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Visions for EPICS in Fermilab Accelerator ControlsBeau HarrisonEPICS Development Town Hall20th February 2020

• Data Acquisition to Input/Output Controllers– IOCs– PVAccess

• Client Application Data Acquisition– Data Request Format– Client Libraries

• Data Pool Manager– Request Pooling– Request Routing

• Differences in Deploying an IOC Device• Known Outstanding Questions• Ideas

2/20/20 Beau Harrison | Visions for EPICS in Fermilab Accelerator Controls2

Summary


Architecture

• DPM functions as a message broker• Extending DPM allows controls to be

agnostic of I/O and client protocols– Current support for ACNET and

PVAccess to I/O– DRF for client API

• Data acquisition is client-driven

• IOCs– Desired form for new hardware interfaces– Generalized and scalable deployment is to

be determined– Hardware options are at R&D phase

• µTCA/ATCA Linux• VME Linux• SBC ARM Linux (Raspberry Pi,

BeagleBoard)– Investigating support for client-based

request rates including event trigger data request

– PVAccess/PVData• Dynamic data structures, property sub-

selection, and user field

Data Acquisition to Input/Output Controllers


• ACNET– Operational systems have a long timeline

for obsoletion– Project success and deadlines are most

important

• Data Request Format (DRF)– https://www-bd.fnal.gov/controls/public/drf2/– Abstracted string format

• Z:EXAMPLE.SETTING[12:15].COMMON@E,00

– DRF3 in the works• https://cdcvs.fnal.gov/redmine/projects/drf/wiki/DRF3_RFC

• Must allow valid PV requests• DPM Client Libraries– Python, JavaScript, Erlang, C++, Java

Client Application Data Acquisition


• Request Strategy– Protocol compiler messages– ACNET

• Considering direct TCP connections• Client Features– Device lists

• Allows start/stop of groups of device requests

– Data sources• Live – default• FTP – streaming data*• LOGGER – historical data• SRFILE – save/restore data• REDIR – redirect to alternative FE*Legacy, should be invisible to users

https://www-bd.fnal.gov/controls/public/drf2/https://cdcvs.fnal.gov/redmine/projects/drf/wiki/DRF3_RFC

• DRF Parsing– Allows abstract data requests without knowing the protocol

• Request Pooling– Duplicate requests will not create a new connection the hardware

• Request Routing– Device database lookup of node, protocol, and device map

• Allows for any control system protocols• Centralize Critical Systems– Settings logging– Access control

Data Pool Manager


1. Summary page D801. Set protocol field to EPICS

2. For each property1. Add the corresponding PV to the foreign device map field

DPM does the rest. All applications using DPM for DAQ can access these devices.

Pierrick’s ACNET wrapper presents the DPM with a structure like the device database from an IOC.

Differences in Deploying an IOC Device


• Settings– Central authentication authority– Standard interface for all client libraries

• Timestamp Resolution– Need a specification– Error measurement

• IOC Deployment– Generalizable and consistent solution

• Fermisms for IOCs– Client-driven periodic requests– Client-driven event requests


Known Outstanding Questions

• IOC Integration with Central Systems– Alarms– Device database

• Multicast vs broadcast vs unicast• Channel finder

• Non-X11 Applications– Consistency is the goal

• GraphQL– Unified standard interface for DAQ

• Web Applications– Familiar interface– Trivial deployment– Universally accessible

• Data Logging– Archiver appliance– Off-site storage– dCache


Ideas

• Notifications– Alarms– Flexible subscriptions– Kafka

• IOC Deployment– Docker containers

• On-site Central Package Repository– Docker Hub– PyPI– NPM– Maven

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