NanoCruise Notes: 7/29

Lisa Childers childers at mcs.anl.gov
Fri Jul 30 23:11:52 CDT 1999


Notes from the 7/29 cruise:

Thursday's nCruise got off to a slow (very!) start due to various
catastrophic network failures.  NanoCruise attendees experienced huge packet
losses on audio&video, and the lag on the mud was sometimes on a scale of
minutes.  This was a case where even our sturdy text backchannel failed us,
underscoring the need for telephone connectivity during nodeEvents.

Considering the level of disruption they caused, it is some consolation that
the network failures were extreme:  An ESNet router that resides at ANL had
a UPS failure during the night, and came back up in a very broken state.
The wonky router later caused an ATM switch to run out of memory, which, for
a time shut down the mcs.anl.gov network entirely.  To top this off, a
totally unrelated but equally crippling problem surfaced when a vBNS router
in Downers Grove failed.

Bill Nickless' presence on the mud, with his ability to analyze/react/fix
net problems, was ESSENTIAL to finding solutions in a reasonable time.
(Kudos also to Tony Rimovsky from NCSA for his help.)  I think this points
to a requirement for a previously unidentified participant in all major AG
events:  Network Troubleshooter.  ***At least one Network Troubleshooter
should lined up for each chautauqua***  Ideally, the troubleshooters should
be able to converse on the mud, because node participants can provide the
troubleshooters with useful data.

Richard Coffey from Utah was on-grid w/audio&video&mud.  He will be
attending SIGRAPH during the UNM chautauqua, but hopes to present an AG BOF
sometime during the conference.  Richard and Margaret need to synch if he
hopes to provide video during the UNM chautauqua.  He plans on being on-grid
during the other two chautauquas from Utah.  Utah does not yet have any of
the ag-spec equipment.  They are evaluating non-spec projectors and graphics
cards for supporting high-end stereo viz apps.

Tony Rimovsky from NCSA was on the mud, and very helpful during our vBNS
network woes.  If memory serves, he did not have video&audio feeds going.

ACCESS DC provided a video feed, but was not on-grid for most of the cruise.
Tom Coffin stopped in at the end and said that ACCESS DC would have the
ability to participate in remote ppt presentations during the UNM
chautauqua.  I believe he has yet to successfully run the server for a
distributed ppt presentation.

Maui showed up intermittently on video&audio, but didn't participate in the
cruise.  Maui did not have a presence on the mud.  They need to practice
participating on the AG mud!

Nestor, a guest lecturer for the UNM chautauqua, joined us.  He was on-grid
with video&audio&mud.  His audio was occasionally scratchy, and could
probably improve with a better microphone.  He is out of town next week, and
so will miss the dress rehearsal.  Nestor should get on-grid with John
Greenfield sometime during the weekend before the chautauqua to debug audio
and presentation logistics!

Gazula from UKY continued his steadfast on-grid presence, participating in
video&audio&mud.  He will be travelling to UNM during their chautauqua.  The
UKY node will be off-grid during this time, because Gazula is their sole
node operator.

Eric and Wayne from BU were on-grid with video&audio&mud.  Robert Putnam and
Wayne will be travelling to UNM for the chautauqua.  Eric and Russ will
remain in Boston, and will be live and on-grid during the chautauqua.

Lisa




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