[AG-TECH] An onslaught of questions

[Ron Crummett]

Hello all - 

For the first time today, I was able to show my boss AccessGrid in operation.  And it has opened up a whole new can of questions that we are trying to answer, so naturally I turn to all of you for wisdom.

When we connected to the ANL Institution Venue we got around 25 video streams pop up in VIC.  We managed to stay on for about five minutes and were "asked" to disconnect, because apparently we were bogging down the Internet connectivity of the entire office complex.  This was at 10:30 MDT...it's about 2:00 now and we just barely got connectivity to the Internet again.  We had a full T1 available for our use, but it still wasn't enough.

So, let the questions begin:

-My boss and I think that the bandwidth is the key issue here.  25 video streams, all transmitted at a rate near 100 kb/s...that's a total around 2.5 Mb/s, just under the capability of two T1s.  Is this an accurate estimate of the per-stream video bandwidth (100 kb/s)?

-Is there a way to completely block incoming video streams?  I noticed in VIC today that many of the video streams were from the same nodes, and I figured that for testing purposes if one or ore of those duplicate streams could be blocked, we might have a chance.  But checking the 'mute' box didn't seem to stop the streams, only the motion of the thumbnail.  The video transmission rate continued to fluctuate, leading to the assumption that those video streams, though muted to our machine, were still being transmitted.

-What kind of bandwidth are most of you using?  Undoubtedly something more than a T1, but just how much?

The AccessGrid experience has most definitely been a learning one for me.  I thank you all again for your help in the offering of your experiences and time to help me figure these things out.

-Ron Crummett

Satisfying all your Ron Crummett needs since 1978