Newsgroups: comp.parallel.mpi,comp.parallel.pvm,fj.comp.parallel
From: ram@yama.bus.utexas.edu (Ram Chellappa)
Subject: Broadcast on Internet !
Organization: Center for Information Systems Management
Date: 8 Oct 1994 12:20:07 -0500
Message-ID: <376kc7$s1c@yama.bus.utexas.edu>

CENTER FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT 
Graduate School of Business
University of Texas, Austin

Proposed experimental broadcast of the CAPPS conference on the
Internet over MBONE.


The Second Annual CAPPS Conference Commercial Applications of Parallel
Processing Systems


The second annual CAPPS conference is to be held from October 17th to
19th, 1994 at the Stouffer Hotel in Austin Texas.  We, at the Center
for Information Systems Management at the University of Texas plan to
broadcast the proceedings of the conference on the Internet on an
experimental basis.  This broadcast is proposed to be conducted on
MBONE which will include live audio, video and text broadcast with
interaction by a shared white-board feature.  Furthermore conference
proceedings will be stored on CISM's Web server to be retrieved and 
played at a later time.

This broadcast is intended at not only understanding wide-area video 
conferencing but also to analyze the level of interaction feasible over
the Internet.  Given the open nature of the Internet and MBONE, no prior
registration is required to subscribe to the live conference proceedings.
However to avoid chaos during interactive "white-board" sessions we would
appreciate if the participants could indicate to us their intention to 
participate.  The idea is to provide a time-frame for willing speakers to
answer questions after their presentation either through the shared 
"white-board" or by audio or even both.

If you wish to know more about the conference or have questions about
participation by MBONE please send mail to 
	ram@cism.bus.utexas.edu (Ram Chellappa)
		or
	abw@uts.cc.utexas.edu	(Andrew Whinston)


Description of Organizations and Technologies involved
-------------------------------------------------------


CENTER for INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT
------------------------------------------
INTERNET as the new information technology:  More and more companies and
organizations are adopting the INTERNET as their new information carrier.
Networking, which was earlier restricted to Local Area Networking has truly gone
global with the ongoing commercialization of Internet.  While there has been no
dearth of technologies that support this venture, business problems have arisen
as a result of this proliferation.

CISM is actively pursuing research in the area of Internet aiming at solving
these business and economic issues arising out such an explosive growth.  The
work by the faculty and doctoral students focuses on services offered over the
Internet and the way they affect the business practices across the globe.
Primarily research is being conducted on the following topics:
	
	INTERNET PRICING ISSUES 
   	CONDUCTING COMMERCE ON INTERNET 
   	DIGITAL MULTIMEDIA LIBRARIES 
	CONVERGENCE OF TECHNOLOGIES ON INTERNET

To aid in its research the center possess a network of HP workstations and a LAN provided by NCR (now AT&T), all which have access to the Internet.

Take a look at CISM's Web page, one of the first of its kind at
	http://cism.bus.utexas.edu/
You can find information on conferences, working papers, journals and other 
relevant topics here.


HEWLETT PACKARD
---------------	
The workstations and other equipment for this study has been donated by HP,
Austin.  We are greatly indebted to Mr. Larry Leibrock of Hewlett Packard who
has helped in numerous ways and without whose help this venture would not be
possible.  

HP has donated four HP series 700 workstations, one of which is a HP 735/125, 
our primary server.  Other peripherals like a printer, scanner and  CD-ROMS 
have also been donated by HP.

We would like to thank Southwestern Bell Telephone for their assistance in
setting up a dedicated ISDN line from the conference venue to our University.

We are also thankful to James Lee Johnson, an independent consultant, formerly
with Schlumberger for having helped us with the MBONE setup.



A brief description of MBONE and its requirements is given below.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
What is MBONE ?

The Multicast Backbone or MBONE as it is popularly known is a virtual
network that "runs" on top of the Internet.  The most important
feature of MBONE is that it supports multicasting of packets as
opposed to unicasting on the Internet.  This concept originated from
the Internet Engineering Task Force group which first tested
audiocasting on the Internet in 1992.  MBONE is now used by hundreds
of researchers to discuss a variety issues in a concurrent fashion.
The multicast technology is adopted as it supports not only one-to-one
communication but also one-to-many and many-to-many communication of
audio, video and data services.  Multimedia as defined is "voice,
video and data integration" and MBONE supports a realtime distribution
of such an integrated media.


What is required to be on MBONE ?

There are 4 basic requirements to be a part of MBONE.

1.  Internet access: The workstation that needs to be a part of MBONE
should be on the Internet and be able to handle normal TCP, IP and UDP
protocols.

2.  Multicast kernel: The operating system used should be able to
support multicasting.  Most of Unix workstations have this capability.

3.  Mrouted daemon: In addition to the normal routed program which
supports unicasting, "mrouted" should be run to support multicasting.
This will listen on the network for multicast packets.

4.  A Tunnel: An entry/exit point for your machine to connect to
MBONE.


Applications on MBONE

The key aspects of MBONE that makes it appealing are the applications
developed to exploit multicasting capabilities of MBONE.  The
applications on MBONE are typically divided into three categories
which are essentially based on the three forms of communications:
audio, visual and text.

a) vat: VAT or Visual Audio Tool by Steve McCanne and Van Jacobsen of
Lawarence Berkeley Laboratory is a very popular tool used on MBONE.
This tool allows the user to choose the person(s) he wishes to listen
to or mute.

b) nv: NV or Network Video is a tool to display video on the
workstation.  This was developed by Ron Frederick of Xerox PARC.

c) wb: WB or White Board is a kind of shared editor which not only
provides text editing but also allows drawing figures and importing
PostScript files.  This tool was developed by Steve McCanne and Van
Jacobsen of Lawarence Berkeley Laboratory.

The most useful of all tools is the Session Director(sd - developed by
McCanne and Jacobsen).  This tool announces all the sessions or
discussions that are on the MBONE and are receivable by the user's
workstation.  By choosing one of the sessions or channels, sd
automatically opens the relevant audio, video and/or text application.
One can also initiate or start a session by clicking on a button.

Full details on MBONE and other applications supported on MBONE, can be 
found in the MBONE FAQ.  A copy of this can be retrieved from the WWW site
using the following URL:
	http://www.research.att.com/mbone-faq.html
A text copy of the same can also be obtained by anonymous frp from
	venera.isi.edu:mbone/faq.txt

