Michael Grobe: WAN activities at KU
This section describes my activities in Networking and Wide Area
Networking at KU over the last 15 years or so.
I got my introduction to networking in general by building (along with
another student) a token-passing network in 1985 for use in our ACS
Computer Camps, and then by writing an M.S. thesis that applied queuing
theory to our campus-wide X.25 network in 1986.
I got my introduction to Wide Area Networking by documenting our
statewide X.25 network, and then becoming the ACS
liason with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
where i received early training in both supercomputing and networking of
the TCP/IP variety. NSF set up the national supercomputer centers in
1985 and then NSFnet in 1986 to help scientists get to the centers.
The midwest regional network, MidNet, was set up in 1987 with KU as a
charter member, and I became the KU Applications Representative.
I began teaching afternoon seminars and developing documentation on the
structure and use of NSFnet in 1988 and continued developing and
supervising the development of network seminars and documentation, such
as:
- Introduction to NSFNET
- Introduction to Telnet and FTP
I presented several seminars at MidNet conferences during 1990/91:
- Introduction to Socket Programming
- Introduction to the Andrew File System
We began work on the Lynx browser during 1992, and developed it as
a "distributed hypertext system."
I advertised our work through MidNet presentations on:
- Introduction to Lynx
- Mosaic: a graphical browser
- Panels on Campus Wide Information Systems and new directions in computing
I helped Jerry Niebaum put together a request for a grant from NSF to build
a statewide research and education network in 1992, which
resulted in the Kansas Research
and Education Network (KANREN), comprised of approximately 35
institutions of higher ed (both public and private) located within the state.
I became the Assistant Director of KANREN in 1992, served in that position
through the network buildout, and became Director in 1994.
In these positions I
- worked with the KANREN board to define an Bylaws and usage policies,
- evaluated technical and applications personnel for hiring,
- organized and conducted yearly meetings of KANREN member representatives,
- developed and conducted training programs in network construction,
operation and use,
- organized publications and a web site, and
- produced a second grant request to add 7 members to KANREN.
As of July 2004, KANREN remains in operation and is still growing.
During this time I presented a number of informational talks to
various communities, including:
- the KANREN members at yearly meetings,
- the Kansas Telecommunications Strategic Planning Committee of
the Kansas Legislature, 1995
and comprehensive 2-day tutorials in networking to
- Pittsburg State University Computing Services, and
- the Associated Colleges of Central Kansas
I continue to serve as liason between the KU Academic Computing Services
and KANREN meeting with KANREN staff weekly.
I have also served as a liason between KU and the Great Plains Network (GPN)
since its creation in 1998. I organized the Great Plains Applications
Conference in 1999, and serve as chair of the Applications Advisory
Committee.
I was a Co-PI for KU's
High Performance Computing Connections Grant
(NSF Award Number 9810087),
which funded initial campus connectivity to GPN and thence Internet2.
I have presented several talks at GPN conferences:
I also became the KU Applications Lead for our involvement with
Internet2 in 1997, and have performed several functions within that
role. In particular, organized and conducted several demonstrations
of advanced networking applications, including:
- a network intensive application, TerraVision, developed
as part of the MAGIC Project (KU, Sprint, SRI, U Minnesota) at the
launch of the Abilene Network in 1999
- NCAR 3D imagery using a SGI Origin Octane equipped to drive CrystalEyes
shutter glasses at the Kansas Technology Showcase in 1999 along
with Jeff Long of ACS,
- a FakeSpace CAVE, at the Kansas Technology Showcase in 2000, also
with Jeff, and
- biodiversity database applications developed by the
KU Museum of Natural History for the Joint Committee on Information
Technology of the Kansas Legislature during 1998.
I currently serve as Applications Lead for KU Internet 2 involvement,
including 2 years on the Internet2 Conference Planning Committee (1998-2000).
During 1998 and 1999, I arranged to acquire and encouraged installation of
several network-based products to enhance our service offerings to users:
- Oracle--for building SQL-accessible databases accessible from CGI scripts
and from desktops via ODBC,
- eShare--a web-based Chat system that has been used to teach online
courses, and as a back-channel for video conferencing,
- MeetingPoint--a software-based Multipoint Conferencing Unit (MCU)
compatible with both H.323 and CU-SeeMe clients.
- RealMedia server--to deliver streaming audio and video data
- Windows Media Services--to deliver streaming data as only Microsoft can
- Internet Information Server--Microsoft's version of an HTTP server
These products were installed by Jeff Long of my group and Guy Jacobs of
ACS Technical Services.
I organized the construction of an Access Grid Node
here at KU during 2000, in order to host NCSA's Alliance Chautauqua 2000
for which I served as Technical Director.
I continued to supervise the KU Computing Services Access Grid
node for about 4 years, and explored enhancements such as the
addition of some
stereo 3D capabilities and integration of H.323 equipment.
I wrote a small Java app to display two windows containing views of
the same ball bouncing in 3-space for aligning some simple 3D equipment.
In addition to the Chautauqua, we
hosted meetings between local faculty and NSF Project Managers,
several performing arts events (in collaboration with Arizona University,
New York University, Wichita State University, etc.), particularly
a distributed dance duet linking dancers in Wichita and Lawrence via
Internet2, and the First and Second Virtual Genomics Conferences conducted
by North Dakota State University.
To help encourage the deployment of Access Grid nodes I gave
several talks including two at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln
and one to the KU Retirees Club.
I have written a collection of network health monitoring and analysis tools
centered around the moment-to-moment status of KU conectivity to
various Internet sites, as reported by:
, and
the
Webometer.
The Netometer and Webometer have been running at 15-minute intervals
since 1997, and archived data could be examined by using the following
scripts which are not currently available:
Netometer-related
-
examine archived Netometer access records in a variety of choropleth forms
-
create frequency plots of archived Netometer data
-
get log-linear or
log-log charts of Netometer traffic.
-
log-log charts of "reverse cummulative" Netometer traffic. This
is used to eliminate the sharp initial rising slope in some of the
frequency graphs. (To hide the log-normal appearance?)
- examine Netometer archive data in phase space.
-
display
Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) charts of Netometer data,
-
estimate the Hurst parameter of Netometer traffic using a version of
the rescaled range method.
Webometer-related
- examine archived Webometer access records in a variety of choropleth forms
-
log-log frequency charts of Webometer traffic
-
display Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) charts of Webometer results
Related to both
-
plot Netometer data against Webometer records.
- elucidate the concept of phase space as used in chaos theory.
There is a
more detailed description of the the motivation for and development of
these scripts in
Characterizing network performance from the user's point of view ,
and an attempt at making sense of the data in
Searching
for patterns in the Netometer and Webometer archives
I have also enhanced some tutorial software (from Java Network Programming
by Merlin Hughes, et al.) that
implements a simple peer-to-peer chat system in Java2 using network
Multicast facilities. The required class files are:
I have given a couple of outreach talks to community organizations on related
topics:
- Uses of the Internet: a view from the Limestone tower
(to Ecumenical Ministries at KU)
- Diversity and the Internet: An introduction to the Internet
with some thoughts about its impact (KU Retirees)