VC Services information - Greece, GRNET

Information about VC resources and services from GRNET:

Basic information

  • Type of service
    H.323 (IP)
    H.320 (ISDN)
    VoIP directory gatekeeper
  • General usage policy
    Service available for free for people from the academic and higher education and research community,
    Profit oriented service possible: no
  • GDS connection
    Available
    GDS prefix: 0030
  • Offical site for GRNET videoconference services
    http://rts.grnet.gr/
    Languages: English (info only), Greek (info and functionality)
  • Contact points
    Technical responsible person:
    GRNET/RTS team
    E-mail: rts@grnet.gr
    Problem reporting
    E-mail: rts@grnet.gr

Resources

  • MCU
    Cisco 3510 MCU (Radvision OnLan) for GDS
    Polycom MGC-50 for GDS
  • Gatekeeper
    Cisco MCM as national GDS gatekeeper and directory gatekeeper for serving the national dial-plan to institutional gatekeepers
    GNUGK for the GRNET end-user endpoints,
    Radvision ECS (pilot system),
    VCON MxM (pilot system)
  • Gateway
    Cisco 3525 GW (Radvision L2W-323)
  • Clients
    Viewstation, Viewstation SP, PVX, VCON Falcon, Escort and Vigo, vPoint
  • Tested - netmeeting, gnomemeeting, openphone, X-Lite

Middleware, network

  • Directories - H.350 (under investigation)
  • % of customers/users multicast enabled -
    the GRNET backbone is multicast enabled and over 50% of the customers have implemented it.
  • Quality of Service -
    QoS support on congested trunks in cooperation with gatekeeper bandwidth control on some institutional gatekeepers.
  • % of your customers who have the appropriate bandwidth needed for high-quality VC -
    About 50% of end-user population (1Gbps institutional trunks).

Employment and Services

  • Services -
    MultiPoint Control Unit (MCU), H320/H323 Gateway, SIP proxy (pilot)
  • User groups -
    Academic users, Institution NOCs, GRNET NOC
  • Employment
    • Do you use point2point, point2group or group2group?
      All of the above.
    • Is VC to facilitate events?
      Yes. We demonstrate VCs on special events such as seminars and conferences.
    • Is VC used for consultation?
      No.
    • Is VC used for distance learning?
      Yes.
    • Is VC used to facilitate meetings?
      Yes. Meetings with TERENA, GN2, Institutional NOCs.

Future plans

Most of the have already started:

  • H.350 deployment
  • SIP/H.323 bridging (under investigation)
  • Interaction and integration with datacollaboration and Instant Messaging/Presence (under investigation)