Collaborative data visualization for Earth Sciences with the OptIPuter

Collaborative visualization of large-scale datasets across geographically distributed sites is becoming increasingly important for Earth Sciences. Not only does it enhance our understanding of the geological systems, but also enables near-real-time scientific data acquisition and exploration across distant locations. While such a collaborative environment is feasible with advanced optical networks and resource sharing in the form of Grid, many technical challenges remain: (1) on-demand discovery, selection and configuration of supporting end and network resources; (2) construction of applications on heterogeneous, distributed environments; and (3) use of novel exotic transport protocols to achieve high performance. To address these issues, we describe the multi-layered OptIPuter middleware technologies, including simple resource abstractions, dynamic network provisioning, and novel data transport services. In this paper, we present an evaluation of the first integrated prototype of the OptIPuter system software recently demonstrated at iGrid 2005, which successfully supports real-time collaborative visualizations of 3D multi-gigabyte earth science datasets.