ViDe.Net: Middleware for Scalable Video Services for Research
and Higher Education
University and research communities have embraced videoconferencing
as a useful tool, especially for communication among teams of scientists
distributed across numerous institutions and around the globe. Heterogeneous
selections of equipment and conferencing protocols, varying dialing
instructions, and separately managed operations/user-support centers
are current barriers to wider deployment of videoconferencing tools.
Middleware can provide video applications with management, information
and security. Video middleware is software ‘glue’ that binds video
conferencing technology to institutional directory services and
authentication infrastructure, thus rendering the technology both
highly scalable and manageable. IP videoconferencing (H.323, SIP,
VRVS, Access Grid and others) is an application ready to benefit
from the standards and software provided by the National Science
Foundation’s Middleware Initiative (NMI).
This multi-institutional proposal focuses on a novel integration
of videoconferencing clients and services with the NMI middleware
standards, functions and services; the outcome will be a videoconferencing
application directory enabling secure, inter-domain authentication
for calls that transit institutional organizational boundaries.
University collaborations and communications embody a federated
administration model; middleware enabled video is an excellent arena
for investigating the applicability of this model to a specific
application’s requirements. The federated administration model leverages
campus directory solutions by passing policy decisions to the trusted
entity that knows its own people and resources. Using these NMI
Release 1.0 components: a communications object class (commObject),
eduPerson, eduOrg, LDAP Recipe 2.0, and videoconferencing white
papers, this multi-institutional team and industry partners will
develop video-conferencing reference endpoints that authenticate
end-users in a secure manner using the enterprise directory service,
and that support temporary, transitional or mobile users. A portal
will be developed so that a user can lookup dialing instructions
and information about related network resources. Since the described
features or services are not available today, a testbed for video
middleware will be established to test the architecture, its implementation
using multiple products, and the interoperability of these products.
Testbed results will be provided to the higher education and research
community in the form of a Video Middleware “Cookbook”. The ViDe.Net
experience demonstrates that a testbed is a successful means for
achieving wide deployment of new videoconferencing procedures and
standards. The research activities, software development, and testbed
results together will establish a basis for provision of scalable
video services.
This proposal is based on substantial experience building ViDe.Net,
the international videoconferencing service for higher education.
SURFnet, the national computer network for higher education and
research in the Netherlands, brings significant international participation
to the project through their own activities as well as through their
participation in the Trans-European Research and Education Networking
Association. RADVISION, a commercial H.323 developer and project
partner, supports commObject and commits significant support for
it in this proposal.
- Project Goal 1: Develop the NMI Release 1.0
communications object class (commObject) for use in H.323, SIP,
MPEG2, VRVS and Access Grid videoconferencing implementations.
- Project Goal 2: Develop a framework for specification
of videoconferencing security requirements and implement the security
specification in SIP-based (and H.323) clients.
- Project Goal 3: Develop a testbed for the higher
education and research community to use to deploy and test middleware-aware,
inter-operable videoconferencing services. The test bed will focus
on H.323 and SIP reference endpoints and call servers, demonstrate
mobility for videoconferencing scenarios, and will also serve
as a research platform for vulnerability analysis for the proposed
security and threat framework. A test bed manager will coordinate
and document participants’ activities and discoveries.
- Project Goal 4: Disseminate the proposed standards
and test bed results through conferences, publications and dissemination
through a Video Middleware Cookbook.
As the global Internet becomes a true multi-service infrastructure,
use of Internet videoconferencing will increase throughout education,
including K-12. The technology is already employed creatively for
“virtual fieldtrips,” vertical teaming of high school and college
instruction, and more. The ability to look up and connect to resources
through secure, easy-to-use interface will enable greater use of
this technology to enhance classroom instruction and overcome geographic
and economic disadvantage. |
