Group
With colleagues from APAN, the P2P Working Group co-hosted an application
technology workshop directly following the Joint Techs Workshop in Hawaii.
Information on this workshop can be found at:
http://apan.net/meetings/honolulu2004/ws-application.htm#appl3

+ Case Studies
Two new case studies regarding wireless problems have been posted: one
offers a solution to a common problem caused by the Internet Connection
Sharing option in Microsoft Windows.  The other addresses recommendations
for wireless network planning for meetings.
http://e2epi.internet2.edu/CaseStudies/cs-list.html

+ E2E piPEs (End-to-End Performance Initiative Performance Environment
System)
The team demonstrated integrated data collection (along with NLANR’s Advisor
Project) via a common web interface at the January 2004 Joint Techs in
Hawaii (between the UIUC and the University of Hawaii campuses).  As a
follow-up to this demonstration, E2E piPEs and the Advisor were co-presented
at a track session on Interoperable Measurement Frameworks.  The E2E piPEs
team also sponsored a BoF on the project.  For more information on this
project, see:
http://e2epi.internet2.edu/E2EpiPEs/index.html

<> Applications Update
+ Toward an Updated Internet2 Applications Strategy: Continue the
Discussion!
In September 2003, the Internet2 Applications Strategy Council (ASC)
initiated a process to develop an updated applications strategy for
Internet2. An open videoconference was followed up by an in-person session
held at the Fall 2003 Internet2 Member Meeting. The purpose of these
activities was to initiate a discussion of the current state of applications
development and serve as a checkpoint to assess whether we are meeting the
expectations that were set forth when Internet2 first started. We welcome
ongoing input from the Internet2 member community to help us understand the
current status quo and where we should head from here. An updated set of
PowerPoint slides, providing the overall context and describing this
process, is available at the link below. We encourage your ongoing
discussion of issues and ideas on our Bulletin Board. For additional
information, please contact David Lassner, University of Hawaii CIO and
Internet2 ASC Chair at 
<>.
http://apps.internet2.edu/ascplan.html

<> Redesigned Security Web Pages
Internet2 has redesigned their security web pages in order to highlight
current activities, working groups, resources, and events. A new page has
been added for SALSA, an oversight group consisting of technical
representatives from the higher education community who will advise on
leading edge technology issues, provide prioritization, and set directions
in the security space. The Security at Line Speed Workshop Findings and
Report and EDUCAUSE/Internet2 Effective Security Practices Guide are also
featured at:
http://security.internet2.edu

<> Internet2 K20 Initiative Update
+ Kansas Named SEGP of the Month
An exemplary practice in teaching and learning that is currently being
extended to classrooms in SEGP schools through KAN-ED's new network
infrastructure is the JASON Project.  JASON is uniquely structured to
utilize distance-learning technology to bring science and mathematics
education to communities across Kansas.  In November of 2003, KAN-ED
sponsored a keynote presentation by Dr. Ballard at the Global Learning
Conference.  For more information on this project and the Kansas SEGP please
visit:
http://k20.internet2.edu/segp/index.html.

<> New Internet2 Members
+ Corporate Members
-  Infinera Corporation – http://www.infinera.com

<> Future Internet2 Events
+ Spring 2004 Internet2 Member Meeting:  Arlington, Virginia, 19-21 April
2004
+ Summer Joint Techs Workshop, Columbus, Ohio, 18-22 July 2004 - hosted by
the Ohio Valley Internet2 Consortium
+ Fall 2004 Internet2 Member Meeting: Austin, Texas, 27-30 September 2004

<> 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

+ National Internet2 Day
18 March 2004
http://events.internet2.edu/2004/Internet2Day/

<> 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
<>.

+ HIMSS Annual Conference
22-26 February 2004
Orlando, FL
http://conference.himss.org/ASP/index.asp

59th IETF Meeting
29 February - 3 March
Seoul, Korea
http://ietf.org/meetings/IETF-59.html

Global Grid Forum
9-12 March
Berlin, Germany
http://www.gridforum.org/

CENIC 2004 Annual Conference
15-17 March
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.cenic.org/CENIC2004/index.htm

6th Annual SURA/ViDe Digital Video Workshop
22-25 March
Indianapolis, IN
http://www.vide.net/conferences/spr2004

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Do you have a news item or event you'd like the Internet2 community to
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