GÉANT AND TEIN3: BRINGING CULTURES TOGETHER ACROSS CONTINENTS

Domenico Vicinanza

DANTE - 126-130 Hills Road, City House, CambridgeCB2 1PQ, UK

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Abstract

Dancers from the Arts Exchange in Kuala Lumpur and musicians from The Lost Sounds Orchestra playing in Stockholm created a virtual stage to deliver a unique joint performance for audiences at the recent GÉANT Launch Event and ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) Workshop Gala Dinner.

Utilising the high-speed 2.5 Gbps link between the pan-European GÉANT and recently expanded Asia-Pacific TEIN3 research networks, the demonstration spanned a distance of over 9,300 km to link dancers and musicians for one seamless performance, and highlighted the collaborative efforts enabled by research networking.

The performance was part of a launch event to mark the third generation of the GÉANT project. GÉANT is the dedicated high-bandwidth pan-European network at the core of the project, co-funded by the European Commission and the European National Research and Education Networks (NRENs). Through the NRENs, nearly 40 million research and education users in over 8,000 institutions can have the capability to share vast quantities of data, and collaborate across multiple disciplines throughout Europe and beyond.

Keywords

High-speed networks; Art; Humanities; Intercontinental links; TEIN3; GEANT; Music; Dance; ASEM.

1.Introduction

The provision of the GÉANT high bandwidth pan-European research and education network and its interconnection with its counterparts inother world regions presentsthe challenging and fascinating capability to create artistic events, fusing experiences and cultural backgrounds.

Amongst the projects to extend GÉANT’s network outside the EU boundaries, TEIN3 (Trans-Eurasia Information Network) created the first large-scale research and education network for the Asia-Pacific region. It connects regional researchers with their counterparts in Europe (connected to GÉANT) through a dedicated high-capacity data-communications network which operates at speeds of up to 2.5 gigabits per second (Gbits/s).

This work reports on the exciting collaboration set up to create a unique performance held during the GÉANT launch event in Stockholm, on 1-2 December 2009. Two research networks, GÉANT and TEIN3, two continents, two cultures 9,300 Km apart, were joined through a music and dance performance made possible by advanced connectivity provided by the networks.

The performance was the result of extensive collaboration between regional and national research networks. Music performed at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm – connected with optical fibre to SUNET[3], the Swedish research and education network– was captured, digitalized and sent through the network to the ASEM workshop at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. From SUNET, data travelled to Copenhagen on the NORDUnet [4]link, then to London on the GÉANT network, and then to Singapore on the TEIN3 link. Finally, from Singapore, music arrived to Kuala Lumpur via TEIN3 and finally the MYREN (Malaysian network) dedicated connection.

Figure 1 - StockholmModernArt Museum - Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre connection

Schematic diagram of the networks involved

The same path, schematically displayed in Figure 1, was followed in reverse by the video footage of dancers performing live on stage in Kuala Lumpur, which was then projected on stage in Stockholm. Managing the digital/analogue video converters was the Italian NREN, GARR

2.The TEIN3 project and the intercontinental link to Europe

2.1The project and the network

One of the most important components of this cross-continent performance was surely the GÉANT-TEIN3 network link, a 2.5 Gbit/s optical connection between London and Singapore spanning almost 10,000 Km. TEIN3 is the third generation of the Trans-Eurasia Information Network (TEIN) which provides a dedicated high-capacity Internet for research and education communities across Asia-Pacific. It currently connects 11 countries in the region and is now expanding its footprint to South Asia bringing the total number of partners to 18: Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are being joined by Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.

With direct connectivity to Europe's GÉANT network, TEIN3 offers Asia-Pacific a gateway for global collaboration, enabling over 45 million users at more than 8,000 research and academic centres to participate in joint projects with their peers in Europe and other parts of the world.A diagram of the TEIN3 network topology is represented in Figure 2.

The first TEIN initiative was launched at the ASEM 3 Summit in Seoul in 2000 to improve Euro-Asian research networking. The first result was the installation of a France-Korea connection (TEIN1) in 2001 which was upgraded several times in the following years to meet the increasing demands from users. ASEM 6 in Helsinki in September 2006 marked the official inauguration of TEIN2, which extended the bilateral success of TEIN1 to the regional level by creating the first large-scale regional data-communications network for research and education across the Asia-Pacific region.

The latest milestone was the one achieved at the end of 2009, when the network was extended to South Asia, thus bringing the Asian community further together. This achievement was celebrated at the ASEM Workshop 'Building an Inclusive Information Society' held 1-2 December in Kuala Lumpur, when this unique dance and music performance across 9,300 Km took place.

Figure 2. The TEIN3 network topology

2.2Testing the TEIN3 link

An interesting part of the GÉANT launch event preparation was testing the TEIN3 link (shown in Figure 2, within the TEIN3 network topology).The tests were focused on the achievable bandwidth, packet loss and jitter, checking the quality of the connection and its stability, i.e. if it were ready for an intercontinental, high quality digital audio/video transmission in real time.

The selected tools for these tests were UDPMon [1] and iperf [2]. UDPMon is a software package for investigating network performance, using UDP/IP frames. Iperf is a well known package developed by NLANR/DAST as a network toolto generate TCP and UDP traffic and measure bandwidth performance. Both tools allow the tuning of various parameters and UDP characteristics.

The investigation we carried out involved the characteristics of the end host, the network interface cards (NIC), the network devices and the network.UDP packets were chosen since they are not subject to the flow control and congestion avoidance algorithms defined in the TCP protocol and thus do not distort the base-level performance, giving a reliable snapshot of the network behaviour. Finally, UDP was also the protocol used by DVTS streaming.

UDPMon tool is able to transmit streams of UDP packets at regular, carefully controlled intervals and the throughput and packet arrival times were measured at the receiver. UDPMon tests were initially done from the TEIN3 POP in Singapore to London and vice versa (to check the TEIN3 link), then from Singapore to Stockholm, finally from Kuala Lumpur to Stockholm.

The flat portions of the curves in Figure 3a indicate the capacity of the link or the Available Bandwidth. In these tests a series of user payloads[1] from 64 to 1,472 bytes were selected and for each packet size, the spacing of the frame transmitted was varied and several 10s of thousands of packets were sent for each measurement. For each point the following information was recorded:

  • The time to send and the time to receive the frames.
  • The number of packets received, the number of packets lost, and the number of packets out of order.
  • The distribution of the lost packets.
  • CPU load and number of interrupts for both transmitting and receiving system.

The “wire”[2] throughput rates include an extra 66 bytes of overhead and were plotted as a function of the frame transmit spacing. On the right-hand side of the Figure 3a, the curves show a 1/t behaviour, where the delay, t, between sending successive packets is the most important factor. When the frame transmit spacing is such that the data rate would be greater than the available bandwidth, one would expect the curves to be flat (often observed to be the case). As the packet size is reduced, the processing of kernel context switches and PCIX bus transfer overheads become more important and this decreases the achievable data transfer rate.

Figures 3a and 3b show the test results between Singapore (MYREN POP) and Stockholm (NORDUNet POP), displaying both the bandwidth available and the packet loss.

Figures3a and 3b. TEIN3 link bandwidth and packet lossmeasurement using UDPMon

The results were encouraging; the TEIN3 link was performing extremely well, no losses during the tests (as it is visible in Figure 3b) and good behaviour in terms of throughput, i.e. there was enough bandwidth across the ten thousand kilometre link to host the audio/video streaming in a reliable way.

When the network setup was finalized with a fibre connection from the Kuala LumpurConvention Centerto StockholmModernArt Museum, further tests were done. A constant, bidirectional UDP traffic of 30Mb/s was generated with iperf[3], simulating an audio/video streaming over the intercontinental path. Extensive and long tests (up to 24 hours, without interruption) were done to check the stability of the link over time. Tests were done from Stockholm and from Kuala Lumpur, to make sure that the link was behaving in the same way. Some of the results are reported in Figure 4 (3000 seconds UDP test): the traffic generated from Kuala Lumpur and received from Malaysia is displayed, showing that the server in Stockholm was able to receive all the traffic generated by the one in Asia and the packet loss was 0% during the whole duration of the test.

Figure 4.Kuala Lumpur to Stockholm connection over TEIN3 link. Bandwidth and packet lossmeasurement simulating DVTS traffic with iperf

The link performance measurements doneconfirmed then that a bidirectional digital audio/video transmission (DVTS, see next section) was possible and reliable.

3.DVTS and the audio/video streaming on the TEIN3: two locations, one virtual stage

The whole event happened in two different locations, brought together like a “virtual stage” thanks to the TEIN3link between Europe and Asia. The two sites were connected with a bi-directional Audio/Video channel set up using DVTS (Digital Video Transport System) over the TEIN3 Link. DVTS is a multi-platform video/audio streaming application and hardware solution relying on high-bandwidth, low-latency network infrastructures. It allows transmitting DV quality video and audio across an IP network using a fixed network bandwidth, inexpensive consumer-grade video and audio equipment. DVTS is currently being used in the Arts and Humanities communities for music master classes and conferences. It is the first time this system has been used to set up a music/dance performance live across a distance of more than 9,000 Km.

Figure 5shows the DVTS settings in Stockholm used to exchange audio/video information from and to Kuala Lumpur. Three regular laptops were used during the performance: the first one to one to receive the dancers’ video from Kuala Lumpur (the left one in Figure 5), the second one to transmit the performance to Malaysia (the central laptop in Figure 5) and a third one to verify the global bidirectional setting, checking that both transmissions were working as expected (the right laptop in Figure 5).

Figure 5 -DVTS settings in Stockholm during the GÉANT launch event.

(Photo courtesy of Claudio Allocchio, GARR)

Through the DVTS connection dancers in Malaysia had the possibility to listen to the music played in Sweden while the musicians on the Modern Art Museum of Stockholm were playing to the dancers’ images which they viewed on a screen. To reduce the multimedia transmission latency, the video quality was set to “standard” (800 x 600 pixel resolution). DVTS, in fact, is able to handle high quality transmission using software compression, but this would have added extra delays to the global communication time. Nevertheless, the “standard” quality was impressively good and the video stream was successfully projected on a big screen (4 x 3 m) behind the musicians.

Figure 6 - GÉANT Launch performance from Stockholm. It is possible to see the Malaysian dancers choreography projectedin the upper right corner, behind the musicians [16]

The high speed, high reliability of the links made possible this event, sending over the network high quality video and sound. The success of this multi-media, multi-location, multi-cultural performance marked an important milestone in the history of public research and education networking.

4.Instruments of the past played again thanks to the network

The music played on stage in Stockholm featured two very special musical instruments, belonging to the Lost Sounds Orchestra[7]. The ASTRA project (the scientific project behind the Lost Sounds Orchestra)[6]has recreated the sounds of two ancient Greek harp-like instruments from the first Century: the Epigonion and the Barbiton[9] as described in more detail in the next sections. No real (physical) copies of those instruments are,in fact, available today. Knowledge of the Epigonion and Barbiton dating back from the Ancient Greek era was based on archaeological findings, historical pictures and literature. Using this archaeological data as input, it was then transformed by a complex digital audio rendering technique to model the actual sound of the instrument.

4.1The Epigonion and the Barbiton reconstruction on the GÉANT and EUMEDCONNECT2 networks

ASTRA (Ancient instruments Sound/Timbre Reconstruction Application) is a multi-disciplinary project involving archaeologists, musicians, physicists, computer scientists and engineers in an international distributed environment. The project has been running since 2006, with the aimof providing the Arts and Cultural Heritage community with an application to reconstruct the sound/timbre of ancient musical instruments. By applying the physical modelling synthesis, a complex digital audio rendering technique which allows modelling the time-domain physics of an instrument, the experts who are carrying out the project can recreate models of some musical instruments that have been lost for hundreds and hundreds of years and reproduce their sounds by simulating their behaviours as mechanical systems. The application is very computer intensive and this is the main reason why it runs over research and academic networks such as GÉANT and EUMEDCONNECT2[12] operated by DANTE[8]. The work performed by the parties involved in this project to address this goal is sketched in Figure 7.

Figure 7. Modelling and computation of ancient instruments in ASTRA [9]

In September 2008, for the first time in centuries, the harp-like strings of the Epigonion, an instrument from Ancient Greece, have been “virtually” plucked thanks to ASTRA. To achieve this, it has used the advanced GÉANT and EUMEDCONNECT2 research networks to link high capacity computers together, sharing information to enable the computer-intensive modelling of musical sounds. Figure 8a showsa 3D image of the Epigonion as reconstructed by ASTRA.The Epigonion was a wooden string instrument whose sound the musicians have likened to the sound of something similar to a modern harp or a harpsichord. The instrument was presented to the public with a special concert held in Naples, Italy on 14 December 2008. It was the first time ever that an instrument of the past, reconstructed via computer-intensive modelling, had performed alongside real instruments such as violins and flutes as well as voices.An excerpt of the concert is available at

The GÉANT launch event performance in Stockholm was another notable step forward to bring history back to life.The musical part of the performance featured another reconstructed instrument presented to all the community, as a world premiere, the Barbiton, an ancient Greek instrument similar to a double bass (see Figure 8b).

Theancient Barbiton produced a sound most probably similar to a plucked cello and it was described in many poems and paintings of the time. It is known to have been played by the poets Alcaeus and Sappho. The rendering of the Barbiton and the Epigonion, visible in Figures8a and 8b, has been carried out using two 3D rendering software programs on the EGEE [10] and GILDA [14] Grid computing infrastructures using hundreds of computer servers connected thanks to the GÉANT network.

Figures8a and 8b - 3D rendering of the Epigonion (a) and the Barbiton (b) with Blender and luxRender on the GÉANT network.

(Photo courtesy of F. Baghino and F. Ugozzoli, VisArc Studio, Parma, Italyfor ASTRA)

5.The Music and the Choreography

5.1The Music

The music was composed especially for this event by Domenico Vicinanza, using traditional Western musical scales and tuning. The piece was written using an original mixture of traditional composition and orchestration techniquetogether with data audification of the GÉANT network.

Data audification (or sonification) is the representation of data by means of sound signals (typically, waveforms or melodies). It can be considered as the acoustic counterpart of data graphic visualization, i.e. a mathematical mapping of information from data sets to sounds. In the past few years this new way to represent data sets and patterns has acquired more and more interest in different disciplines such as science and engineering, education and training. Although most data analysis techniques are exclusively visual in nature, data presentation and exploration systems could benefit from the addition of sonification capabilities. The possibility to add sonification aspects and describe patterns or trends through sounds is particularly useful when dealing with complex high-dimensional data, or in data monitoring tasks where it is practically impossible to use the visual inspection. In fact, sonification may give information about the inner structure of the represented data using the power of an abstract description. All kinds of regularities in the original data set will be reflected to the aural signal generated by the audification algorithm. The main advantage of this technique is that it makes it easier for users to recognize a change in sound (a different note in a melody, a different timbre) with respect to a modification in something which has to be visually inspected.