# Presentation: 079888

## Advances in Remote Participationfor Fusion Experiments

- Presented by
- David P. Schissel Jon Farthing
- Volker Schmidt

- at
- The 23rd Symposium on Fusion Technology
- September 20-24, 2004
- Venice, Italy

## PRESENTATION’S KEY POINTS

-  Collaborative technology critical to the success of the FE program      —  Experimental: Fewer, larger machines in future (KSTAR, ITER)
-     —  Includes design, engineering and construction phase
-     —  Computation: Moving toward an integrated simulation
-  Both the EU and US programs are implementing and testing  new collaborative technologies for fusion research
-     —  Being used to benefit daily FE research
-   Work is still needed to make RP technology suitable for routine use      —  Ease-of-use, but not neglecting security (“security with transparency”)
-     —  Interoperability of technologies

## ACKNOWLEDGMENT

-  In the United States, work is supported by the Department of Energy
-     —  Office of Fusion Energy Sciences
-     —  Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research
-     —  National Fusion Collaboratory Project (_[http://www.fusiongrid.org/](http://www.fusiongrid.org/)_)
-           *  ANL, LBNL Princeton U., Utah, MIT/C-Mod, GA/DIII-D, PPPL/NSTX

-    In Europe, supported by the European Commission    —  European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA)

## EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL FUSIONRESEARCH IS A WORLDWIDE EFFORT

- EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL FUSIONRESEARCH IS A WORLDWIDE EFFORT

## NATURE OF FUSION RESEARCH DRIVES REQUIREMENTS FOR COMPUTING AND NETWORKING

-   Experiments
-     —  Real time interactions of large, geographically extended teams
-     —  Real time interactions between specialized small groups
-     —  Faster between-pulse analysis translates directly to productivity
-     —  Building an extended team of experts from small groups
-     —  Barriers to use of powerful analysis tools can be significant
-   Theory and Computation    —  Simulations producing very large data sets (GB=>TB=>PB)
-     —  Interactive visualization and analysis presents a severe           challenge for computing and networking
-     —  Increased code sharing and collaborative development
-     —  Real time interactions of geographically extended teams

## THE GOAL OF RP TECHNOLOGY IS TO ADVANCE UNDERSTANDING & INNOVATION IN FUSION RESEARCH

- Facilitate multi-institution collaboration:Worldwide Fusion Virtual Organization

- Create standard tool set

- Integrate theory & experiment

- More efficient use of experimental facilities

## OUR WORK FOCUSES ON FOUR AREAS

-   Production computational Service:  Grid Computing
-     —  Grid computing: large-scale integration of distributed computer systems
-     —  Power grid analogy: remote resources accessible form your laptop           much the same way as electricity is delivered to your home
-   Compare theory & experiment: Access to large datasets    —  Both a visualization and data handling challenge
-   Fully engaged remote scientists    —  Real-time human interaction at a distance
-   Tiled display wall for collocated collaboration    —  For the large groups in the tokamak control room

## NOT FOCUSING ON CONVENTIONAL GRID APPLICATIONS – CYCLE SCAVENGING & DYNAMIC CONFIGURATION

- NOT FOCUSING ON *CONVENTIONAL* GRID APPLICATIONS – CYCLE SCAVENGING & DYNAMIC CONFIGURATION

- This model is not well suited to fusion computation:
- We are aiming to move high-performance distributed computing out onto the wide area network

-  Traditional computational Grids, arrays of heterogeneous servers
-  Computers can join and leave
-  Adaptive discovery: where problems find resources
-  Workload balancing and cycle scavenging
-  Bandwidth diversity where not all computers are well connected

## PLACING DISTRIBUTED APPLICATIONS OUT ONTHE WAN PRESENTS SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGES

- PLACING DISTRIBUTED APPLICATIONS OUT ONTHE WAN PRESENTS SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGES

-  Crosses administrative boundaries
-  Increased concerns and complexity for security including   authentication and authorization
-  Resources not owned by a single project or program
-  Distributed control of resources by owners is essential
-  Needs for end-to-end application performance & problem resolution
-    —  Resource monitoring, management & troubleshooting not straightforward
-    —  Higher latency challenges network throughput & interactivity
-  People are not in one place for easy communication

## THE VISION FOR RP TECHNOLOGIES

- Optimize the most expensive resource - people’s time

-  Data, Codes, Analysis Routines, Visualization Tools should be     thought of as network accessible services
-  Shared security infrastructure with distributed authorization and   resource management
-  Collaborative nature of research requires shared visualization    applications and widely deployed collaboration technologies
-     —  Integrate geographically diverse groups
-  Not focused on CPU cycle scavenging or “distributed”    supercomputing (typical Grid justifications)

## VISION – RESOURCES AS SERVICES

-   Resources are computers, codes, data analysis routines,    visualization tools, experimental operations
-   Access is stressed rather than portability
-   Users are shielded from implementation details
-   Transparency and ease–of–use are crucial elements
-   Shared toolset enables collaboration between sites    and across sub–disciplines
-   Knowledge of relevant physics is still required of course

## VISION – SECURITY INFRASTRUCTURE

-   Security with transparency
-     —  Ease-of-use requirement
-  Strong authentication identifies users currently based    on X.509 certificates from trusted Certificate Authority
-     —  Interoperability with international Grid Certificate Authorities
-   Distributed authorization allows stakeholders to control    their own resources
-     —  Facility owners can protect computers, data, and experiments
-     —  Code developers can control intellectual property
-     —  Fair use of shared resources can be demonstrated & controlled

## VISION – VISUALIZATION AND A/V TOOLS

-   Maximum interactivity for    visualization of very large datasets

-   Use of extended tool sets    for remote collaboration
-     —  Flexible collaboration environment    —  Shared applications

## MDSplus: SECURE ACCESS TO FUSION DATA 

- MDSplus: SECURE ACCESS TO FUSION DATA

-  MDSplus: remote access based on client-server model
-     —  In use for over 10 years (robust)
-  Wide adoption worldwide
-     —  Unifying the data interface (e.g. Visualization)
-  MDSplus data access secured with Globus GSI
-     —  X.509 certificates

## SUCCESSFUL GRID COMPUTING FOR FUSION SCIENCE

- _“__This is a success”_
-  –  Centralized expertise for better support
-  –  Reduce admin work at other labs
-  –  Model for other codes
_***The***__ U.S. TRANSP Service_
-    –  4,200 cases, 10,000 CPU hrs
-    –  10 fusion experimental machines

## FUSION GRID MONITOR: AN EFFICIENT APPLICATIONMONITORING SYSTEM FOR THE GRID ENVIRONMENT

- FUSION GRID MONITOR: AN EFFICIENT APPLICATIONMONITORING SYSTEM FOR THE GRID ENVIRONMENT

-  Users track and monitor the state of applications on FusionGrid
-      —  Output dynamically via HTML, Built as Java Servlet (JDK2.1)
-   Code maintenance notification
-     —  Users notified, queuing  turned off, code rebuilt, queue restarted
-   Results of simulation visualized during run
-     —  Both input and output quantities

## ADVANCED RESERVATION COMPUTATION FOR DATAANALYSIS TO SUPPORT EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE

- ADVANCED RESERVATION COMPUTATION FOR DATAANALYSIS TO SUPPORT EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE

-  Long-term vision: code runs on supercomputers between pulses
-      —  Data management
-      —  Network QoS
-      —  Visualization
-      —  CPU scheduling
-      —  Faster CPUs and algorithms
-   End-to-end agreement being prototyped on FusionGrid
-     —  CPU reservation
-     —  Network transfer agreements based on simple prediction
-  FusionGrid service TRANSP being tested between pulses
-     —  First such capability for fusion energy research

## VISUALIZE COMPLEX SIMULATIONS WITHEXPERIMENTAL DATA FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING

- VISUALIZE COMPLEX SIMULATIONS WITHEXPERIMENTAL DATA FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING

-   Open source, multi-platform capable for a wide user base
-   To facilitate quantitative comparison of simulations & experimental results

- NIMROD Simulation of a DIII-D Plasma

- Raising the challenge of very large datasets
-  – MDSplus
-  – Storage method
-  – Data location
-  – Parallel I/O

## ADVANCED COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENTS ENABLE INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY FOR COLLABORATIVE WORK

## VIDEO CONFERENCING OVER IP:COMMERCIAL H.323 SYSTEMS

- VIDEO CONFERENCING OVER IP:COMMERCIAL H.323 SYSTEMS

-   Numerous commercial systems available
-   Point-to-point & multipoint (requires MCU)
-   Hardware has built-in echo cancellation
-   Video quality adjusts to available bandwidth

- Stockholm to JET

- IPP

## VIDEO CONFERENCING OVER IP

- VRVS “Virtual Room Videoconferencing System”

-   Web-oriented, low-cost, bandwidth-efficient extensible
-   Concept is of a virtual meeting room with booking system
-   Grew out of HEP community but now in use elsewhere
-   Proprietary infrastructure supporting a number of collaboration tools
-   Uses distributed reflectors to optimize IP traffic between sites

- * California Institute of Technology

## INSTANT MESSAGING FOR ASYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATION

-  Instant Messaging (“Chat”)
-      —  Self-documenting tool halfway between telephone            and e-mail exchanges
-      —  For teleconference setup & non-intrusive            communication during the meeting
-   Several IM tools in use in the EFDA labs
-     —  Originally public Yahoo Messenger,           but phased out due to security concerns
-     —  New EFDA Garching-based secure private           server running Jabber
-     —  VRVS and AG have their own built in chat tools

## COMPUTER DESKTOP SHARINGVNC ‘Virtual Network Computing”

- COMPUTER DESKTOP SHARINGVNC ‘Virtual Network Computing”

-  The European Fusion community has de facto adopted VNC
-      —  Allows sharing a remote desktop over the Internet
-      —  Viewing clients with small footprint available for most platforms
-      —  Open source, good support, active user community
-   VNC is being routinely used for
-     —  one-to-one discussion meetings
-     —  slide presentations in tele-meetings
-     —  Control room screen broadcast
-     —  Remotely-shared engineering design work

## ACCESS GRID: REAL TIME COMPLEX COMMUNICATION

-  Can be large room immersive    —  Multi-site participants
-     —  Application & data sharing
-   Small to large nodes
-     —  Open source software
-     —  Commodity hardware

-  Being used for seminars, working meetings, tokamak operations
-  AG nodes are international: 150 nodes and counting
-    —  All UK e-Science centers have AG rooms
-  Interoperability of technology is critical

## TILED DISPLAYS INSTALLED IN FUSION CONTROL ROOMS

-  Enhanced collaboration within a large control room
-     —  “Publish” your analysis for the group to see and discuss
-  Share and collaborate between tiled displays     —  Clone of tokamak control room (discussed for ITER)

- DIII-D Tokamak Control Room

- NSTX Tokamak Control Room

## EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCES PLACES A LARGE PREMIUMON RAPID DATA ANALYSIS IN NEAR-REAL-TIME

- EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCES PLACES A LARGE PREMIUMON RAPID DATA ANALYSIS IN NEAR-REAL-TIME

-  Not batch analysis and not a needle in a haystack problem
-     —  Rapid “real-time” analysis of many measurements
-  More informed decisions result in better experiments
-    —  The collaborative control room

-  Pulsed experiments
-     —  10s duration plasma every 20 minutes
-  20-40 people in control room
-     —  More from remote locations
-   10,000 separate measurements/plasma      —  kHz to MHZ sample rates
-     —  Between pulse analysis

- DIII-D Control Room

## THE COLLABORATIVE CONTROL ROOMIS FUNDAMENTAL TO ADVANCING FUSION SCIENCE 

- THE COLLABORATIVE CONTROL ROOMIS FUNDAMENTAL TO ADVANCING FUSION SCIENCE

-  Secure computational resources that   can be scheduled as required
-  Rapidly compare experimental   data to simulation results
-  Share individual results with   the group via shared displays
-  Fully engaged remote scientists   via audio, video, shared displays

## REMOTE LEADERSHIP OF THE JET TOKAMAK IN 

- REMOTE LEADERSHIP OF THE JET TOKAMAK IN
- ENGLAND FROM SAN DIEGO USING RP TECHNOLOGY

- January 2004, San Diego

- It is becoming more common:
- Japan - US, US - Germany, & EFDA–JET

## DRFC (France) & INRS (Quebec, Canada) JOINTLY OPERATETHE LANGMUIR PROBE DIAGNOSTIC ON TORE SUPRA

- DRFC (France) & INRS (Quebec, Canada) JOINTLY OPERATETHE LANGMUIR PROBE DIAGNOSTIC ON TORE SUPRA

-  Fully operational remote control room participation scenario
-   Employs several RP techniques
-    —  Video conferencing video VRVS
-    —  Passive screen sharing in both directions via VNC
-    —  Secure remote computer login at DRFC via encrypted CITRIX
-   —  Data analysis tasks on INRS computers synchronized with        Tora Supra pulse sequence using MDSplus events

## RP TECHNOLOGIES SCALE TO THE NEXT DEVICE

-  One physical location
-     —  International collaboration
-   Pulsed experiment with simulations      —  ~TBs of data in 30 minutes
-   Successful operation requires    —  Large simulations, shared visualization,          decisions back to the control room
-     —  Remote Collaboration via FusionGrid
-   RP technologies critical to the    success of these programs
-     —  Including construction phase

- KSTAR

- ITER

## LESSONS LEARNED AND OUTSTANDING ISSUES

-  Difficulties combining Grid-security and Site-security (firewalls)      —  Greatly limiting the potential expansion of the user base
-  Certificate management for users and developers too difficult     —  This is often their first experience: needs to be positive
-   Manipulating large multi-dimensional datasets is still a challenge      —  Need to test new approaches
-   Control room presence is more than audio/video & shared apps      —  Include things one sees & hears when physically in control room
-  Difficulty combining H.323, VRVS, and AG into one united meeting      —  Unlikely one solution is adopted, need easy interplay between systems
-  Education, training and shared documentation     —  Users, developers, and system administrators
-  Continue to learn and interact with other scientific domains     —  No need to reinvent the wheel; e.g. LHC from HEP in 2007

## CONCLUDING COMMENTS

-  Collaborative technology critical to the success of the FE program      —  Experimental: Fewer, larger machines in future (KSTAR, ITER)
-     —  Computation: Moving toward an integrated simulation
-  The requirements of the collaborative control room encompass in   one instantiation the collaborative needs of fusion research
-     —  The most demanding since it is time critical and failure intolerant
-  Both the EU and US programs are implementing and testing  new collaborative technologies for fusion research
-     —  Being used to benefit daily FE research
-   Technology has broad applicability beyond tokamak plasma physics      —  Design, engineering, and construction of diagnostics and machines
-     —  Applicable to KSTAR and ITER during construction phase