# Presentation: 707776

## "Mbone"-H.323 Gateway Development Questions of Feasibility, Necessity, & Practicality

- Mary Fran Yafchak
- IT Program Coordinator, SURA
*maryfran@sura.org*

## About SURA

- US-based 501(c)3
- Founded in 1980 to run Jefferson Lab (still does; see www.jlab.org) ; later built SURANet (sold to BBN in 1995)
- Currently a consortium of 53 research universities from 15 southeastern states & the District of Columbia
- For more info: http://www.sura.org

## SURA Mission

- Foster excellence in scientific research
- Strengthen the scientific and technical capabilities of the nation and the Southeast
- Provide outstanding training opportunities for the next generation of scientists and engineers

## Reasons for SURA’s Interest

- Increasing adoption of collaborative conferencing within the SURA region
- Different user communities being approached by different VC efforts
- SURA’s desire to avoid creation of “communication islands” as collaborative conferencing evolves
- We just love it when people get along...

## Sponsored by SURA to explore the feasibility of developing a “vanilla” Mbone-H.323 gateway 
Held Sept. 27, 2000. Attended by: AccessGrid, RADVision, ViDe, VRVS, SURA 
Minimum results, a final report: 
www.sura.org/info_tech/gateways/VC_gateway_report.html
Other possible results:
Collaborative project and/or product development? 

- Held Sept. 27, 2000. Attended by: AccessGrid, RADVision, ViDe, VRVS, SURA
- Minimum results, a final report:
- www.sura.org/info_tech/gateways/VC_gateway_report.html
- Other possible results:
- Collaborative project and/or product development?

- The SURA Gateway meeting

## Goals of the Meeting

- Introduce key technology developers to each other and each others’ work
- Evaluate the technical feasibility of developing a gateway - generic or between specific implementations
- Ascertain each organization’s view on the practicality/necessity of gateway development and  on potential collaboration

## So, How’d We Do?

- Goal 1: Introduce key technology developers to each other and each others’ work
- Results:

- Success!!

## So, How’d We Do?

- Goal 2: Evaluate the technical feasibility of developing a gateway
- Results:
- Limited functionality gateway(s) could fairly easily developed between H.323 and specific Mbone tool-based implementations.
-  “Full-featured” gateways would present many technical challenges, some that might not be overcome without violating the H.323 standard.
-  The user functionality of the Mbone tool-based implementations could likely be duplicated with an H.323 implementation.

## So, How’d We Do?

- Goal 3: Ascertain each organizations’ view on the practicality/necessity & potential collaboration
- Results:
- On the necessity of the gateway -
-  Neither AG nor RADVision see the necessity for this type of gateway.
-  VRVS has already felt the need within their own user community and will be continuing their development as directed by that need.
-  ViDe believes it is difficult to estimate or predict the need         for this gateway but believes that these user communities                        need to interact.

## So, How’d We Do?

- Goal 3: Ascertain each organizations’ view on the practicality/necessity & potential collaboration
- Results:
- On the potential for collaboration -
-  Universally, “vanilla” gateway development is outside the scope of current work; could not be undertaken without additional resources.
-  All indicated their appreciation of the meeting and their willingness to collaborate further if resources could be found.
- Some  groups expressed interest in particular aspects of each others’ work and an intention to follow up individually.

## Recommended Next Steps

- A closer look at some key questions:
- 1) What is the existing and potential overlap between the user communities for each of these technologies?
- 2) What is the desire/demand for gateway capability on the part of the overlapping user communities identified above?
- 3) What resources would be required (time, money, expertise) to develop a gateway application and/or service that would be useful to the SURA community?

## What does this mean for AG?

- Hmmm...

## Questions or Comments?

- Mary Fran Yafchak
- IT Program Coordinator, SURA
- maryfran@sura.org