Download VRVS - Desy

Global Platform for Rich Media
Conferencing and Collaboration
Philippe Galvez
California Institute of Technology
Feb 2nd, 2004
DESY Seminar
VRVS: What it is ?
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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
provide a scalable communication infrastructure for
large collaboration dispersed all over the world.
Different technologies and protocols are supported
(and mixed) and allow 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: 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
 Provide low latency communication
 Could be use for real-time interactivity or broadcast
 Provide 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 27 Different Countries
USA
27
Italy
1
Spain
5
Germany
1
Brazil
5
Chile
1
Switzerland
5
Poland
1
UK
3
Venezuela
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
as of Nov 4th, 2003
8029 different Users
Registered
from 102 Countries
Scheduled Multipoint Videoconferences
Sessions
800
2001
700
2002
2003
600
500
400
USA
1932
Spain
1153
Italy
549
Switzerland
491
France
474
Brazil
421
Germany
402
UK
333
Japan
154
Canada
149
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
1500
1000
500
n
Fe
b
M
ar
A
pr
M
ay
Ju
n
Ju
l
A
ug
Se
p
O
ct
N
ov
D
ec
0
Ja
Taiwan, Greece, Argentina,
Russia, Slovakia, etc…
Machines and OS
Machines used in VRVS
VRVS support 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)
Exemple 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
 Perform some packet recovery
 VRVS Proxy Java agent for users behind NAT
environement
 Fix 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 processors PC
With special 4 output graphic card
6400 x 4800 pixels
Most powerful VRVS End Node
What next ?
On-going and Future
developments (1/2)
 Adaptation to emerging standards: IPv6, SIP
 Develop advanced monitoring and tracking tools for
ad-hoc conference as well as scheduled multi-site
conferences
 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.
 Improve Security (Firewall, NAT, Authentication,
Encryption)
 Develop a pure peer-to-peer VRVS reflectors network to
be able to handle thousands of parallel sessions
On-going and Future
developments (2/2)
 Wireless/Mobile Client Integration:
 User Interface dedicated for small screens
 Integration of low end client:
Provide dedicated software clients (VVP, JMF)
Transcode streams to lower bandwidth
Support MPEG4
 Integration of new hardware/software for high-end
interactivity.
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Developed a multipoint videoconferencing system based on
MPEG4 compression standard.
 Developed a system using HDTV standard If affordable hardware
devices available.
VRVS, Caltech Team
Philippe
Galvez
Gregory
Denis
David
Collados
Kun Wei
Project Manager
Pasadena (USA)
Main Web Developer
Geneva
(Switzerland)
Administration Developer
Geneva
(Switzerland)
Reflector Main Developer
Pasadena (USA)
CGI, Java and SIP Developer
Dave
Adamczyk
Dennis Lattka System operation responsible
Joao Correia
Support Responsible
Pasadena (USA)
Pasadena (USA)
Geneva
(Switzerland)
WWW.VRVS.ORG
[email protected]
[email protected]
Additional Slides
Virtual Access Grid
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User can connect to either unicast or multicast
videoconferencing with full supported features
 User can create his/her own virtual AG node and
virtual venues and integrated into VRVS
 Different Video modes possible:
Voice switched: default mode for H.323 clients. one
video stream at a time
Timer switched: browse through all the video based
on preset timer. One video stream at a time.
Selected Streams: Click among the video participants
to view selected video streams (one or several streams
available).
All Streams
VAG with Mbone Clients
Conclusion: We believe that VRVS offers the following
unique differentiators:
Usability – VRVS’ web-based user interface is easy to
use and allows almost any desktop of videoconference suite
to connect to a VRVS virtual room conference with only few
clicks. Its default client apps enable multi-standards audio,
video and data collaboration.
Scalability – VRVS scales up with the needs for quality
and volume more elegantly and beyond anything possible
now.
More simultaneous participants in a same virtual
room
More simultaneous virtual room conferences
Wider range of video and data sharing quality
Flexibility – VRVS allows inter-operation of collaborative
communications between end points of various audio, video
and data sharing capabilities as well as different types of
connectivity.
Efficiency – VRVS server software makes efficient use of
bandwidth by routing required information only to various
nodes.
Ubiquity – VRVS’ ease-of-use and scalability unlocks the
value of network-based collaboration tools and allows
anyone, anywhere, anytime to improve their collaborative
experience.
Robustness – VRVS is field tested on a large scale for a
long period of time. It has demonstrated exceptional
reliability and simplified its deployment and use beyond
anything available today (except maybe POTS and email!)
Web based interface
 VRVS provides a natural and
intuitive interface to organize
and manage your meetings.
 Several interfaces let you see
in 1 shot all current
conferences, let you book a new
one in 3 clicks.
 Several academic
communities are handled by
VRVS. Each one has its specific
Virtual Rooms.
 VRVS manages multi
international time zones in a
transparent way.
 Its use do not require
technical knowledge nor
technician action.
Connection Interface
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Connect / Disconnect the selected videoconference client
Provide different video modes
Allow CHAT and Private messages
Can share your computer desktop
Remote control of video cameras.
 co-browsing of web sites
 real time list of connected participants
 share computer desktop with other participants