# Presentation: 679060

## The Access Grid

- Argonne National Laboratory
- www.mcs.anl.gov/fl/accessgrid
- (fl-info@mcs.anl.gov)

- An Introduction

**Notes:**
Rick Stevens is the PI on the AG Project.  I’ve used many of his slides in this presentation.

## Origins of the Access Grid

## 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

**Notes:**
Layers coalesce into the grid concept

## Related Work

- Berkeley and LBNL’s Mbone Tools (Jacobson et al.)
- Xerox PARC MOO and Jupiter  Projects (Curtis, et al.)
- Argonne/NEU’s Labspace Project (Evard/Stevens et al.)
- EVL’s  CAVERsoft (DeFanti, Leigh, et al.)
- ANL’s CAVEcomm and ManyWorlds (Stevens et al.)
- ANL and ISI Globus Project (Foster, Kesselman et al.)
- UNC’s Office of the Future (Fuchs et al.)
- DOE’s Collaboratory Pilots (Zalusec et al.)

## 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?

## 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

**Notes:**
ATTACK:   Build up a critical mass of groups using the AG Platform.
Involve multiple groups in trying new ideas and evaluation

INVOLVE:   We have active collaborations with over a dozen groups working on AG technology

RELEASE:  The system is open to new development and contributions.

## An Overview of the Access Grid

## Topology

**Notes:**
The accessgrid is the user-interface to the computational grid (purple dots are users)

Nodes scattered across the world comprise the accessgrid
KS, ND, KY, NM, UT, IL, FL, GA, MI, WI, CA, HI, OH, NY, ME, AL AR, 20 states
Japan, France, Russia many more in 2001

Users can go to a node near them – attending KU chatq at BU

## 	Physical Node Design

- Ambient mic
- (tabletop)

- Presenter
- mic

- Presenter
- camera

- Audience camera

- 	Physical Node Design

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

**Notes:**
Room-sized spaces – escape the tyranny of the desktop!

FOV – semi-immersive, shared by the group

Comfortable space – hang out all day.  People enjoy spending time there.

Persistent connections - barriers to spontaneous communication and collaboration are minimized

## 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

## Video

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

**Notes:**
Commodity hardware, no special decoders

## Data

- Shared
- Powerpoint
- VNC
- Visualization
- Archived
- Voyager

## Network

- Hardening multicast infrastructure
- http://beaconserver.accessgrid.org:9999/
- Large-scale networking testbed
- Higher bandwidth
- QoS
- Networking people active members of the AG community

## 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

**Notes:**
A Mud is a Multi-user virtual environment, MOO is an object oriented multi-user environment
	text based
	persistent
	capable of storing objects
	searchable
	recordable
	immediate, but ignorable

The Mud is an integral component of the Access Grid

## Virtual Collaboration Spaces

- 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

- Virtual Venue

## The Workspace Docking Concept

- Private Workspaces - Docked into the Group Workspace

## 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