Internet2 Showcase
Internet2 regularly showcases our members' efforts on behalf of advanced research and education networking. We not only encourage Internet2 members to share their achievements with the community, but also the interesting people, events, developments and collaborations that make those achievements possible. If you have suggestions for news, events, projects or people that might be featured, please contact info@internet2.edu and include a brief description, appropriate links and images and contact information. Thanks for helping us spread the word.
Register today for the Summer 07 ESCC/Internet2 Joint Techs Workshop and
join more than 100 leaders in advanced networking from 15-19 July.
Hosted by Fermi National Accelerator
Laboratory (FNAL) in Batavia, Illinois, the Summer 2007 Joint
Techs will focus on Hybrid Networking, Campus Networking, Security,
and Measurement/Performance. The agenda includes presentations about:
40 and 100 gigabits per second transport technologies, the Internet2
Network, updates on Internet2 FiberCo and Internet2 WaveCo, National
LambdaRail, heterogeneous dataplane testing on ESnet and Internet2
Networks, and the Federated Model for Cyberinfrastructure.
Elections for representatives to new Advisory Councils are now open through Thursday, June 28. Based on input from members, the Governance and Nominations Committee created ballots that reflect the diversity, needs, and expectations of the Internet2 community. Ballots, based on membership category, have been sent to the designated Executive Liaisons from each Internet2 member organization. The four councils are the Architecture & Operations Advisory Council (AOAC), Applications, Middleware & Services Advisory Council (AMSAC), Research Advisory Council (RAC), External Relations Advisory Council (ERAC). Each Council has three seats from each of the following constituency groups: CIO Representatives, Regional Network Representatives, Researcher Representatives, and Industry Representatives For more information about the nominations and elections process, please refer to the Internet2 Governance and Nominations Wiki.
The Internet2 2006 Annual Report is now available. The annual report provides a summary of some of the Internet2 community's significant accomplishments during 2006. These include the development and initial deployment of the Internet2 Network, the updated membership and governance structure developed through the Governance and Nominations Committee, increased engagement with state and regional networking organizations, and a number of new developments in middleware. The annual report also provides updates on areas of activity such as cyberinfrastructure, security and the healthnet initiative.
Manhattan Connects: An Internet2 Conference for New York's Cultural InstitutionsOn April 18, the Manhattan School of Music, in collaboration with NYSERNet, Internet2, and Columbia University, hosted a conference on the creative uses of Internet2 for New York City's cultural and arts community 'Manhattan Connects'. The event featured demonstrations that illustrated the versatility and importance of Internet2 within New York City's cultural and arts community, including a jazz master class and chamber music coaching with a demonstration of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, both utilizing Internet2 networks, and a case study from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Learn more.
(Photo by Andrew Lepley)
perfSONAR-PS is an implementation of the perfSONAR framework in the Perl programming language. This implementation still relies on the underlying perfSONAR specifications and protocols, and is fully compatible with deployed instances of perfSONAR. Current deployment of perfSONAR-PS focuses passive network monitoring (SNMP-based measurements) with active monitoring services under development (i.e., OWAMP, BWCTL). A visual demonstration of the Measurement Points (MPs) and Measurement Archives (MAs) can be seen at http://packrat.internet2.edu/gmaps/index.cgi via a Google Maps demonstration, courtesy of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). Development of perfSONAR-PS has been a cooperative effort between Internet2, SLAC, University of Delaware, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Fermilab engineers.
Internet2 is collaborating with ProCurve Networking by HP, an Internet2 Corporate Partner, to upgrade the Internet2 Observatory in conjunction with the deployment of the Internet2 Network. The Internet2 Observatory provides real-time data on the performance and network status information researchers a view of a nationwide high-performance, operational network not possible in a laboratory environment or on the commercial Internet. The upgraded Observatory, one of the ways Internet2 works to support network researchers, is being deployed on the Internet2 Network's hybrid optical and packet infrastructure. The new Observatory will allow researchers to study data covering not only the IP network, but also the Dedicated Circuit Services, which provides dynamically provisioned optical waves. View the video, "Internet2 Support for Network Research."
Deployment of the Internet2 Network passed another milestone as the fifth span?from Houston to El Paso, El Paso to Denver and Denver to Kansas City?of the dedicated 100 gigabit per second wave system was delivered on time. This span adds another ring to the network and marks the fifth wave segment turned over to Internet2 by Level 3 on or before the scheduled date. Work is also moving ahead on deploying Internet2 networking equipment in the collocation facilities along these routes. Traffic from Internet2 network connectors is flowing over the new network as this equipment is brought online. Slides and video from an update presentation at the recent Spring Internet2 Member Meeting are now available.
The recent announcement by Jeff Lehman and Tracy Futhey of the intention to bring Internet2 and NLR together into a single organization included a commitment to adopting the governance structure recommended by the Governance and Nominations Committee. To that end, nominations of individuals to serve on each of four new councils are now being accepted.
The Internet2 community is gathered this week in Arlington, Virginia
for the Spring 2007
Internet2 Member Meeting. If you can't join your colleagues in
Arlington, you can still share in the meeting by watching the
numerous sessions that are being netcast. In
particular, don't miss the
first
General Session, where the Internet2 and NLR Board Chairs, Jeffrey
Lehman and Tracy Futhey will provide a community
update. This year's Internet2 IDEA Award and
Land Speed Record winners will also be
announced during this session. In the
second
General Session, Internet2 is pleased to host speaker Bruce Cole,
Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Chairman Cole
will outline the potential for digital technology in enabling
increased access to humanities resources, increased collaboration,
and new approaches in the practice of humanities scholarship, in
addition to specific examples of how digital technology is being
applied across the humanities.
On 2 February 2007, the New World Symphony in Miami rehearsed pieces by French composers Mr. Henri Dutilleux and Marc-André Dalbavie, while the composers participated live from IRCAM Paris. This transatlantic rehearsal, a -virtual concert room,- enabled live exchanges between musicians in Miami and the composers in Paris via RENATER-4 in France, GEANT2 in Europe, and Internet2's Network. These advanced reasearch and education networks provided the bandwidth and quality of service to ensure high quality audio and video using DVTS (Digital Video Transport System) technology. The DVTS software is maintained by the WIDE Project - a Japanese research consortium and Internet2 international partner. DVTS is not based on data compression, which means it is a key technology when both low latency and CD audio quality are required, in applications like distance music learning or a distributed rehearsal involving different regions of the world.
Spring 2007 will be a pivotal time for the Internet2 community: the new Internet2 network with its 100 Gbps capacity and dedicated circuit services will be nearing full implementation, middleware-based capabilities such as federated authentication will be reaching critical mass, transition to a new governance structure will be underway, and major new advanced research and education partnerships and initiatives encompassing cyberinfrastructure, the TeraGrid, rural health networks, and more will be underway. Registration is now open for the Spring 2007 Internet2 Member Meeting, where the program will focus on these many and varied activities.
Internet2 extends a New Years greeting to you with wishes for an inspired and innovative 2007. We also invite you to share an advanced networking project, event, or collaboration with the Internet2 community as a showcase. The showcase archive for a wide variety of past examples.
Nearly 700 participants are expected to gather at the Fall 2006 Internet2 Member Meeting, taking place 4-7 December in Chicago, Illinois. The Fall 2006 Program Committee put together an outstanding program as Internet2 members gather to celebrate ten years of community achievement. General sessions will feature an update on the new Internet2 Network and a presentation by Charlie Catlett, Director of the NSF-funded TeraGrid initiative. The meeting program includes an additional 67 sessions and 75 side meetings, including several Special Interest Groups, and Working Group meetings on Shibboleth, Grouper and Signet. Other meeting highlights include live demonstrations of advanced network applications. Selected sessions will be netcast live and available for on demand viewing.
High-Performance Data Transfer for Hybrid Optical/Packet Networks
Phoebus is an environment for high-performance optical networks that seamlessly creates various adaptation points in the network to maximize performance. By splitting the network path into distinct segments, Phoebus minimizes the impact of packet loss and latency by leveraging the best performance attributes of each network segment. Using an end-to-end session protocol, transport and signaling adaptation points can be controlled and better performance is possible. The Phoebus adaptation library allows existing applications to take advantage of advanced networks with little or no modification. The Phoebus project brings revolutionary networks like Internet2's HOPI testbed to users. For more information, click here.
In late July, MYREN, the Malaysian educational network with a current membership of fourteen universities and institutions of higher learning, became an international partner of Internet2. This partnership was announced on 8 August during Malaysia's first MYREN Open Day, focusing on collaborative research in tele-surgery and e-culture. Through the agreement, MYREN looks forward to increased collaboration and networking opportunities with Internet2’s membership. Institutions connected to MYREN are already reachable by institutions on Internet2's Abilene network, through the NSF funded TransPAC2 link to the Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) and the Trans-Eurasia Information Network 2 (TEIN2) link largely funded by the European Commission.
There are currently five Research Areas / Working Groups within MYREN which function to focus the consultative and collaborative efforts of various researchers in the MYREN community. They are: 1) Network Research, 2) IPv6 Research, 3) e-Research comprising of eCulture, Bioinformatics, Medical Informatics, Software Engineering, 4) Multimedia comprising Virtual Reality, Immersive Technology, E-Learning, Interface Design & Ambient Intelligence and 5) Knowledge Management & Information Retrieval.
If you are interested in collaborating in one of these areas, please contact Heather Boyles.
Live Webcast: Monday April 17, 7:00 pm
Internet2 affiliate member United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, with assistance from Internet2 corporate sponsor VBrick Systems, is presenting a live webcast, "What Will it Take to Stop Genocide in Darfur?" on Monday, April 17, 2006 at 7:00 pm EDT. An excellent panel has been assembled for the event: Pulitzer Prize winning author Samantha Power; Michael Ranneberger, Senior State Department Representative for Sudan; Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, Sudanese Human Rights Defender; and award winning journalist Jon Sawyer. The panelists will respond to questions posed via an online discussion board that is open to all participants.
Samantha Power is a Lecturer in Public Policy. Her book, "A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide," was awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and the 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award for general nonfiction. Ambassador Michael Ranneberger is the Special Advisor for Sudan at the U.S. Department of State. He previously served as Ambassador to Mali and as Coordinator for Cuban Affairs. Dr. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam is the founder and Chairperson of the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO), and independent non-governmental organization dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights, peace-building, and development. Jon Sawyer is director of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a non-profit organization that funds independent reporting with the intent of raising the standard of media coverage of global affairs.
The discussion will be netcast on both Internet2 advanced networks and the commodity Internet. Anyone is welcome to participate in this event, and the museum encourages students to organize groups on their campus to view the presentation. For updated information about the program and the panelists, visit the program website. To view the program on April 17, see the webcast site.
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is hosting the first in a new series of campus events focusing on the impact of cyberinfrastructure on faculty and researchers. This five-location, videoconferenced symposium is entitled “Information Technology for Research: The Impact of National Directions in Cyberinfrastructure.” With presenters and attendees located throughout the country, Rutgers has enlisted support from technical staff on all three of its New Jersey campuses—located in Camden, Newark, and New Brunswick—as well as staff from Internet2 and statewide NJEDge.Net organizations for this April 4th event. Additional technology support for the event is being provided by InSors, Lifesize, Polycom, and VBrick, which will also be presenting information about their products during the symposium.
According to Tom Grzelak, Rutgers’ associate director for research technology in the Office of Information Technology (OIT), “By having each campus as an origination point for part of the program, our goal is to increase the participatory nature of the event and thereby improve the experience faculty and researchers will have no matter which campus location they attend.” Three federal agencies—the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and Department of Energy—will participate in the day's activities via the the Internet2 office in Washington, D.C.
As a follow-up, organizers for the Rutgers event are planning to hold a BoF at the Spring 2006 Internet2 Member Meeting and share their insights on “How to Host an Internet2 Cyberinfrastructure Event” with member meeting attendees.
The Three Rivers Optical Exchange (3ROX) is a regional network-aggregation point providing high-speed commodity and research network access to sites in western and central Pennsylvania and West Virginia. 3ROX is operated and managed by the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, a joint effort of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. While the primary focus of 3ROX is to provide cost-effective, high-capacity, state-of-the-art network connectivity to the university community, this infrastructure also provides well defined network services to both community (K12, government) and commercial entities in western Pennsylvania. University member sites currently include: Carnegie Mellon University, the Pennsylvania State University, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, the University of Pittsburgh and West Virginia University.
On March 29, 2006, a total solar eclipse will occur when the new moon moves directly between the sun and the earth. The moon’s shadow will fall on the eastern tip of Brazil, speed eastward across the Atlantic, through northern Africa, across the Mediterranean, and into Turkey, where a team from San Francisco's Exploratorium museum will be waiting.
The Exploratorium crew will transmit a live eclipse webcast and a telescope-only feed from a second-century Roman amphitheater in Side, Turkey. The live feed will be sent via satellite from Turkey to London, and then via fiber-optic cable to the U.S., where an Internet feed will be generated. The Exploratorium’s eclipse programming will be broadcast over Internet2's advanced networks via the Exploratorium's connection to the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC). Additionally, the feed will be webcast on the Internet at up to 512 Kbps, broadcast live to community centers, NASA learning centers, and museums in the US, Mexico, Egypt, and Europe, and archived on the Exploratorium’s website.
Four telescopes will be used in the field: two in white light (1/4 disc and full disc) and two with hydrogen-alpha filters (1/4 disc and full disc). The white light telescopes capture a magnified version of what the human eye sees. The hydrogen-alpha telescopes filter out a significant amount of light from the sun’s surface. They will be used before and after totality to provide a dramatic view of sunspots, prominences, and other solar features.
This program was planned with a group of educators and scientists from NASA’s Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum (from the University of California at Berkeley and Goddard Space Flight Center), other NASA groups, and staff at the Exploratorium.
Image courtesy of www.exploratorium.edu.
Representatives from Internet2 and the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) this week announced that Alaska's statewide education network, AK20, will become the 35th state education network to connect directly to Internet2's nationwide high performance network. Leveraging this connection, AK20 will participate in the Internet2 K20 Initiative which will give Alaska's students access to cutting-edge, Internet-based educational opportunities not available today on the commercial Internet.The announcement was made during a special ceremony held at UAF's Internet2 Day. Participants included, Douglas Van Houweling, Internet2's president and CEO; Louis Fox, Internet2's director of the K20 Initiative; Steve Smith, UAF's CIO; and Scott Christian, executive director of the Alaska Distance Education Consortium.
