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Art Vandenberg Director, Advanced Campus Services University Plaza, Atlanta, Georgia 30303-3083 E-mail: avandenberg@gsu.edu Office: (404) 463-9685 Fax: (404) 651-4563 MEMORANDUM To: ATTN: AEG-PROGRESS REPORT ( AEG@sun.com ; 650-786-3451) MS/MPK 15-204 901 San Antonio Road Palo Alto, CA 94303 From: Art Vandenberg , Georgia State University Subject: AEG Progress Report Reference: AEG Award: Sun Grant Approval Number EDUD: 7824-010460-US Project: Directory Services for Communities of Interest Institution: Georgia State University Principal Researcher: Art Vandenberg, 404-463-9685 Date: January 31, 2002 1.) How are you using the SUN equipment which was donated to you? We will be using the Netra X1 machines for testing of approaches to promoting semantic homogeneity and interoperability of LDAP directories. We expect to run iPlanet, as well as some other directories (eDir, maybe OpenLDAP), in order to represent a heterogeneous environment. The Sun 280R and Sun 250 will be used to deploy databases (Oracle) that will provide supporting data structures that will enable users to view different LDAP metadata objects in a unique way - with similar objects or attributes clustered together. We will be running iPlanet LDAP, probably an instance of Novell eDir on Solaris, and using Metamerge , metadirectory services engine, to help integrate and synchronize the components. 2.) What is the progress of your project? (50-100 words; mention any product/software developed as a result of donation.) Our project began June 2001. We have developed a conceptual model of our semantic facilitator , done preliminary analysis of clustering algorithms using self-organizing maps (SOM), and developed a prototype. The prototype includes a user interface, mechanisms to process directory schema change requests and extract that directory metadata, and an algorithm to map the metadata. The project team includes 4 researchers and 8 students. We are establishing additional collaborations - including University System of Georgia and other Internet2 institutions. We have generated a research working paper (Georgia State CIS department) and have submitted a grant proposal to NSF related to our work. 3.) Do you have any URL pointers for the project? Not at this time, but we will in the next quarter. 4.) Are there any press releases/success stories about your project and, if so, where are they? URL? Not at this time. 5.) How has the donation of the SUN equipment, as compared to any other vendor's equipment, contributed to the success of your project? The Sun equipment helps our project by making it possible for us to deploy a reference model environment that is devoted to our research work. Clearly, availability of hardware and software (iPlanet) resources is important. Importantly, the SUN equipment has made it possible for us to respond to other initiatives (such as SURA's National Middleware Initiative, Internet2 Middleware videoconferencing middleware working group, and the University System of Georgia directory collaboration projects.) 6.) If a lab, how many students have used the lab and in what period of time? We have the machines deployed at Georgia State University and Georgia Institute of Technology. There are 5 students working on the project at Georgia State (1 PhD, 3 Master's, 1 Undergraduate) and 3 at Georgia Tech (Master's). We expect the students to be using the SUN AEG equipment of research work, including deploying LDAP directories, developing interfaces to directories, automatically extracting metadata from directories, experimenting with metadata clustering algorithms, and developing relational databases to support the directory metadata clustering work. Additional information: This SUN AEG Award was finalized on September 26, 2001 (we are grateful for SUN's generosity in permitting the slight adjustment in funding). We received the equipment (SUN Sales Quote T-US-60631-A; Georgia State Purchase Order #18247) on November 12, 2001. The Georgia State located equipment has been rack mounted, powered up, connected to network. We are in the process of OS configuration, with an initial X1 expected to be ready for turn over to the project in the next week. The Georgia Tech located equipment (Sun 250 and Sun Blade) is ready for delivery to Georgia Tech and we hope will be online this month. Processes of getting the equipment online, while seeming lengthy to the project team, are being done carefully, according to standard system install procedures. This will mean: OS standard configurations can be easily managed; applications administration (LDAP or databases) can be handed over to the project team with confidence; backups and recovery can be part of standard operational environment. We feel the payoff will be in very solid technical environment for conducting our research.
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Last Updated: March 2, 2006