Pioneer FAQ and Miscellaneous

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Q & A

Q: What is the current status of this system?
A: It is currently alpha software. You would have to buy your own hardware (costs approx $1000) - just a basic box - no keyboard,monitor etc necessary, the software is free.

Q: What is the rationale for the choice of tools that are a part of the current suite?
A: We tried to put together a mix (of freely available software) that, when combined, would provide information on loss, latency, jitter, bandwidth, and route information. If you have a favorite tool you would like to see here, please forward your suggestions to me at sushila@umich.edu

Q: How does someone other than me add new tools? i.e. Can we interface with other tools?
A: That is the goal - though not easily do-able now. I am working on a more modular structure, with documentation for addition of new tools without my intervention. Given some of the security constraints (to prevent addition of dubious programs)- I am not sure if thats possible in the near term.

Known bugs

Iperf Related: Iperf Servers will frequently hang, especially on Abilene nodes. If this happens, I attempt to automatically kill the process after a time period. Occasionally that doesn't work, after which Iperf will consistently fail along that path until that process is killed beyond redemption manually.

Menu Updates: The menus in the central Pioneer web page may not get updated automatically, when a new Cakebox joins. A manual reload within the user's browser may be required sometimes to see the additions to the menu.

Team

Design, Development, and Documentation - Sushila Subramanian

Scripts, LDAP Server Maintenance, and Documentation - Adam Saltsman

Vision, and lots of good advice - Ted Hanss, Bob Riddle, Matt Zekauskas