ip videoconferencing on janet internet2 international task force internet2 member meeting

27th October 2002 IP VC on JANET Slide 1

Overview of JANET IP Videoconferencing

IP Videoconferencing on JANET

Internet2 International Task Force

Internet2 Member meeting

27th October 2002



Report: David Salmon

UKERNA

Slides: Roger BolamVideo Development Engineer

UKERNA



• Background to JANET Videoconferencing

• IP Videoconferencing Pilot

• Service Components and Capabilities

Outline



• Mid to late 90’s– High quality studio based service over ATM

network– Limited number of sites

• Centralised videoconferencing service to community for five years– Mix of ISDN and ATM technologies

History of Videoconferencing Services on JANET



• Plenty of SuperJANET4 capacity– Initially 2.5Gb/s, now 10Gb/s backbone

• ATM Closure of Scottish MANs Videoconferencing Network (SMVCN)

• Welsh Video Network developments– 90 studios now equipped and operational

• A requirement from our community

Drivers for IP Videoconferencing Service



• H.323 Architecture Group– Report and recommendations

• Budget approval– EU Procurement for centralised service

components

• Pilot Activities – Welsh Video Network

Recent IP Videoconferencing Work



• Service aimed at all organisations with direct connections to JANET– 800+ HE, FE & Research Council

• Open to all endpoints subject to passing a QA test– “Endpoints” are mostly VC studios– “Desktops” can apply to register

Service target



• Centralised Service

• MCUs, Gateways and Gatekeepers

• Equipment located in Core Points of Presence (CPoPs) and on JANET

• Conference Booking System

• Management and advisory service

• Security and resilience

Service Architecture



• Two Accord MGC 100 MCUs

• International Gatekeepers (Cisco MCM)

• National Gatekeepers (Cisco MCM)

• MCU Gatekeepers (Cisco MCM)

Results of Procurement



• Can support:– 48 IP sites @ 2 Mbit/s IP– 64 sites @ 384k ISDN

• Full Gateway capabilities between IP and ISDN

• Full inter-operation between different audio and video protocols - real time trans-coding

Accord MGC 100 MCU/Gateway



• Three levels of Gatekeeper:– International (resilient)

– National (resilient)

– Site

– supports Global Dialling Scheme

• Collaborative effort– European NRNs and ViDeNet adopting same

Gatekeeper Hierarchy and Global Dialling Scheme

Service Gatekeeper Hierarchy



• CODECs capable of initiating calls at speeds between 384kbit/s & 2 Mbit/s IP

• Implement a local gatekeeper– can register with centralised JANET site gatekeeper(s)– Interim measure

• Proxy server or H.323 aware firewall for security• Suitably provisioned JANET Access ( i.e. enough

bandwidth– Force a full-duplex ethernet LAN infrastructure: auto-

negotiation does not work

JANET recommendations to sites



Core Campus Switch

Institutional Endpoint

SD

Institution Access Router

SD

CI SCO YS T EM SS

PIX Firewall SERIES

SD

Internal router

To MAN / JANET

Institution Firewall

SD

3524 Switch

Studio

Institutional EndpointInstitutional Endpoint

H.323 Gatekeeper/Proxy

Cisco Multimedia Conference Manager (MCM) 366x



• Sites must be fully QA tested

• Separate QA Testing for IP and ISDN

• Sites must be registered with a gatekeeper

• Conferences must be booked using the JANET Booking System

Site Service Usage Requirements



Service Management

• Central management service

• Booking system operation and development

• Conference scheduling and equipment configuration

• QA testing service

• Advice and consultancy service for the community



• QA Tests to check all registered sites.– Mix of objective & subjective AV quality checks

• Initiated with the ISDN video service– Made a big difference as quality improved during the

service roll-out

• Audio and Video can be compared to standard benchmarks

• Tests include: echo cancellation quality, ambient noise levels, line noise, audio levels, video jitter, video pixellation

QA Testing



QA testing - 2

• Repeated every 6 months or so– Systems which pass remain registered– Systems which fail

• Advice offered by testers

• Deeper problems/issues passed to VTASconsultancy service for investigation

• Users can provide anonymous feedback– Identify poor sites and trigger QA tests



• Developed in-house for ISDN/ATM service• System has been further developed to add IP

bookings.– Some 300 sites registered– Approximately 90% are “studios”

• Automated booking – manual resource scheduling checks and configuration

• Aim for more automated resource scheduling in future– Accommodate Ad-hoc bookings– Currently needs ~24hours notice

JANET Videoconferencing Booking System



• Contract was placed for major service components 14th June 2002

• Pilot started September 2002

• Full Service 2003

Timescales



• Real time applications benefit from QoS

• UKERNA QoS project

• Prototyping QoS mechanisms on JANET

• IP Premium using Diff Serv EF

• QoS must to be End to End

Quality of Service



• VIP Projecthttp://www.ja.net/development/video/vip/reports/

• H.323 Architecture Group Reporthttp://www.ja.net/development/video/arch/

• Pilot Informationhttp://www.ja.net/development/video/pilot/announcement/html

Further Information



Roger BolamVideo Development Engineer

UKERNA

Email [email protected]

Contact Details for Further Information

ip videoconferencing on janet internet2 international task force internet2 member meeting

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