continuous audio/video test request

[Bill Nickless]

Based on our experience today with audio/video dropouts at ACCESS-DC, I'm 
beginning to worry about another possible network failure mode.

It seems that our earlier testing worked fine when we were doing 
straightforward audio sound checks:  "Hey can you hear me?  Testing 1, 2, 
3."  "Yes we hear you."  But when we went to one site transmitting 
continuously for more than a couple of minutes, we started seeing 
occasional dropouts.

I would like to see us do some longer-term audio testing in our upcoming 
cruises.  Each participating site should be prepared to transmit 20 minutes 
of continuous audio, perhaps from a Compact Disc or a local radio 
station.  We might wish to use a "boom box" so that we include the local 
site microphone/Gentner/audio-capture systems as well.  During the test 
session, the sites would alternate transmitting for 10-15 minutes 
each.  While a given site transmits, each of the other sites would report 
(through the mud) whether they experience any audio dropouts or other 
anomalies.

Once we have the various site problems worked out, we would repeat the test 
while a large set of video sources are active.  (Perhaps each site could 
play a movie into their Access Grid node.)  This would provide us the 
opportunity to test the networks for loss while under a heavy load--much 
like we see during an actual event.

Cruise Directors: may we incorporate this type of testing in the agenda for 
upcoming session(s)?
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Bill Nickless    http://www.mcs.anl.gov/people/nickless      +1 630 252 7390
PGP:0E 0F 16 80 C5 B1 69 52 E1 44 1A A5 0E 1B 74 F7     nickless at mcs.anl.gov