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KIWI ADVANCED RESEARCH AND EDUCATION NETWORK

University of Canterbury

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University of Canterbury Project Plan

Contents

Contacts

Phone

  • +64 3 366-7001

KAREN champion

Prof Ian Town
Professor Ian Town is the Deputy Vice Chancellor and Senior Management Team member responsible for Research, Information Technology, and BlueFern™ High Performance Computing. He has been active with the REANNZ community and a champion of KAREN at the University of Canterbury. Professor Town will assist in providing inter institutional promotion of the importance of using KAREN to enable E-Research. The focus extends across New Zealand to Universities overseas and other international research organisations. E-Research is a fundamental part of modern undergraduate and post graduate training.




Additional contacts

AVCC

The Advanced Video Collaboration Centre is a Support Team funded by MoRST and based at the University of Canterbury. AVCC is New Zealand's national centre for facilitating video collaboration for researchers, educators and scholars across our Universities and Crown Research Insitutes.

The AVCC staff are:

  • Nathan Gardiner
    eCollaboration Coordinator
  • Blair Willems
    AVCC Content Coordinator
  • Daniel Rammelt
    AVCC Technical Specialist

For more information and contact details about AVCC, please visit http://avcc.karen.net.nz


BlueFern

BlueFern™ is a collegial, high performance e-research computing services facility based at the University of Canterbury. It has been in existence since mid 2006 beginning as a IBM p575 based computer system and augmented by the addition of the first IBM Blue Gene in the southern hemisphere in mid 2007. The BlueFern team is run by:

  • Colin McMurtrie
  • Tony Dale
  • Vladimir Mencl

For more information and contact details about BlueFern, please visit http://www.bluefern.canterbury.ac.nz


HIT Lab NZ

The HIT Lab NZ conducts research with new emerging technologies such as Augmented Reality, Next Generation Video Conferencing, Immersive Visualization and Perceptual User Interfaces. Interaction Design techniques are used to adapt these technologies to the needs of end users and solve real world problems. Researchers working on KAREN projects include:

  • Dr Raphael Grasset, Senior Research Scientist
  • Prof Mark Billinghurst, Director
  • Dr Raphael Grasset
    Senior Research Scientist
  • Prof Mark Billinghurst
    Director, HIT Lab NZ
  • Florian Birnthaler
    KAREN funded Student
  • Thibault Daoulas
    KAREN funded Student
  • ChangHyeok Bae
    KAREN funded Student


For more information and contact details, please visit http://www.hitlabnz.org


SSRC

SSRC (Social Sciences Research Centre) is a multi-disciplinary centre set up to facilitate a more collaborative approach to social science research within the University of Canterbury and the broader Canterbury region. Researchers working on KAREN projects include:

  • Prof David Thorns, Centre Director
  • Dr Mary Allan, Post Doc
  • Bindy Barclay, Researcher
  • Prof David Thorns
    Center Director
  • Dr Mary Allan
    Post Doctoral Fellow
  • Bindy Barclay
    KAREN funded Researcher


For more information, please visit http://www.ssrc.canterbury.ac.nz

PlanetLab NZ PLlogo.png

PlanetLab is the global experimental networking facility, designed for conducting cutting-edge research on current and future network technologies, such as Next Generation Networks (NGNs), Next Generation Internet (NGI), Future Internet, etc. PlanetLab NZ main goal is to enable network research groups from New Zealand universities to access the global distributed networking laboratory of PlanetLab via KAREN. This project is funded by REANNZ, and carried out by the Network Research Group and the Simulation Research Group, Computer Science and Software Engineering Department, University of Canterbury. We now have the University of Canterbury, the University of Otago, the University of Auckland, the Auckland University of Technology, the University of Waikato, and Victoria University contributing to PlanetLab NZ. An earlier attempt to become part of PlanetLab failed because of the prohibitive costs of using the commodity Internet. Researchers at each New Zealand University which cooperate within PlanetLab NZ project are now able to use the entire network of 1087 computers at 505 different sites to test new ideas and new networking protocols. Researchers from the University of Canterbury working on PlanetLab NZ project include:

  • Prof Dr Krzysztof Pawlikowski, Project Leader
  • Prof Dr Harsha Sirisena
  • Joffre Horlor, Technical Contact
  • Zhi Yong William Liu, PhD Student
  • Sayan Kumar Ray, PhD Student
  • Muhammad Asad Arfeen, PhD Student
  • Mofassir Ul Haque, PhD Student
  • Yuxuan Tim Hong, Masters Student
  • Krys Pawlikowski
  • Harsha Sirisena
  • Joffre Horlor
  • Muhammad Asad Arfeen
  • Mofassir Ul Haque


For more information, please visit http://www.planetlabnz.canterbury.ac.nz/

Projects using KAREN

  • 3

Russian Language Course

E-mentoring in music

High Definition Video Collaboration

Researchers: HIT Lab NZ / SSRC
Dates: July 2007 - June 2009


Below are the three main topics of research.

1. Conduct Research in High Definition Video Conferencing

The Service Provider will setup a centre of excellence in NZ developing high quality video conferencing with the international research community. This will open the door to NZ for researching and developing such technology for use over KAREN. The projects / case studies proposed are:

  • Working with Mobile Surgical Services to develop better telemedicine approaches across the KAREN network
  • International linkup with the High Definition Lab & Research Channel at the University of Washington and other international universities researching, and demonstrating to the NZ R&E communities, high definition content streaming.
  • Solving issues around QoS, HD video over IPv4 and exploring IPv6 and Social Presence and awareness
  • Liaising with the Television broadcast sector on related techniques and technologies

Setting up these platforms will give NZ and the KAREN network capability in high quality video conferencing, and the ability to collaborate internationally on next generation conferencing projects.

Updates
Access Grid DV
  • July 2007 - Successfully established 60Mbps video stream to University of Queensland, Australia via KAREN and AARNet on multicast traffic.
  • October 2007 - Successfully trialled separate 30Mpbs transmitting and receiving video streams via multicast between University of Canterbury and University of Otago over Access Grid.


Shared OSG
  • July 2008 - Released a beta version of the 3D content plug-in through the HIT Lab NZ and AVCC websites.

http://www.hitlabnz.org/wiki/SharedOSG http://avcc.karen.net.nz/wiki/Remote_Visualization

The availability of the software was also announced by REANNZ via the KAREN mailing list. An early version of the plug-in was also presented at APAN26 (August 2008, Queenstown) and was well received.

We are receiving some useful feedback from testers, and a very positive general response for the potential of the plug-in. We feel confident that the final packaging and deployment of the plug-in will be completed prior to the March 2009 project target.

To view an online video overview of the plugin, please visit: http://www.hitlabnz.org/downloads/sharedosg/sharedosgvideo.mov


Access Grid GUI Prototype
  • November 2008 - First Prototype of AG GUI

The aim of the new interface for a video conference session with AccessGrid is to make it user-friendly, easy to use and intuitive. The video conference session is represented by a conference room where all the participants streamings are displayed on 3d planes that can be scaled, rotated, translated interactively.

The videos can also be automatically arranged according to the kind of conference targeted (debate, conference, informal discussion, etc.).

The whole system is managed via OpenGL, which makes it entirely platform-independent.


Screenshots

  • DV Link to Otago Uni

  • DV Link to UQ

  • SharedOSG

  • Access Grid GUI

  • Access Grid GUI

  • Access Grid GUI


2. Production and Showcase of High Definition IP Based video conferencing

A key factor to explore is production based high definition capability on the KAREN network. Various commercial solutions will be explored along with an examination and documentation of the required characteristics of videoconferencing bridges and associated schedulers.

We propose setting up two sites at REANNZ and the HIT Lab NZ, with High Definition systems. This will promote IP based compressed HD video conferencing over KAREN and showcase the capabilities of commercial high definition systems to current and future KAREN members.

3. Enable Effective use of a KAREN supported AG Network

(Joint project between Social Science Research Centre & HIT Lab NZ)

Part A - Enable effective use of KAREN

The HIT Lab NZ and the Social Science Research Centre (SSRC) at the University of Canterbury will jointly work together and install a copy of Memetic middleware, analytic software developed at the NCeSS UK. We will enhance the middleware to perform analysis of the effectiveness of Access Grid practices in supporting collaborative E-research. The advanced Memetic will be made available across various Access Grid nodes.

This middleware enhancement will require the expertise of social and computer scientists, for outlining the socio-cultural concepts and practices, and converting them to computer tools. The operation of the proposed middleware is entirely reliant on the ability of KAREN to support high speed internet connection, and the collaboration between the SSRC, and the HIT Lab NZ. Recommendations will also be made about codec upgrades and other improvements to existing access grid installations. The analytic features generated through the enhanced middleware will provide much needed scientific data regarding the effective use of Access Grid and other video conferencing technologies for supporting collaborative E-research.

A user-friendly version of the enhanced middleware will be developed to enable E-research project managers to evaluate the degree of collaboration occurring in their teams. This will extend our knowledge of effective E-research.

This research will also enable effective evaluation of a variety of teleconferencing interfaces and provide design guidelines into developing our own highly usable interface for Access Grid systems. As part of this we will develop a prototype GUI for the Access Grid software that will demonstrate some of these interface concepts.

Part B – Establish Awareness and expertise

We will establish a centre which will share expertise, provide ongoing expert support, and create opportunities for capability building in conducting KAREN supported collaborative E-research across all NZ universities and research centres as well as internationally.

The centre will: 1. Establish expertise in using the project managers’ middleware pack. 2. Establish expertise in new and diverse forms of collaboration using advanced network technologies, 3. Contribute to the creation of AG and video conferencing KAREN–based sharing culture among collaborative E-researchers

Part C - Promote the use of KAREN and create community ethos of sharing

We will employ the Centre developed in part two for promoting the use of KAREN for collaborative research. The centre will assemble and disseminate emerging success stories occurring on BRCSS and other research networks. The dissemination of expertise will be carried through face-to-face as well as AG broadcasts of workshops and seminars. AG and other video conferencing broadcasts will be distributed through KAREN nationally to all NZ and internationally to universities and other research institutions.


Institutional Capability Build Fund

Co-ordinators: HIT Lab NZ / BlueFern
Dates: May 2008 - April 2009

Below are the two main areas of focus for KAREN at the University of Canterbury

1.Driving the uptake of Video Conferencing

Currently, the largest traffic that is being created on AARNet is video conferencing. Similarly, in New Zealand, video conferencing could also be an effective way of tapping KARENs capabilities. We will achieve this by providing support structures which will both make it easy to use and ensure efficient use of facilities. We will provide clear and effective training for end users, quarterly workshops on the latest video conferencing, tips and tricks, and increase the awareness of existing videoconferencing facilities. We will also produce training material and web resources for increasing our use of KAREN which will be shared with other KAREN partner institutions, enabling them to run similar workshops in their own locations. We will also set in place booking systems that will make it easy to reserve teleconference time and highlight to the broader university community different ways the network is being used (elearning, eResearch etc.). These activities will help provide a sense of comfort and assurance to end users that this technology is encouraged and well supported from Senior Management right down to students.

By using KAREN more fully within the University the cost of adding video conferencing infrastructure will be off set by the reduction in travel, staff time and the carbon footprint of the University. We plan to measure the benefits of using KAREN for advanced video conferencing in terms of the travel savings in time and cost. The cost savings and contribution to the Universities sustainability goals will be disseminated amongst University department heads, managers and financial controllers to enhance promotion and support for infrastructure. We want to quickly reach the critical mass for cultural change so that advanced video conferencing via KAREN becomes a natural option for communications.

We expect that by increasing awareness of advanced video conferencing there will emerge new means of eLearning and eResearch. The benefits of sharing access to seminars, workshops, lectures and other academic forums will, as a result, increase across all disciplines. In addition we believe advanced video conferencing, when familiar, will increase the numbers of interactions with a growing set of distributed research programs. Social Sciences have led the way in New Zealand through the BRCSS Network but we see significant opportunities for other large research groups in the engineering and scientific fields that are separately geographically such as the MacDiarmid Institute . The HIT Lab NZ was responsible for installing Access Grid teleconferencing nodes through the BRCSS network and so has experience in enabling eResearch projects. In addition to increasing the use of videoconferencing, the HIT Lab NZ is developing High Definition video conferencing solutions. Through an existing REANNZ funded project the HIT Lab NZ is developing software for High Definition teleconferencing using the Access Grid platform which will use at least double the bandwidth of the existing Access Grid software. We anticipate that the increase in number of video conferencing sessions used by staff and students, and the increase in bandwidth used per session will significantly increase the total load on KAREN and more fully utilize the existing infrastructure that has been setup on KAREN.


Updates

  • September 2008 - UC Workshop for Video Conferencing
UC video workshop.png
Workshops – The first of three workshops was held in September 2008. This was a great success and was delivered remotely (see screenshot). It created a foundation for the upcoming workshops by informing key IT staff about upcoming solutions for remote collaboration over KAREN.


  • January 2009 - Rollout of Mirial as UC Standard Install




2. High Bandwidth Computer (HBC) Training

As eResearch technology is relatively new to New Zealand. We have found the best way of introducing High Bandwith Computing is to train a group of researchers and to help them quickly achieve results through exemplar projects. This approach encourages future uptake by their research peers. Part two of our proposal is to offer five $5000 High Bandwidth Computer Training Projects to researchers within the KAREN member network. These projects will introduce new groups of researchers throughout New Zealand to eResearch with support from the BlueFern™ support staff. Researchers with no experience, will be shown how KAREN enables them to transmit gigabytes of data between their intuitional repositories and BlueFern™ and remotely access and drive our supercomputer facility.

Selection will be based on excellence of the research proposed, new HBC research groups and/or organisations, high bandwidth applications, emerging eResearch areas, potential for future expansion of the project and introduction of new capabilities such as HPC eResearch software. This training proposal is low risk as it is already proven with our partner organisations such as MacDiarmid Institute, Victoria University, and AUT. Our goal is to add five additional KAREN members to this group of High Bandwidth Computing users accessing BlueFern.


We expect substantial interest across New Zealand Universities, CRIs and other KAREN members and expect to be oversubscribed by at lease ten to one. The results of the Fellowships will be widely published by January 09 on the BlueFern™ website as well as in direct marketing campaigns. By funding the High Bandwidth Computing Training Projects KAREN will more then double network bandwidth usage driven by advanced computing.

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