Success Stories

Georgia Tech's FutureNet Brings Multimedia to Academia

Imagining a Future with FutureNet

Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the first universities in the world working to provide students, faculty, and staff with various multimedia services accessible from their computers and/or TVs, in real time. The project - known as FutureNet - is made possible by a robust Sunä video server and ATM network backbone.

Hutchins envisioned these and other flexible, helpful multimedia services many years ago. Not only was it fun to imagine possibilities with technology but it was also strategic. By implementing FutureNet, Georgia Tech can distinguish itself from other high-tech universities and continue to attract graduate students and faculty involved in high-tech fields like architecture, basic science, management, engineering, computer science, and biotechnology. "What better way is there to train for technology than to use technology" explained Hutchins.

A Head Start

The 1996 Olympic games accelerated the schedule for FutureNet's design and installation. Georgia Tech, located in midtown Atlanta, was selected as the site for the 1996 Summer Olympic Village. Consequently, Georgia Tech had a unique opportunity to upgrade their network and multimedia facilities.

After the Olympics, Georgia Tech purchased most of the new equipment used at the Village to televise the Olympics, including single mode and multimode fiber-optic cable, some category five copper, video equipment, decoders, modulators, satellite receivers, laser transmitters, control units, an MPEG2 encoder, a laser receiver, head-end controllers, and power supplies.

Georgia Tech now had the start of a state-of-the-art campus backbone and a lot of cable TV equipment. The University's next steps in implementing FutureNet were to:

• Merge the new video networks with Georgia Tech's existing computer networks
• Redesign the campus network to provide a high-speed-data outlet in every room on campus
• Provide voice, data, and video services wherever needed on campus

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Network Design

The largest design obstacle FutureNet had to overcome was that the network would span 156 buildings, each housing a combination of academic, administrative, research departments, and residences - each utilizing the network and systems in different ways. To eliminate this issue, the team installed a Cisco LS1010 ATM switch at the core and a Catalyst 5000 in each building, capable of providing 155 Mbps ATM. The team also installed 3Com stackable Ethernet intelligent hubs in the buildings' data closets.

With the switch and Ethernet hubs, the network can provide the bandwidth required for multiple department traffic in one building. Administrators can use the switch to partition the network giving each department or workgroup its own subnetwork. Subnetworking aids in troubleshooting and builds flexibility so the network can more easily accommodate departments or groups moving to different locations. Personnel can add new network and backbone modules to accommodate growth. And, administrators can monitor network traffic from a central console in the computing center.

Hutchins and his team also replaced the copper infrastructure starting with an initial 22 buildings on campus with category 5, twisted-pair digital-data cabling and RG6, coax-video wiring. As new buildings are added, they will be wired with the new cabling and wiring technologies.

FutureNet has brought an unprecedented change in network manageability and efficiency. "The networks in these buildings are clean, reliable, easy to troubleshoot, standardized, and have enabled the users of the new networks to rely on the network as a utility like power or telephone service" said Nick Pope, a former engineer in the Office of Information Technology, Operations and Engineering.

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Selecting a Video Server

Now that the network design was in place, Hutchins and his team, including Ami Feinstein and Herbert Baines from the Advanced Development Group, focused on purchasing a video server. The University's server had to be open, provide an IP-based distribution protocol, be digital computer network ready, offer proven quality, be scalable, and connect to the cable TV head end.

The end-to-end video system had to convert analog to digital, digital to analog, compress and decompress digital and analog signals, and act as a central repository of multimedia materials and static data. This was crucial to ensure FutureNet's flexibility in providing multimedia services on computers or TVs. After considerable research, the University purchased a Sun MediaCenter 20 as a video server because of its abilities to provide cable TV services and Web access for PC, UNIX¨, and clients on the extensive University LAN.

The Sun MediaCenter 20 is a bundled configuration including a server, disk storage, network interface cards, and Sun MediaCenter software. The software, based on the Solaris operating environment, includes a media file system, modified device drivers, and software tools optimized for managing and streaming digital video data.

"We chose the Sun MediaCenter 20 because it offered a strong fit with IP networks. The server fit our requirements. We were familiar with Sun, and Sun was involved with the early digital video trials for cable TV" said Hutchins. Sun had also previously integrated their video server with Scientific Atlanta's cable equipment.

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FutureNet Services in the Making - Flexibility is Key

With the server and ATM technologies in place, Georgia Tech has the computing infrastructure to achieve its next goal: provide Georgia Tech's 5000 faculty and staff, and more than 13,000 students with a matrix of technologically advanced services. The University can then determine which services are most popular and perfect them.

As shown in Figure 1, Hutchins plans to enable students to use a browser-based front-end application and select which multimedia service they want and how they want to display it - on their PC, UNIX, Macintosh computer, or TV.

The interface will actually appear much like many pay-per view services, only students will point and click on the desired service.

Services will eventually include: live feeds of class lectures and presentations, tapes of class lectures (video on demand), satellite transmissions, cable TV, class notes, secondary research material obtained from the world-wide web, Internet access, video conferencing, and administrative materials like a report on the University's hiring process or new classified employee handbook.

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FutureNet Today and Tomorrow

FutureNet has brought an unprecedented change in network manageability and efficiency. By the year 1999, FutureNet will provide wireless networking and the multitude of services outlined above, helping to solidify Georgia Tech's position as one of the premier research universities in the United States.

Ultimately, Georgia Tech hopes to fulfill the FutureNet visions of the various departments on campus. Visions like international virtual reality conferencing, creating virtual molecular designs that interact with each other, 3-dimensional virtual building tours, and shopping for books at the campus bookstore without leaving your office or residence - will all be possible thanks to Georgia Tech's flexible, powerful, and scalable FutureNet.

Check out FutureNet's home page at http://www.gatech.edu/FutureNet.

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