A collaboration overview: From TF-VSS to GN2 SA6

Transcription

1 A collaboration overview: From TF-VSS to GN2 SA6 András Kovács, NIIF/HUNGARNET GN3 SA3-T4 educonf Workshop, Lisbon 19 October 2010

2 Introduction a bit of history National VC services: Endpoint deployment: end of 90s Global Dialing Scheme (ViDeNet/Internet2) Connecting NREN VC deployments TERENA platform for VC / multimedia co-operation: TF-STREAM, TF-Netcast TF-Media (streaming) TF-VVC, TF-ECS, TF-VSS (VoIP/VC) IP Telephony cookbook NRENum.net service Back in 2006: Lack of joint efforts Lack of coordination between NREN service groups GDS low service quality Strong need for European level service: No idea about its content & scope!

3 TF-VSS study TF-VSS: Videoconference Service Studies Mandate: Oct Sept Preceded by failed GN2 activity proposal (2006) 1. Survey: 19 NRENs / 11 universities Services currently offered Deployed equipment capabilities: H.460 (fw/nat), H.239 (content), H.264 Resolutions: sub-sd/sd/hd Service development plans ISDN, SIP Future European service content 2. Service requirements and specification 3. Input to GN2 proposal in 2007

4 TF-VSS survey results 95% would support an European level VC service 80% for standard based VC (H.323/SIP), but: Not user friendly technology Endpoint configuration is complex (desktop!) FW/NAT traversal is painful (desktop!) H.239 screen sharing needed Central searchable directory H.323 will remain for years (legacy endpoints) GDS: important, would use anything better MCU has primary importance Common authentication framework (edugain / Shib. AAI) Other applications: VRVS, Access Grid, Mbone tools, Breeze (Adobe): 20-30% Skype: % (!)

5 TF-VSS survey results European service desired content: 80% user support, communication channels 80% data/screen sharing 75% conference scheduling 65% multipoint conference 65% free registrar / proxy 60% conference recording / streaming 60% common authentication 60% localization 50% ongoing conference control 50% large conferences

6 TF-VSS: multipoint considerations Shared MCU booking drawbacks: Diverse hw quality (?), diverse features Difficult monitoring & reporting Support from multiple NRENs for multiple MCU hw Cost of support multiplied Cost sharing? MCU APIs: security considerations Distributed gateways? (e.g. PSTN) No preference possible to local usage Enormous resource needs for sw development TF-VSS suggested to have a central resource: Cheaper, better service quality, stable Lower required contributions from NRENs

7 GN2 SA6 educonf New SA in GN2 started 09/2007 (Y4 + 6 months) SA6 partners: CARNET, CESNET, GRNET, HEANET, HUNGARNET, NORDUnet, PSNC, REDIRIS, SWITCH, TERENA, UoM Budgeted effort: ~ 54MM (Y4 + 6 months) Service name: educonf SA6 activity structure: Work Item 1: Design, planning Work Item 2: Implementation, service operations

8 Activity objectives I. 1. Address the lack of end-user trust in inter-nren videoconferencing services: Co-ordination between NREN VoIP/VC groups Slow problem identification and resolution Negative end-user experience 2. Improve the efficiency of inter-nren problem identification and resolution by: Defined organizational structure Common management tools and apps. Source of information

9 Activity objectives II. 3. Help locating VC/VoIP service information and support organising videoconferences: Facility to locate service contact points, endpoints Support seeking new partnerships Support organisation of multi-party conferences 4. Address the digital divide by multipoint VC resources to support European projects and researchers: MCU resources volunteered, without guarantees No multipoint VC service in many countries Home for the homeless concept

10 Achievements covering Obj. No Improve co-ordination between NREN groups: Defined structure of communication educonf-admins, -tickets mailing lists Public service website Directory (see Obj. No. 3.) source of information Trouble Ticketing System Interdomain VC/VoIP monitoring system Knowledge base: User documentation Guidelines to use/join educonf service(s)

11 Website (starting point)

12 TTS OTRS (modification by SA5) edugain AAI access Available for educonf members, NREN admins Defined procedures to handle problems Lessons: Not used at all OTRS is a nightmare

13 Monitoring system I. Monitor unstable H.323 GDS connecting NREN services

14 Monitoring system II. Interdomain distributed H.323 (GDS) monitoring Based on Nagios+NagVis and OpalVoip library test tool Own developed Nagios plugin Public connectivity matrix Identified hidden problems Lessons: Very useful, must to have! Shows false negatives

15 Knowledge Base wiki + edugain AAI Wiki content: Admin guide to join educonf directory Admin guide to establish an educonf monitoring node Troubleshooting procedures Glossary (technology) Using educonf services (directory, monitoring) Dialing schemes and how to use them (calling)? Other admin and end-user help Community wiki for NREN/organizational admins Lessons learned: no material added by partners

16 Procedures operational roles Service infrastructure admins: System admins (server, OS, web server, etc.) Directory admins (directory components) Monitoring admins (monitoring components) Expert-on-Duty (EoD): Coordinating international problem resolution Rely on helpdesk tools All roles on round robin basis by NRENs Lessons learned: Round robin maintenance by NRENs DOES NOT work Cannot implement EoD (no contribs) Inefficient

17 Obj. No Directory Distributed directory service: Based on XML data provided by data maintainers (HTTPS) Complex schema, many optional elements Regular data harvesting Storing in and retrieval from central XML DB Search by: web forms and geographical location Joined: all SA6 partners, some GN2 partners (BE, DE, NL, SI) Lessons learned: Complex data schema is daunting (80% is optional) Useful for service admins (contact points) No endpoint info is supplied by members Partly useful for end-users: Central directory delivered to endpoints

18 Obj. No Directory Scope of information: Basic organizational info Your contact points (general, service admins) Prefixes of your organization and their reachability (routing) Test numbers to test connectivity Your gatekeepers and SIP proxies Your MCUs and their use policies VC endpoint deployment info, geographical view

19 Obj. No. 3. Directory Geographical visualization URL: Visual search through map interface Organization data Contact points Endpoints Prefixes of organizations Directory XML DB used Google Maps based visualization

20 Obj. No Multipoint A GN2 provided multipoint VC service: Shared booking is not an option! (resource) Concerns: Any end-user service on European level: Competing with NREN services Full NREN consensus required (not in GN2 SA6) End-user support scalability problem: Whole EU? ~30M users??? Decision taken not to implement Some technology tests done Lessons: Can we avoid competitiveness to NRENs services? Concept is against current service models

21 GN2 SA6 evaluation Was no NREN consensus for an end-user service: Needs collective decision and strategy Unclear strategy and commitment Service model change? SA6 created supporting services for VC admins Jammed between H.323/SIP devices and easy-to-use desktop needs Federated concept Connect now with any device: PSTN, VoIP, Videoconference Desktop focus required Enormously complex task

22 BoF on TNC2010 (3/06/2010) The dream collaboration tool Equipment: heterogeneous Meeting room + desktop integration Multiplatform (Win / Mac / Linux) Multipoint AAI auth required Must be inter-organization solution: Many questions around VO integration Firewall/NAT traversal Searchable directory (web/client): discovery of endpoints & users Meeting organization support (invitation): Scheduling + invitation Support for virtual groups Content: screen/application sharing, shared working space Recording + streaming Buddy list + presence General: low cost & high quality, ease of use ( one button concept)

23 Possibilities Real unified communication: Full VoIP + video integration (closed vs. open network) Real E.164 to all? NREN VoIP deployments: No peerings, legal obstacles (?) GDS out phase: needs joint effort Migrate to ENUM / NRENum.net (?) Invest heavily in an open source tool: EVO?? or start a new dev. project? Buy something from market?

24 Thank you!