Summary of information related to WP12
This Work Package determines the changes that are needed to be implemented in the existing EISCAT system control software (EROS) in order to control a system on the scale envisaged for EISCAT_3D with sufficient flexibility and programmability.
The FP6 Design Study concluded that the current EISCAT control software was capable of coping with all the basic control tasks in a moderately distributed environment. EISCAT_3D will, however, be based on large phased arrays with distributed hardware, with significantly larger flexibility. This will require hardware device driver software with vastly increased complexity, however this is outside the scope of WP12. To fully utilise the increased flexibility of a digitally controlled phased array, increased communication between the (hardware) device (driver), EROS and potential programs controlling EROS/the programs needs to be accommodated as well as external (geophysical) triggering events to automatically modify the radar operations.
In addition, EISCAT_3D makes possible a number of innovative additions to radar operations, such as the possibility to run multiple simultaneous modes, running and re-configuring the data system, for example responding to conditions, running and re-configuring the data system, and responding to the detection of small-scale structure by the interferometric imaging capability.
This relatively small Work Package will involve the following activities:
- Determining whether EROS can be generalised to run in such a computing architecture, and resolving any potential problems that may be found.
- Assessing what kinds of modifications to the core control software are needed to address the new opportunities that the EISCAT_3D hardware enables.
- Ensuring the ability of the subsystems to send asynchronous messages to EROS when necessary.
- Creating an initial implementation of external programmatic EROS control.
The Work Package begins, after the initial version of the Performance Specification Document is issued, and continues until an upgraded version of the operating system will be made available. Interactions with WP6 and WP11 are required to ensure compatibility with the Performance Specification and the low-level software design.
Deliverables
Deliverable 12.1: Completed version of EROS for EISCAT_3D
April 8, 2013
In the original plan for EISCAT_3D Preparatory Phase, the EISCAT system control software (EROS) was to be rewritten in order to work in a system that is considerably more distributed than the present one. However, that goal was found to lie outside the scope of the EISCAT_3D Preparatory Phase since the work requires that the system hardware is defined. These modifications of EROS will be made after the Preparatory Phase.
This means that Deliverable 12.1 will not be produced inside the EISCAT_3D Preparatory Phase project.
Deliverable 12.2: Final report on WP12 activities
April 8, 2013
The tasks of this Work Package were designed to facilitate the next evolutionary steps in EISCAT system control. Deliverable 12.2 is the final report of the activities related to this aim.
Milestones
Milestone 12.1: Distributed version of EROS completed and demonstrated
April 8, 2013
In the original plan for EISCAT_3D Preparatory Phase, the EISCAT system control software (EROS) was to be rewritten in order to work in a system that is considerably more distributed than the present one. However, that goal was found to lie outside the scope of the EISCAT_3D Preparatory Phase since the work requires that the system hardware is defined. These modifications and the testing of EROS will be made after the Preparatory Phase
This means that Milestone 12.1 will not be reached during EISCAT_3D Preparatory Phase project.
Milestone 12.2: Required extensions to EROS completed and assessed
April 8, 2013
In this Work Package, quite a few new EROS commands, or enhancements to old ones, have been added over and above EROS5, both on user level and behind the scenes. These commands are not directly related to hardware control, but rather to generic aspects of radar operations such as notifications and multi-tasking. Such features are desirable also for the present EISCAT systems, and, importantly, can be properly tested already on the present systems. Therefore these extensions to EROS were implemented and assessed at this stage in the EISCAT_3D project.
The completion of these extensions constitutes Milestone 12.2. This Milestone was reached in January 2014.
Attachments
Documents related to WP12 can be found in our external library.