iGrid 2000, the International Grid, demonstrates how the power of today's research networks enables access to remote computing resources, distribution of digital media, and collaboration with distant colleagues. The concept of connecting geographically distant computing resources and people seamlessly, efficiently and routinely over high-performance networks is itself a major research topic, as computer scientists and application scientists worldwide prototype the 21st-century advanced computational infrastructure, or 'grid'. iGrid highlights both the achievements in grid architecture development, and the advancements it enables in science, engineering, cultural heritage, art and architecture, media communications and distance education.

iGrid features 24 applications from 14 regions Canada, CERN, Germany, Greece, Japan, Korea, Mexico, The Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom and the United States with emphasis on tele-immersion, large datasets, distributed computing, remote instrumentation, collaboration, human/computer interfaces, streaming media, digital video and high-definition television. Applications are presented on impressive display technologies: the CAVE® virtual-reality theater developed by the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Super-High Definition movie system from NTT Network Innovation Laboratory, and the Access Grid presentation environment developed by Argonne National Laboratory. Two ImmersaDesks® as well as plasma displays also showcase applications in virtual-reality (stereoscopic) or large-screen (monoscopic) mode.

iGrid is connected to the JGN, the WIDE Project Network (in cooperation with NTT, TTNet and PNJC), APAN and the APAN/TransPAC (100 Mbps) link to STAR TAP ^SMthe international, interconnection point in Chicago, Illinois.

 
iGrid Networking
STAR TAP
is the premier global exchange point for advanced international networking, in support of applications, performance measuring, and technology evaluations. National Research Network partners are: CA*net3 (Canada), CERN, IUCC (Israel), MIRnet (Russia), NORDUnet (Nordic countries), SURFnet (The Netherlands), RENATER2 (France), SingAREN (Singapore), APAN (Asia-Pacific), and TANet2 (Taiwan). In the USA, UCAID/ Internet2 Abilene is connected, as well as USA NGI networks: vBNS (NSF), ESnet (Dept. of Energy), DREN (Dept. of Defense), and NREN/NISN (NASA).
STAR TAP gets major funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), awards ANI-9712283 and ANI-9980480, to University of Illinois at Chicago. STAR TAP is operated by Ameritech Advanced Data Services (AADS), Chicago, IL, USA.

 
APAN
TransPAC
The Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) is a non-profit international consortium that provides an advanced networking environment for the Asian-Pacific research community and promotes international collaboration. TransPAC, under the leadership of Indiana University and APAN, provides high performance international Internet service connecting APAN to other global networks via STAR TAP in the USA in support of international collaborations in research and education. TransPAC receives major funding from the NSF, award ANI-9730201, to Indiana University, and from the Japan Science and Technology Agency.

 
JGN
The Japanese Gigabit Network (JGN) is a high-speed optical data network founded by TAO (Telecommunications Advancement Organization of Japan). The JGN research and education network supports research activities in any organization, whether a university or private company. JGN will be operated until March 2004, to explore the next-generation information infrastructure with high-speed optical technologies. JGN has 10 ATM switching systems and 39 access points. The backbone link of JGN is 2.4 Gbps.

 
WIDE
Japan’s WIDE Internet was founded to support Internet-related technology research and development and to enable email communication among project members. As it evolved, it played a key role in the growth of the Internet, well before commercial ISPs became popular. WIDE now operates several test projects, such as 'WIDE 6bone' to deploy IPv6 technology, 'WISH AI3' through satellite, and 'RT-bone' for QoS. WIDE envisions the future of the 'Mobile Computing Environment' and next-generation 'native Internet generation' by constructing a 'Multi-Gigabit Backbone' using DWDM.

 
iGrid Enabling Technologies
CAVERNsoft
CAVERNsoft G2 is a C++ toolkit for building collaborative, networked virtual reality applications. Developed and deployed by the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago, CAVERNsoft G2 is designed to enable the rapid construction of tele-immersive applications, to equip previously single-user applications with tele-immersive capabilities, and to provide a testbed for research in tele-immersion.

 
The Globus Toolkit
The Globus Toolkit is an open source, community-based suite of services and libraries for building applications and tools that require geographically distributed resources. The multi-institutional development team is led by Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute, but includes participants from around the world.The Globus Toolkit is at the heart of major infrastructure development projects, such as NASA’s Information Power Grid and the US NSF’s National Technology Grid.

 
Digital Video Services at iGrid
Indiana University, in cooperation with corporate and university partners, is providing digital video services at iGrid 2000 to facilitate collaboration and globally disseminate iGrid 2000 demonstrations. Litton Network Access Systems’ CAMVision-2 MPEG2 IP-multicast codecs deliver live and taped broadcast-quality video from iGrid to US Internet2 sites.The University of Washington is bridging CAMVision-2 broadcasts to nationwide audiences via the ResearchChannel direct broadcast satellite channel and to Washington communities via educational access channels.Wire One Technologies’ H.323 videoconferencing systems enable iGrid researchers to talk with their home institutions.High, medium and low bandwidth multicast and unicast video streaming services are utilized to provide global outreach for the iGrid 2000 event.

 
Digital Video Transport System
http://www.csl.sony.co.jp/person/kjc/software.html
DVTS is IP-based, high-quality, real-time audio/visual (AV) communications software that uses Digital Video (DV) camcorders and VCR consumer products with IEEE 1394 (Firewire) interfaces. DVTS works with both IPv4 and IPv6 on a FreeBSD system, and is integrated with the ALTQ module to enable fine packet transmission scheduling and DiffServ. RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) provides interoperability among systems, and achieves dynamic flow control among hosts. For the highest quality communication, the system consumes over 35 Mbps of network bandwidth. Using RTP, DVTS achieves dynamic flow control and optimizes the DV transmission for the available bandwidth., e.g., DV transmission over 10base-T Ethernet.

 
iGrid Acknowledgements
iGrid 2000 gratefully acknowledges the support of the following organizations and individuals, whose encouragement, enthusiasm and support made this event possible. We also thank the ISOC organization and the INET 2000 conference committee for hosting this event.

 
iGrid 2000 Supporters
Japan Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (MPT)
Japan Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI)
Foundation for MultiMedia Communications, Japan (FMMC)

 
iGrid 2000 Organizing Institutions
University of Illinois at Chicago
Indiana University
Keio University/WIDE Project
The University of Tokyo

 
iGrid 2000 Co-Organizing Institutions
Communications Research Laboratory, Japan
Telecommunications Advancement Organization of Japan

 
iGrid 2000 Contributors
American Power Conversion Japan Corp
APAN/TransPAC
Asia-Pacific Information Infrastructure (APII)
AT&T
Cisco Systems K.K.
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Concert
Foundary Networks / Mitsui & Co, Ltd.
Gemini Project
Hitachi Ltd.
IBM
Indiana University
Keio University
KDD
Litton Network Access Systems
MKOCN (Mauna Kea Observatories Communication Network)
MPT Japan Gigabit Network
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (Subaru Telescope)
Nissho Electronics Corporation
NTT Communications Corp.
Osaka University
PNJ Communications, Inc.
Settsu Metal Industrial Co., Ltd.
SGI Japan
Singapore Advanced Research & Education Network (SingAREN)
Sony Marketing (Japan), Inc.
STAR TAP
Sumitomo Corp.
Time Warner Telecommunications, Hawaii, USA
Tokyo Telecommunication Network Co., Inc.
University of Hawaii
University of Illinois at Chicago
The University of Tokyo
University of Washington
WIDE Project
Wire One Technologies, Inc.

 
iGrid 2000 Co-Chairs
Tomonori Aoyama, The University of Tokyo/ Japanese Gigabit Network, Japan
Tom DeFanti, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)/ STAR TAP/ Euro-Link, USA
Michael A. McRobbie, Indiana University/ TransPAC, USA
Jun Murai, Keio University/ WIDE Project, Japan

 
iGrid 2000 Selection Committee
Steven N. Goldstein, NSF, USA
David O. Williams, CERN, Switzerland

 
iGrid 2000 Executive Management
Maxine D. Brown, UIC/ STAR TAP/ Euro-Link
Hiroshi Esaki, The University of Tokyo/ WIDE Project

 
iGrid 2000 Executive Planning
Laurin Herr, Natalie Van Osdol Tomoko Imai, Hiroshi Imai

Pacific Interface, Inc., USA

 
iGrid 2000 Networking Management
Akira Kato, The University of Tokyo/WIDE Project
Osamu Nakamura, Keio University/ WIDE Project
Linda Winkler, Argonne National Laboratory/ STAR TAP/ TransPAC, USA

 
iGrid 2000 Secretariat
Goro Kunito, The University of Tokyo, Japan
Takashi Sato, SOFTBANK Forums Japan, Inc.

 
iGrid 2000 Organizing Committee
Josephine Anstey, Greg Dawe, Andy Johnson, Jason Leigh, Dave Pape, Dana Plepys, Dan Sandin, Alan Verlo, Laura Wolf<
Electronic Visualization Laboratory, UIC/ STAR TAP/ Euro-Link

Karen Adams, Ed Dambik, Margaret Dolinsky, Steve Eghhazi, John Hicks, Donald F. McMullen, Doug Pearson, Stephen Simms, Craig Stewart, Brent Sweeny, Jim Williams
Indiana University/ TransPAC, USA

Ian Foster, Rick Stevens
Argonne National Laboratory, USA

Yashuichi Kitamura, Yoshinori Kitatsuji, Kazunori Konishi
APAN, Japan

Tommy Matsumoto
AT&T Japan/ Concert Japan

Shinichi Nakagawa
Communications Research Laboratory, Japan

Rao Gadde
Concert, USA

Jim Kennedy
Gemini Project, USA

Ted Hanss, Bob Riddle
Internet2, USA

Kengo Nagahashi
Keio University/ WIDE Project, Japan

Ray Atarashi, Fumito Soyano
NAIST/ WIDE Project, Japan

Noritoshi Asako, Miki Demizu, Shigeaki Matsuura, Manabu Tamaoki
Nissho Electronics Corporation, Japan

Tatsuya Fujii, Mitsuru Normura, Akihiro Tsutsui (also UIC/ STAR TAP)
NTT, Japan

Youki Kadobayashi
Osaka University/ WIDE Project, Japan

Suzuki Junji, Tetsuro Ogi (also The University of Tokyo)
Telecommunications Advancement Organization of Japan

Michael Russell
University of Chicago, USA

David Lassner, Pui Hin Rhoads, Alan Whinery
University of Hawaii, USA

Carl Kesselman
University of Southern California/ Information Sciences Institute, USA

Michitaka Hirose, Koichi Hirota, Shingo Ichii, Hiroyuki Morikawa
The University of Tokyo, Japan

Jim Costigan, Hiroshi Hayakawa
VRCO, USA

 
iGrid 2000 Additional Networking Acknowledgments
Guy Almes, Internet2, USA
Bill St. Arnaud, CANARIE, Canada
Paul Christ, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Shigeki Goto, APAN, Japan
René Hatem, CANARIE, Canada
Rodger Johnson, DREN, USA
Bettina Maria Kauth, DFN, Germany
Joe Mambretti, MREN, USA
Matthias Mueller, HLRS, Germany
Jun Murai, WIDE Project, Japan
Makoto Nagao, JGN, Japan
Wolfgang Puchtler, Fraunhofer, Germany
Michael Resch, HLRS, Germany
Robert Stoy, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Roberto Sabatino, DANTE, UK
Steve Wallace, Abilene/Internet2
Martin Wilhelm, DFN, Germany