Transcript What is VRVS

Global Platform for Rich Media
Conferencing and Collaboration
Joao Fernandes
California Institute of Technology
June 22nd, 2004
Videoconferencing Day, EPFL
What is VRVS ?
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The Virtual Rooms Videoconferencing System has
been developed by Caltech since 1995 to provide a
world wide videoconference service for education
and research communities.
VRVS is a realtime distributed system which
provides a scalable communication infrastructure
for large collaboration dispersed all over the world.
Different technologies and protocols are supported
(and mixed) allowing users to connect their
preferred videoconference.
Supports Mbone, H.323, SIP, QuickTime, Access
Grid, JMF and MPEG2.
The system is composed of 1 main server and
several reflectors (network servers) spread around
the world.
VRVS Web Service Design
Unified Web User Interface to schedule and join/leave
a meeting independently of the application.
Multi-platform: Windows, Linux, MacOS and Unix
Easy to use: Everybody (from 4 to 77 years old)
knows how to click on a web page today. Not true for
running a VCR
Virtual Room Concept, Scheduling: Create a virtual
space were people can exchange real-time information
Join or Leave a Collaborative session anytime: Do not
need to know in advance how many participants and
booked ports capacity. Just announce the meeting
and people will join from anywhere.
Full Documentation and Tutorial
Self service: You don’t need a technician or expert to
organize and join a conference
VRVS Reflector Implementation
 Avoids Duplication of Streams on a given Link
 Can be set to Unicast or Multicast mode or both
 Connection peer-to-peer with neighbors network
servers. Connectionless (more reliable to network
breaks)
 Enables Optimized Routing
 Enables Bandwidth Control
 Provides low latency communication
 Can be used for real-time interactivity or broadcast
 Provides an elegant solution to cross firewall/NAT
 Remote Management Features.
 Compliant with IETF RTPv2 Protocol, ready for new
applications.
VRVS Model Implementation
VRVS Web User Interface
(vic, vat/rat,..)
SIP
H.323
QuickTime
Player
MPEG
Minerva
QoS
VRVS Reflectors (Unicast/Multicast)
Collaborative
Applications
Mbone
Tools
Real Time Protocol (RTP/RTCP)
Network Layer (TCP/IP)
done
Partially done
Work in progress
Continuously in development
VRVS Deployment
and Usage
VRVS Reflectors Deployment
VRVS Reflectors Deployment
79 reflectors Deployment World wide
in 28 Different Countries
USA
27
Venezuela
2
Brazil
6
Italy
2
Spain
5
Germany
1
Switzerland
5
Chile
1
UK
3
Poland
1
France
3
Hungary
1
Slovakia
3
China
1
Canada
2
Ireland
1
Taiwan
2
Russia
1
Greece
2
Czech Republic
1
Portugal
2
Belgium
1
Israel
2
Romania
1
Japan
2
Australia
1
Pakistan
2
Finland
1
VRVS registered users and current
usage
Scheduled Multipoint Videoconferences Sessions
800
USA
2408
Spain
Italy
France
Switzerland
Brazil
Germany
UK
Slovakia
Canada
1392
706
638
612
510
425
349
314
198
2001
700
2002
2003
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Scheduled Multipoint Videoconferences hours
Sessions
3000
2001
2500
2002
2003
2000
And much more: Japan, Australia,
Greece, Taiwan, Argentina, Russia
China,…
1500
1000
500
0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
VRVS registered users and current
usage
10000 Users Milestone reached!
from 104 Countries
and more than 33000 machines
We have, in average ONE
new registered user per hour!
Machines and OS
Machines used in VRVS
VRVS supports different
Operating Systems
according to the need
and the demand of the
final users:
Windows
Linux
Macintosh
Others
Connections from Machines
1st
: Windows
2nd: Linux
3rd: Macintosh
4th: Other UNIX
Windows
Linux
Macintosh
Others
Call Details Record (CDR)
Number of
Number of
VRVS Meetings Participants
NOV 2003
692
2951
Total number of
Minutes of video/audio
connection
144 Days, 17h, 14mn
(3473 hours, 14mn)
DEC 2003
656
2734
129 Days, 18h, 57mn
(3114 hours, 57mn)
JAN 2004
687
2980
189 Days, 4h, 23mn
(4540 hours, 23mn)
Some Examples
VRVS on Mac OS X
VRVS on Windows
Example 1: 20 participants
BRAZIL (3 sites) + SWITZERLAND (CERN) + USA (Caltech)
Example 2: 17 participants
JAPAN + UK + SWITZERLAND + BRAZIL + USA (SLAC + FERMILAB)
Some Features
Network and Security
 Possibility of tunneling (TCP or UDP) between reflector
servers. All communications use only ONE port !
 Peer-to-peer design with high scalability and flexibility
 Solution for Firewall and NAT
 Performing of some packet recovery
 VRVS Proxy Java agent for users behind NAT
environment
 Fixed incompatibility between several H.323 end points
 Remotely mute/unmute video or/and audio
 Optimized network bandwidth utilization
 Real-time packet loss monitoring
 Support up to 16,000 Virtual Rooms (parallel meetings)
Administration Interface
o Pure Java J2EE + XML
o HTTPS/SSL secure web interface
o Monitoring reflectors and users in ongoing conference
o Full control on database
Monalisa: Real-Time Monitoring
VRVS Virtual Setup
1 dual processor PC
With special 4 output graphic card
6400 x 4800 pixels
Most powerful VRVS End Node
VRVS usage at CERN
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Currently there are a total of 11 videoconferecing
Rooms at CERN in production (1 more coming
soon)
7 of this Rooms have VRVS as the Core
Videoconferencing platform.
4 of this rooms are H.323 equipped. These
equipments are fully supported by VRVS.
We have currently 4 reflectors installed at CERN, 2
of them for internal usage
In 2003, we had 4812 hours of VRVS
videoconferencing at CERN for collaboration
activity
What is next ?
VRVS Main Technical Trend Evolution
Reflectors
Extend intelligence to the edge
V3.(0,1):
VRVS core infrastructure is statically and manually
configured and operated
V3.(2,x):
3.0
VRVS core infrastructure is automatically configured and
monitored. The core software is self dependent and can take
self decisions to improve performance/quality without
manual intervention
3.x
4.0
End users
End applications
V4.0 and beyond:
• This is a Globally Distributed Self Managed End2End Real-time Infrastructure. It
provides the best quality/performance possible
• Extends the core intelligence to the edge.
• Has a full End2End control and monitoring
• The self managed infrastructure has a full knowledge of all the critical/sensitive
parameters (all network layers, hardware and software at the end nodes, resources allocated and
available,..) in order to take adequate decisions (alarms, automatic rerouting of traffic,
disconnection, remove/add services,..)
• Administrator is fully aware with operational status via constant feedback (via UI,
email, phone,..) from the self managed core software
On-going and Future
developments
 Adaptation to emerging standards: IPv6, SIP
 Improve Security (Firewall, NAT, Authentication,
Encryption)
 Develop advanced network monitoring agents (based
on Java and web services) to run on each network
servers.
 Possibility to automatic rerouting between VRVS network
servers to find a better network path.
 Wireless/Mobile Client Integration:
 User Interface dedicated for small screens
 Integration of low end client. VVP, JMF, MPEG4
VRVS Team
Philippe Galvez
Pasadena (USA)
Kun Wei
Pasadena (USA)
Dave Adamczyk
Dennis Lattka
Pasadena (USA)
Gregory Denis
Geneva (Switzerland)
Juraj Sucik
Geneva (Switzerland)
Joao Fernandes
Geneva (Switzerland)
Pavel Farkas
Kosice (Slovakia)
Michal Pauliny
Kosice (Slovakia)
Mikulas Kankula
Kosice (Slovakia)
Pasadena (USA)