Minutes of Working Group Meeting

CFHT Base Facility, Waimea

March 8, 2001

Present:

• Laurie Bass (Gemini)
• Jonathan Chock (Keck)
• Mac Cooper (SMA)
• Tony Denault (IRTF)
• Bernt Grundseth (CFHT)
• Martin Houde (CSO)
• Ruisheng Peng (CSO)
• Pui Hin Rhoads (IfA)
• Kiaina Schubert (Subaru)
• Henry Stilmack (JAC)
• Jim Thomas (CFHT)
• Kanoa Willington (CFHT)

Absent:

• 88"
• VLBA

Minutes

Current Network Status

There are no problems to report.

The serial card to support the T1 frame relay has been installed in the HP Cisco.

We encountered more problems with the fiber connection between HP and the visitor station. SMA is getting more equipment to help us resolve the problem.

The college of Tropical Agriculture at Komohana has been connected to the MKOCN through CSO using a pair of antennae set up at CTAHR-Komohana and the CSO Hilo facility. A Cisco catalyst 2912 switch is installed at CSO which provides connection to the Internet DS3s for both CSO and CTAHR-Komohana.

Note:

As of May 17th, the VIS is connected to HP through the SMA fibers. More will be reported at the next meeting.

PACCOM T1 and the backup serial link

For many years, PACCOM has provided Internet access for the Mauna Kea Observatories and their base facilities. In the past year, Internet access for Mauna Kea has been upgraded to T3 speed through two NSF grants awarded to Gemini and the UH ITS. The PACCOM frame relay has become a backup. As of February 1st, Torben Nielsen has lost his grant which supported PACCOM and is no longer providing the T1 frame relay service. To give ourselves time to decide on what to do, Pui Hin has extended the service on a month to month basis until a decision can be made by the group on what to do. The monthly charge is about $650 for the HP end. The funds are taken out of the 2000 to 2001 budget. There is a surplus due to Don Mickey's leave of absence. The cost of the Manoa end is being picked up by UH ITS. Pui Hin has discussed this with David Lassner who agreed to pick up the PVC for the time being and will not charge the observatories until some agreement is worked out when the two NSF grants are over next March. Observatories that have been paying Torben Nielsen should stop seeing invoices after January of 2001.

There was some discussion as to whether or not it is worthwhile to keep the frame relay as a backup. To find out how well the backup works, a decision was made to have a test before the next quarterly meeting. During this test the two DS3s that provide Internet service to the observatories will be yanked in some order to see if network traffic is automatically rerouted to the backup link. It was also pointed out that such a test will best be performed on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. Pui Hin will send email to coordinate such a test.

Wireless Network

Pui Hin reported on the reponses to Bob McLaren's memo to the directors soliciting comments on the usage of wireless on the summit. With the exception of JAC, opinions are divided along the lines of optical and submillimeter telescopes. The optical telescope facilities do not object to a trial use of the wireless equipment, but strong opposition was voiced by submillimeter telescope facilities. JAC has indicated that they are not concerned with the trial use of the 2.4 GHz equipment, but would like to see a procedure established to deal with problems if they arise.

Martin Houde of the of the CSO presented the viewpoint of CSO at the meeting. Subsequently, Martin sent me a summary of his presentation:

"The operation of a wireless system on the summit of Mauna Kea would be very dangerous for the operation of the different radio observatories which require a very "quiet" sky for their successful detection of very weak signals from astronomical sources. The main reasons for this could be summarized as follows:

"1- The proposed wireless system would have a transmitting power of 30 mW at a frequency of 2.4 GHz and although these numbers might at first look appear harmless for telescopes operating in the mm/submm range, they are not. Indeed, taking into account the fact that radio observatories routinely try to detect signal which are on the order of a mJ (milli-Jansky), i.e., more than 20 orders of magnitude weaker than the proposed transmitter's power, it is easy to see that even a far harmonic from the wireless spectrum could, under the right conditions, totally contaminate the frequency bandwidths in the mm/submm range.

"2- The IF of the receivers used on Mauna Kea are or will soon be at frequencies that will directly be in the range of the fundamental or first harmonics of the proposed transmitter. This might be the most direct and obvious threat.

"3- Once installed, the proposed wireless would certainly grow in time and every computer (or other equipment) connected to it is likely to increase the amount of "noise" in the mm/submm wavelengths range. It, therefore, becomes clear that any test done now on the amount of pollution brought about by such system cannot be a guarantee for the future. This is especially true when one takes into account the fact the receivers used by the radio observatories are getting more and more sensitive as time goes by.

"These are the main reasons why the CSO would not agree, under any conditions, to the implementation of a wireless system on Mauna Kea. We believe that it is highly desirable that we stand by the existing rule, agreed to by the directors of the observatories, to not allow the operation of such a system.

"Finally, I would like to stress the fact that astronomers have for a long time fought the adverse effects of light pollution (for visible astronomy) and other undesirable signals (especially in radio astronomy at longer wavelengths) that hinder their abilities to detect faint signals from astronomical sources. But fortunately, it appears that the submm range stands a good chance of remaining in its actual pristine state. It would, therefore, be a very sad statement if we, the users of one of the best astronomy site on the planet, were to take actions that would go against our own interests and show the rest of the world what should not be done."

Thomas Cooper of SMA told us that SMA is also preparing a formal response.

Jonathan Chock indicated that equipment such as cell phones and walkie talkies are already used on the summit. He said it would be useful if the submillimeter and radio telescopes can come up with guidelines including a list of equipment that should not be used around the summit.

SMA and CSO agreed to work on such a list.

Note:

Since the last meeting, Pui Hin has faxed to Jonathan excerpts from the Master Plan covering use of wireless equipment on the summit. Pui Hin will make these excerpts available at the next meeting for anyone who wishes to see them.

Polycom Equipment and its Usage

The IfA has recently acquired several Polycom units. Pui Hin was interested to learn a few tricks from members who have been working with these conferencing units for some period of time.

Here are a couple points of interest:

• Sending PowerPoint presentation digitally through the Polycom is difficult. No one seems to have succeeded. Jonathan Chock suggested that you should send the PowerPoint presentation ahead of time and project the presentation on both ends at the same time using PCs.

• Laurie Bass told us about the new personal Polycom units she is acquiring for users to remote conference with the office when they work at home. These units supports H.323 over LAN, DSL, and cable networks. She promised to report back on how they work.

NTP Server

CFHT has recently acquired a Datum TymServe 2100 unit. Jim Thomas offered members the use of their new GPS based NTP server. Jonathan Chock said Keck also has a GPS based NTP server and members are welcome to use it.

Next Meeting

June 7, 2001, 10:00 a.m., at CSO.