UltraGrid
A High Definition Collaboratory

HDTV over IP demonstration at SC2004

[This page is also available in PDF format for easy printing]

Objectives

High quality and low latency video conferencing and remote visualization
General purpose SMPTE 292M over IP transport at adaptable data rates
A platform for research on high performance transport protocols and congestion control

Commercially Available Hardware

UltraGrid video capture and playback nodes are Dell PowerEdge 2500 PCs running Linux. They are equipped with gigabit Ethernet and DVS HDstation/Centaurus HDTV capture/playback cards.

Custom Software Developed at ISI

RTP packetization, transmission, timing recovery and playback is handled in software. UltraGrid integrates with the AccessGrid venue server infrastructure and Globus security. The UltraGridsoftware is available for download under open source license.

Standard Network Transport Protocols

Signaling component determines provisioned path or IP best effort transport
Support for IPv4 and IPv6 transport and one-to-many distribution using IP multicast
RTP/UDP transport with TCP Friendly Rate Control profile for IP transport
Flexible and extensible RTP payload format and video packetization
Open IETF standard formats and RTP profiles under development