a true collaborative workspace...

The Access Grid is an integrated environment that supports group-to-group communication using high-speed networks over the Internet.

• It provides real-time high-quality audio and video
• Allows groups at multiple sites to interact simultaneously and share data and scientific instruments

Meeting participants (both local and distant) appear in windows projected onto a large screen. Additionally, data windows from participants' laptop computers can be integrated into the meeting (eg. display images, movies, presentations, spreadsheets).

The AG is technologically more advanced than video conferencing systems and is a true collaborative workspace: you can share software applications and work collaboratively on the same document between geographically distributed locations. It may be used for large-scale distributed meetings, collaborative work sessions, seminars, lectures, tutorials, and training.

The AccessGrid (AG) was developed by the FuturesLab at Argonne National Laboratory. Australia’s first AG node was installed at Sydney VisLab at the Australian Technology Park, with funding from an ARC grant to VisLab, by Bernard Pailthorpe, Chris Willing and others in August 01.  

Since then the network has grown to more than 30 Access Grid nodes in Australia and more than 200 around the world. Queensland universities with AccessGrid nodes include UQ, JCU, QUT and CQU.

Current Research

AccessGrid is continuously under development, with researchers working on a number of different projects to improve AccessGrid.

High Definition Video

The AccessGrid currently supports image resolution of 352x288 pixels (H.261). Current research is focussed on expanding the underlying video streaming services in the existing AccessGrid infrastructure via the addition of new DV and MPEG2 codecs, enabling the use of higher quality video formats, namely DV (720x576 pixels) and HDV (1440x1080 pixels). This will require the deployment of high-resolution video capture devices such as HDV/DV cameras capable of providing high quality images for AccessGrid collaborations. Delivering high quality video in the AccessGrid environment will increase the quality of the images streamed over the network. Any application that relies on high quality video, for example tele-medicine or remote video monitoring, will benefit from this work.

Shared Applications

A number of shared applications for use over the AccessGrid are currently in development/have been developed:

Shared Rasmol - a shared application for molecule display and manipulation (developed at Argonne National Lab, with enhancements added by visiting student Stephane Bidet);

• GRASS - a Geographic Information System (GIS) modified to run as an AccessGrid Shared Application;
• A remote temperature monitoring tool developed as an AG shared application was designed to demonstrate the AccessGrid's possible usage in the area of remote instrumentation.

Virtual Filesystem

Accessing large data within the AccessGrid environment is a priority for shared applications. We are developing a virtual filesystem for the AccessGrid. Currently AG is used predominantly for videoconferencing with PowerPoint presentations. To extend the AccessGrid beyond simple meeting scenarios and towards true collaborative working, we need to enable the incorporation of large data sets and collections into the AG environment. This goal is to be achieved by augmenting the collaborative capabilities offered by AccessGrid with the Storage Resource Broker (SRB).

For more information on AccessGrid, visit the AccessGrid Project page on the VisLab website.

Participants

Chris Willing, Professor Bernard Pailthorpe
VisLab, University of Queensland

Jason Bell
Central Queensland University

Ian Atkinson
James Cook University