IEEE eScience: Experiences from Cyberinfrastructure Development for Multiuser Remote Instrumentation Experiences from Cyberinfrastructure Development for Multiuser Remote Instrumentation
Presenter Prasad Calyam, Ohio Supercomputer Center

remote instruments
- v.v. expensive in startup and maintenance so let other people use yours, use someone elses
- becoming a requirement from funding agencies
- better ROi on cost
- access via internet

pilot to leverage investments in networking hpc and scientific instruments – paid for by regents of university system of Ohio
SEM, raman spec, telescopes, accelerator, nmr spec

remote user site
-remove observation, operationi voice/text chat, lab notebook

osc
- portal dev, data storage, analytics, security (network and data)

instrument lab
- resource scheduling, billing, use policy, sample handling

Challenges
- last-mile network bottlenecks
- communications – remote user/operator communications, multi-device views for user workflows – multiple remote users, or single remote users – not useful off the shelf
- dead mans switch – if operator becomes incapacitated (or bad things happen at the instrument while being operated remotely)
- security for the data and network

Policy challenges
- prioritizing
- licensing
- SLA with vendors
- safe-use policy expert vs. novice use policies
- billing

Case studies
they build custom interfaces – the COTS ones they tried had some wonky problems

RICE features
network aware video encoding
control blocking – lock passing – only one operator at a time so they don’t step on each other

web-portal features
user account
management of instruments, people, data
access control
chat
storage of experiment data

more reasons
- remote participants can watch an expert control a scientific instrument – efficiently and reliably (network awareness mitigates instruments damage)
- expert can pass control to remote user (for training)

future directions
- wikis, lab notebooks, other communication tools
- human-centered remote so you get the “at-the-instrument” experiment

from audience: group working on remote instruments, etc., please join, etc.
Remote instrumentation services in grid environment
OGF RISGE-RG
forge.gridforum.org/sf/projects/risge-rg

Labels: IEEEeScience08

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