Byungil Jeong

High-performance dynamic graphics streaming for scalable adaptive graphics environment

The scalable adaptive graphics environment (SAGE) is specialized middleware for enabling data, high-definition video and extremely high-resolution graphics to be streamed in real-time from remotely distributed rendering and storage clusters to scalable display walls over ultra high-speed networks. In this paper, we present the SAGE architecture, focusing on its dynamic graphics streaming capability. In the SAGE framework, multiple visualization applications can be streamed to large tiled displays and viewed at the same time. The application windows can be moved, resized and overlapped like any standard desktop window manager. Every window movement or resize operation requires dynamic and non-trivial reconfiguration of the involved graphics streams. This approach has been successfully shown to scale to support streaming on the LambdaVision 100 megapixel display wall. SAGE is now being extended to support distance collaboration with multiple endpoints by streaming visualization to all the participants

TeraVision: a distributed, scalable, high resolution graphics streaming system

In electronically mediated distance collaborations involving scientific data, there is often the need to stream the graphical output of individual computers or entire visualization clusters to remote displays. This work presents TeraVision as a scalable platform-independent solution which is capable of transmitting multiple synchronized high-resolution video streams between single workstations and/or clusters without requiring any modifications to be made to the source or destination machines. Issues addressed include: how to synchronize individual video streams to form a single larger stream; how to scale and route streams generated by an array of M/spl times/N nodes to fit a X/spl times/Y display; and how TeraVision exploits a variety of transport protocols. Results from experiments conducted over gigabit local-area networks and wide-area networks (between Chicago and Amsterdam), are presented. Finally, we propose the scalable adaptive graphics environment (SAGE) - an architecture to support future collaborative visualization environments with potentially billions of pixels.

Scalable Resolution Display Walls

This article will describe the progress since 2000 on research and development in 2-D and 3-D scalable resolution display walls that are built from tiling individual lower resolution flat panel displays. The article will describe approaches and trends in display hardware construction, middleware architecture, and user-interaction design. The article will also highlight examples of use cases and the benefits the technology has brought to their respective disciplines.

The first functional demonstration of optical virtual concatenation as a technique for achieving terabit networking

The optical virtual concatenation (OVC) function of The Terabit LAN was demonstrated for the first time at the iGrid 2005 workshop in San Diego, California. The TERAbit-LAN establishes a lambda group path (LGP) for an application where the number of lambdas/L2 connections in a LGP can be specified by the application. Each LGP is logically treated as one end-to-end optical path, so during parallel transport, the LGP channels have no relative latency deviation. However, optical path diversity (e.g. restoration) can cause LGP relative latency deviations and negatively affect quality of service. OVC hardware developed by NTT compensates for relative latency deviations to achieve a virtual bulk transport for the Electronic Visualization Laboratorys (EVL) Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment application.

Visualizing Hurricane Katrina: large data management, rendering and display challenges

The onslaught of Hurricane Katrina has highlighted the need for effective information display. Visualization of geoscientific data faces challenges of size, integration and representation. Rendering methods need to cope with the surge of data due to advancements in acquisition techniques and computing power. Moreover, data stemming from different application communities are not compatible a-priori. Holistic representations are important to communicate the causes and impact of natural catastrophes to the scientists themselves, decision-makers and the general public. To address these issues, we have developed efficient data layout mechanisms to ensure fast and uniform access to diverse data. We apply effective rendering techniques that intuitively and interactively convey the phenomena. Finally, we discuss the use of high-resolution displays connected via high-speed networks to support collaboration. These components establish a framework for application in hurricane research, coastal modeling and beyond.

Real-time multi-scale brain data acquisition, assembly, and analysis using an end-to-end OptIPuter

At iGrid 2005 we demonstrated the transparent operation of a biology experiment on a test-bed of globally distributed visualization, storage, computational, and network resources. These resources were bundled into a unified platform by utilizing dynamic lambda allocation, high bandwidth protocols for optical networks, a Distributed Virtual Computer (DVC) [N. Taesombut, A. Chien, Distributed Virtual Computer (DVC): Simplifying the development of high performance grid applications, in: Proceedings of the Workshop on Grids and Advanced Networks, GAN 04, Chicago, IL, April 2004 (held in conjunction with the IEEE Cluster Computing and the Grid (CCGrid2004) Conference)], and applications running over the Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment (SAGE) [L. Renambot, A. Rao, R. Singh, B. Jeong, N. Krishnaprasad, V. Vishwanath, V. Chandrasekhar, N. Schwarz, A. Spale, C. Zhang, G. Goldman, J. Leigh, A. Johnson, SAGE: The Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment, in: Proceedings of WACE 2004, 23-24 September 2004, Nice, France, 2004]. Using these layered technologies we ran a multi-scale correlated microscopy experiment [M.E. Maryann, T.J. Deerinck, N. Yamada, E. Bushong, H. Ellisman Mark, Correlated 3D light and electron microscopy: Use of high voltage electron microscopy and electron tomography for imaging large biological structures, Journal of Histotechnology 23 (3) (2000) 261-270], where biologists imaged samples with scales ranging from 20X to 5000X in progressively increasing magnification. This allows the scientists to zoom in from entire complex systems such as a rat cerebellum to individual spiny dendrites. The images used spanned multiple modalities of imaging and specimen preparation, thus providing context at every level and allowing the scientists to better understand the biological structures. This demonstration attempts to define an infrastructure based on OptIPuter components which would aid the development and design of collaborative scientific experiments, applications and test-beds and allow the biologists to effectively use the high resolution real estate of tiled displays.

Remote visualization of large scale data for ultra-high resolution display environments

ParaView is one of the most widely used scientific tools that support parallel visualization of large scale data. The Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment (SAGE) is a graphics middleware that enables real-time streaming of ultra-high resolution visual content from distributed visualization resources to scalable tiled displays connected by ultra-high-speed networks. Integrating these two technologies enables visualization of large-scale data at an extremely high resolution to be displayed on distantly located scalable tiled displays. The benefits, limitations, and future directions for this approach will be discussed.

The First Application-driven Lambda-on-Demand Field Trial over a US Nationwide Network

The Lambda-on-demand functionality with link aggregation to accommodate the dynamic bandwidth demands of an ultra-high-resolution visualization application was realized in over a US nationwide photonic network for the first time.

Stable IP-Routing Link Restoration: GUNI Restoration for Data Link Failure Between Routers in a Nationwide Photonic Network

A GMPLS (Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching)-based link restoration scheme with IP-routing stability for data link failure between routers through a PXC (Photonic Cross-Connect) network was proposed and successfully demonstrated in a US nationwide photonic network for the first time.