How to Connect to Access Grid

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• How to Connect to Access Grid
• Virtual Venues through VRVS
• Slides at http//scv.bu.edu/accessgrid/seminars/
• Kun Wei
• Caltech
• weikun_at_caltech.edu

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• Todays Topics
• Whats VRVS ?
• Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS MBone.
• Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS H.323.
• Hints and Q/A.

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• What is VRVS ?
• www.vrvs.org
• VRVS - Virtual Rooms Videoconferencing System.
• Web services over unicast and/or multicast IP.
• Internet2, ESnet high-performance networks.
• Low cost, bandwidth-efficient, cross-platform.
• MBone, H.323, QuickTime, MPEG2, Sharing, Chat,
  Scheduler,
• 10000 Registered host, 64 Countries, 40
  Reflectors.
• 700 conferences / month.

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• VRVS-AG Reflector
• ag-www.mcs.anl.gov

WWW
AG Multi-cast Cloud
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• When to connect AG through VRVS ?

AG VRVS AG-VRVS
Multi-cast ? ? ?
Unicast ? ?
On-Site AG Node ?
Without AG Node ? ?
High Quality Video ? ?
High Quality Audio ? ? ?
H.323 ? ?
High (gt 20Mbps) Bandwidth Network ? ? ?
Normal (10Mbps) / Low (lt1Mbps) Bandwidth Network ? ?
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• Connection Scenario
• I am on the travel with my laptop and wireless
  card,
• I have cable modem/DSL at home,
• My network admin doesnt want to enable
  multi-cast for performance and security reason,
• I can only have Polycom ViewStation,
• and I need to attend an Access Grid session, e.g.
  SC01

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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS MBone
(VIC/RAT)
8
Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS MBone
(VIC/RAT)

• Hardware http//www.vrvs.org/Doc/Hardware/hardwa
  re.html

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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS MBone
(VIC/RAT)

• Go to www.vrvs.org.
• Click Register Me to register with VRVS (A
  simple form to fill out in one minute).
• Click Download to install VRVS MBone tools.
• Install package with RAT4.
• MBone on Windows 98/NT/ME/2K/XP (One step
  install).
• MBone in Linux (One step install).
• MBone in Solaris, IRIX, OSFI, HP-UX.
• IE 4/5/6, Netscape 4.7x/6.2.

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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS MBone
(VIC/RAT)
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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS MBone
(VIC/RAT)

• Click JOIN, AG icon and select interested
  Virtual Venue.
• Now you are in the Access Grid Virtual Venues )
• Click the Audio button to launch MBone Audio
  tool RAT.
• RAT window will launch automatically.

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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS MBone
(VIC/RAT)

• Click Options to setup parameters for AG usage.

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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS MBone
(VIC/RAT)

• Select Audio from Category.
• Select 16-kHz from Sample Rate.

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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS MBone
(VIC/RAT)

• Select Codecs from Category.
• Select L16-16K-Mono from Codec.

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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS MBone
(VIC/RAT)

• Now check Talk and interact with other people
  )

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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS MBone
(VIC/RAT)

• Click the Video button to launch Mbone Video
  tool VIC.
• VIC windows will launch automatically.
• Click VIC Menu button to select device and
  transmit your video.
• Click VIC Menu to adjust transmitting
  bandwidth, frame rate and quality.

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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS MBone
(VIC/RAT)

• You can hear ALL the participants who have
  un-muted the mike.
• You may want to MUTE your mike when you are not
  speaking.
• You can only view ONE LIVE video at a time, but
  you can choose the view mode
• The limitation is because of current design and
  bandwidth efficiency. It can be done to have more
  than one live video

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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS MBone
(VIC/RAT)
"Selected Participant" to select the specific
video you want to watch from the participants
list. This mode is useful for lectures and
seminars. You only want to see the
lecturer. "Browse Video" in order to watch each
video site in turn. Video sites are selected in a
"round-robin" queue that switch according to a
preset timer.
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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS MBone
(VIC/RAT)
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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS MBone
(VIC/RAT)
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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS H.323
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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS H.323

• Why also H.323?
• I.T.U standard
• Compatibility
• Better lip-sync
• Better video quality
• Voice-switching
• Manufacturers (Polycom, Tandberg, VCON, )
• Open Source (www.openh323.org)

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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS H.323

• Hardware http//www.vrvs.org/Doc/Hardware/h323_s
  ystems.html

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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS H.323

• Go to www.vrvs.org.
• Click Register Me to register with VRVS (A
  simple form to fill out in one minute).
• No Download needed.
• IE 4/5/6, Netscape 4.7x/6.2.
• Start your H.323 client.

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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS H.323
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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS H.323

• For the best compatibility, VRVS now supports
  the I.T.U H.323 mandatory implementation,
  including video signal H.261 and audio signal
  G.711.
• To be able to listen from AG nodes by H.323
  clients, participating Access Grid Nodes need to
  set MBone audio tool (RAT) to PCM (uLaw) 8 kHz
  Mono by following the I.T.U H.323 standard.
• Use a MBone video tool (VIC) version which
  includes the bug fix for the h.261 encoding
  protocol.

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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS H.323
Changing RAT parameters on AG sides
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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS H.323

• Click H.323 SET button.
• Fill the H.323 Parameters, including your
  hostname/IP or Gatekeeper, bandwidth and frame
  rate.
• SAVE it and click JOIN H.323 button.
• After a few seconds, your H.323 client will
  receive a call from VRVS. Accept it.

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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS H.323

• Now you are connected to Access Grid with H.323
  )

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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS H.323

• You may want to MUTE your mike when you are not
  speaking.
• You can only view / listen ONE LIVE video/audio
  stream at a time, but you can choose the view
  mode

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Connect to AG Virtual Venues through VRVS H.323
"Selected Participant" to select the specific
video you want to watch from the participant
list. This mode is useful for lectures and
seminars. You only want to see the
lecturer. "Browse Video" in order to watch each
video site in turn. Video sites are selected in a
"round-robin" queue that switch according to a
preset timer.
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Hints and Q/A
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Hints and Q/A

• Test before real session.
• VRVS Chat and Access Grid MUD/MOO (please refer
  to AGDP How to Use the Venues MOO for more
  information) can be used to exchange instant
  message.
• General videoconferencing tips at
  http//www.packetizer.com/vctips.html.

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Hints and Q/A
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Hints and Q/A

• Questions?
• More VRVS related question?
• support_at_vrvs.org
• Access Grid seminar evaluation form
  http//scv.bu.edu/accessgrid/seminars/eval.html
• This HOWTO is also at AGDP http//www.accessgrid.
  org/agdp/howto/vrvs.html