The Access Grid

1
The Access Grid

• An Introduction

Rick Stevens, Terry Disz, Lisa Childers, Bob
Olson Argonne National Laboratory www.mcs.anl.gov/
fl/accessgrid (fl-info_at_mcs.anl.gov)
2
Origins of the Access Grid
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Evolution of the Grid Concept

• Metacomputing late 80s
• Focus on distributed computation
• Gigabit testbeds early 90s
• Research, primarily on networking
• I-WAY 1995
• Demonstration of application feasibility
• PACIs (National Technology Grid) 1997
• NASA Information Power Grid 1999
• ASCI DISCOM 1999
• DOE Science Grid 2001
• Commercial Startups

4
Related Work

• Berkeley and LBNLs Mbone Tools (Jacobson et al.)
• Xerox PARC MOO and Jupiter Projects (Curtis, et
  al.)
• Argonne/NEUs Labspace Project (Evard/Stevens et
  al.)
• EVLs CAVERsoft (DeFanti, Leigh, et al.)
• ANLs CAVEcomm and ManyWorlds (Stevens et al.)
• ANL and ISI Globus Project (Foster, Kesselman et
  al.)
• UNCs Office of the Future (Fuchs et al.)
• DOEs Collaboratory Pilots (Zalusec et al.)

5
Some Questions We are Interested In

• What kinds of future collaboration environments
  are possible?
• How might teleimmersion enhance scientific
  collaborations?
• What is the value of persistence and spatial
  metaphors in collaboration and virtual
  environments?
• How can we cost-effectively improve group
  oriented collaboration environments ?
• What is needed from networking and middleware
  infrastructure to effectively support wide area
  collaboration and distributed visualization ?
• What are good software architectures to enable
  collaborative work systems?

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Our Approach

• Attack Research Questions in the context of real
  world experience
• Build Working Infrastructure as well as Prototype
  Software
• Involve multiple groups in deployment, use and
  research
• Participate (lead) in directions for new uses and
  applications
• Release software early and often (use open source
  model)
• Contribute to the Community Code base

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An Overview of the Access Grid
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Topology
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Physical Node Design
Presenter mic
Presenter camera
Ambient mic (tabletop)
Audience camera

• Spaces for small groups
• Wide field of view
• Comfortable
• Persistent connection

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Audio

• Hands free
• No click to talk
• No searching for microphones
• Never have to think about microphones
• Interactive
• Interrupt other speakers
• Multiple conversations at the same time
• Full duplex
• Clear
• No background noise
• Rich-sounding speech
• No feedback
• No echo

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Video

• Scale of imagery life-sized
• Highest quality, but affordable
• Multiple video streams
• Presenter close-up
• Audience view
• Audience close-up
• Display wall

12
Data

• Shared
• Powerpoint
• VNC
• Visualization
• Archived
• Voyager

13
Network

• Hardening multicast infrastructure
• http//beaconserver.accessgrid.org9999/
• Large-scale networking testbed
• Higher bandwidth
• QoS
• Networking people active members of the AG
  community

14
The Muds

• Two muds are used in the AG community
• Access Grid Hangout Room
• Character generation is controlled
• Characters reside there permenantly
• Long-term social relationships have developed
• Access Grid Venue
• Character generation is automatic
• Characters come and go
• Usage is event-driven

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Virtual Collaboration Spaces
Virtual Venue

• A persistent location on the grid
• Not a physical space
• A dimension in which several physical spaces can
  be co-located
• A place that can be entered and exited
• Supports multiple interaction modalities
• Text, audio, video graphics, animation, VR
• A scoping mechanism to support multiple
  concurrent meetings
• A resource that can be reserved

16
The Workspace Docking Concept
Private Workspaces - Docked into the Group
Workspace
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Access Grid Project Goals

• Enable Group-to-Group Interaction and
  Collaboration
• Connecting People and Teams via the Grid
• Improve the User Experience Go Beyond
  Teleconferencing
• Provide a Sense of Presence
• Support Natural Interaction Modalities
• Use Quality but Affordable Digital IP Based
  Audio/video
• Leverage IP Open Source Tools
• Enable Complex Multisite Visual and Collaborative
  Experiences
• Integrate With High-end Visualization
  Environments
• ActiveMural, Powerwall, CAVE Family, Workbenches
• Build on Integrated Grid Services Architecture
• Develop New Tools Specifically Support Group
  Collaboration