ICALEPCS2013 - List of Keywords (CORBA)

Paper	Title	Other Keywords	Page
TUPPC042	Prototype of a Simple ZeroMQ-Based RPC in Replacement of CORBA in NOMAD	operation, interface, GUI, controls	654
	Y. Le Goc, F. Cecillon, C. Cocho, A. Elaazzouzi, J. Locatelli, P. Mutti, H. Ortiz, J. Ratel ILL, Grenoble, France
	The NOMAD instrument control software of the Institut Laue-Langevin is a client server application. The communication between the server and its clients is performed with CORBA, which has now major drawbacks like the lack of support and a slow or non-existing evolution. The present paper describes the implementation of the recent and promising ZeroMQ technology in replacement to CORBA. We present the prototype of a simple RPC built on top of ZeroMQ and the performant Google Protocol Buffers serialization tool, to which we add a remote method dispatch layer. The final project will also provide an IDL compiler restricted to a subset of the language so that only minor modifications to our existing IDL interfaces and class implementations will have to be made to replace the communication layer in NOMAD.
	Poster TUPPC042 [1.637 MB]

TUCOCB07	TANGO - Can ZMQ Replace CORBA ?	TANGO, network, controls, database	964
	A. Götz, E.T. Taurel, P.V. Verdier ESRF, Grenoble, France G. Abeillé SOLEIL, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
	TANGO (http://www.tango-controls.org) is a modern distributed device oriented control system toolkit used by a number of facilities to control synchrotrons, lasers and a wide variety of equipment for doing physics experiments. The performance of the network protocol used by TANGO is a key component of the toolkit. For this reason TANGO is based on the omniORB implementation of CORBA. CORBA offers an interface definition language with mappings to multiple programming languages, an efficient binary protocol, a data representation layer, and various services. In recent years a new series of binary protocols based on AMQP have emerged from the high frequency stock market trading business. A simplified version of AMQP called ZMQ (http://www.zeromq.org/) was open sourced in 2010. In 2011 the TANGO community decided to take advantage of ZMQ. In 2012 the kernel developers successfully replaced the CORBA Notification Service with ZMQ in TANGO V8. The first part of this paper will present the software design, the issues encountered and the resulting improvements in performance. The second part of this paper will present a study of how ZMQ could replace CORBA completely in TANGO.
	Slides TUCOCB07 [1.328 MB]

TUCOCB08	Reimplementing the Bulk Data System with DDS in ALMA ACS	network, operation, site, controls	969
	B. Jeram, G. Chiozzi, R.J. Tobar ESO, Garching bei Muenchen, Germany R. Amestica NRAO, Charlottesville, USA M. Watanabe NAOJ, Tokyo, Japan
	Bulk Data(BD) is a service in the ALMA Common Software to transfer a high amount of astronomical data from many-to-one, and one-to-many computers. Its main application is the Correlator SW (processes raw lags from the Correlator HW into science visibilities). The Correlator retrieves data from antennas on up to 32 computers. Data is forwarded to a master computer and combined to be sent to consumers. The throughput requirement both to/from the master is 64 MBytes/sec, differently distributed based on observing conditions. Requirements for robustness make the application very challenging. The first implementation, based on the CORBA A/V Streaming service, showed weaknesses. We therefore decided to replace it, even if we were approaching start of operations, making provision for careful testing. We have chosen as core technology DDS (Data Distribution Service), being a well supported standard, widespread in similar applications. We have evaluated mainstream implementations, with emphasis on performance, robustness and error handling. We have successfully deployed the new BD, making it easy switching between old and new for testing purposes. We discuss challenges and lessons learned.
	Slides TUCOCB08 [1.582 MB]

TUCOCB10	TANGO V8 - Another Turbo Charged Major Release	TANGO, controls, interface, device-server	978
	A. Götz, J.M. Chaize, T.M. Coutinho, J.M. Meyer, F. Poncet, E.T. Taurel, P.V. Verdier ESRF, Grenoble, France G. Abeillé, A. Buteau, N. Leclercq, F.E. Picca SOLEIL, Gif-sur-Yvette, France S. Cleva, M. Lonza, L. Pivetta, C. Scafuri Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., Basovizza, Italy D.F.C. Fernández-Carreiras, S. Rubio-Manrique CELLS-ALBA Synchrotron, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain I.A. Khokhriakov HZG, Geesthacht, Germany S. Perez CEA, Arpajon, France D.P. Spruce MAX-lab, Lund, Sweden
	The TANGO (http://tango-controls/org) collaboration continues to evolve and improve the TANGO kernel. A latest release has made major improvements to the protocol and, the language support in Java. The replacement of the CORBA Notificaton service with ZMQ for sending events has allowed a much higher performance, a simplification of the architecture and support for multicasting to be achieved. A rewrite of the Java device server binding using the latest features of the Java language has made the code much more compact and modern. Guidelines for writing device servers have been produced so they can be more easily shared. The test suite for testing the TANGO kernel has been re-written and the code coverage drastically improved. TANGO has been ported to new embedded platforms running Linux and mobile platforms running Android and iOS. Packaging for Debian and bindings to commercial tools have been updated and a new one (Panorama) added. The graphical layers have been extended. The latest figures on TANGO performance will be presented. Finally the paper will present the roadmap for the next major release.
	Slides TUCOCB10 [1.469 MB]

THCOAAB08	NOMAD Goes Mobile	GUI, controls, interface, network	1070
	J. Locatelli, F. Cecillon, C. Cocho, A. Elaazzouzi, Y. Le Goc, P. Mutti, H. Ortiz, J. Ratel ILL, Grenoble, France
	The commissioning of the new instruments at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) has shown the need to extend instrument control outside the classical desktop computer location. This, together with the availability of reliable and powerful mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets has triggered a new branch of development for NOMAD, the instrument control software in use at the ILL. Those devices, often considered only as recreational toys, can play an important role in simplifying the life of instrument scientists and technicians. Performing an experiment not only happens in the instrument cabin but also from the office, from another instrument, from the lab and from home. The present paper describes the development of a remote interface, based on Java and Android Eclipse SDK, communicating with the NOMAD server using CORBA via wireless network. Moreover, the application is distributed on “Google Play” to minimise the installation and the update procedures.
	Slides THCOAAB08 [2.320 MB]

Paper

Title

Other Keywords

Page

TUPPC042

Prototype of a Simple ZeroMQ-Based RPC in Replacement of CORBA in NOMAD

operation, interface, GUI, controls

654

Y. Le Goc, F. Cecillon, C. Cocho, A. Elaazzouzi, J. Locatelli, P. Mutti, H. Ortiz, J. Ratel
ILL, Grenoble, France

The NOMAD instrument control software of the Institut Laue-Langevin is a client server application. The communication between the server and its clients is performed with CORBA, which has now major drawbacks like the lack of support and a slow or non-existing evolution. The present paper describes the implementation of the recent and promising ZeroMQ technology in replacement to CORBA. We present the prototype of a simple RPC built on top of ZeroMQ and the performant Google Protocol Buffers serialization tool, to which we add a remote method dispatch layer. The final project will also provide an IDL compiler restricted to a subset of the language so that only minor modifications to our existing IDL interfaces and class implementations will have to be made to replace the communication layer in NOMAD.

Poster TUPPC042 [1.637 MB]

TUCOCB07

TANGO - Can ZMQ Replace CORBA ?

TANGO, network, controls, database

964

A. Götz, E.T. Taurel, P.V. Verdier
ESRF, Grenoble, France
G. Abeillé
SOLEIL, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

TANGO (http://www.tango-controls.org) is a modern distributed device oriented control system toolkit used by a number of facilities to control synchrotrons, lasers and a wide variety of equipment for doing physics experiments. The performance of the network protocol used by TANGO is a key component of the toolkit. For this reason TANGO is based on the omniORB implementation of CORBA. CORBA offers an interface definition language with mappings to multiple programming languages, an efficient binary protocol, a data representation layer, and various services. In recent years a new series of binary protocols based on AMQP have emerged from the high frequency stock market trading business. A simplified version of AMQP called ZMQ (http://www.zeromq.org/) was open sourced in 2010. In 2011 the TANGO community decided to take advantage of ZMQ. In 2012 the kernel developers successfully replaced the CORBA Notification Service with ZMQ in TANGO V8. The first part of this paper will present the software design, the issues encountered and the resulting improvements in performance. The second part of this paper will present a study of how ZMQ could replace CORBA completely in TANGO.

Slides TUCOCB07 [1.328 MB]

TUCOCB08

Reimplementing the Bulk Data System with DDS in ALMA ACS

network, operation, site, controls

969

B. Jeram, G. Chiozzi, R.J. Tobar
ESO, Garching bei Muenchen, Germany
R. Amestica
NRAO, Charlottesville, USA
M. Watanabe
NAOJ, Tokyo, Japan

Bulk Data(BD) is a service in the ALMA Common Software to transfer a high amount of astronomical data from many-to-one, and one-to-many computers. Its main application is the Correlator SW (processes raw lags from the Correlator HW into science visibilities). The Correlator retrieves data from antennas on up to 32 computers. Data is forwarded to a master computer and combined to be sent to consumers. The throughput requirement both to/from the master is 64 MBytes/sec, differently distributed based on observing conditions. Requirements for robustness make the application very challenging. The first implementation, based on the CORBA A/V Streaming service, showed weaknesses. We therefore decided to replace it, even if we were approaching start of operations, making provision for careful testing. We have chosen as core technology DDS (Data Distribution Service), being a well supported standard, widespread in similar applications. We have evaluated mainstream implementations, with emphasis on performance, robustness and error handling. We have successfully deployed the new BD, making it easy switching between old and new for testing purposes. We discuss challenges and lessons learned.

Slides TUCOCB08 [1.582 MB]

TUCOCB10

TANGO V8 - Another Turbo Charged Major Release

TANGO, controls, interface, device-server

978

A. Götz, J.M. Chaize, T.M. Coutinho, J.M. Meyer, F. Poncet, E.T. Taurel, P.V. Verdier
ESRF, Grenoble, France
G. Abeillé, A. Buteau, N. Leclercq, F.E. Picca
SOLEIL, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
S. Cleva, M. Lonza, L. Pivetta, C. Scafuri
Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., Basovizza, Italy
D.F.C. Fernández-Carreiras, S. Rubio-Manrique
CELLS-ALBA Synchrotron, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
I.A. Khokhriakov
HZG, Geesthacht, Germany
S. Perez
CEA, Arpajon, France
D.P. Spruce
MAX-lab, Lund, Sweden

The TANGO (http://tango-controls/org) collaboration continues to evolve and improve the TANGO kernel. A latest release has made major improvements to the protocol and, the language support in Java. The replacement of the CORBA Notificaton service with ZMQ for sending events has allowed a much higher performance, a simplification of the architecture and support for multicasting to be achieved. A rewrite of the Java device server binding using the latest features of the Java language has made the code much more compact and modern. Guidelines for writing device servers have been produced so they can be more easily shared. The test suite for testing the TANGO kernel has been re-written and the code coverage drastically improved. TANGO has been ported to new embedded platforms running Linux and mobile platforms running Android and iOS. Packaging for Debian and bindings to commercial tools have been updated and a new one (Panorama) added. The graphical layers have been extended. The latest figures on TANGO performance will be presented. Finally the paper will present the roadmap for the next major release.

Slides TUCOCB10 [1.469 MB]

THCOAAB08

NOMAD Goes Mobile

GUI, controls, interface, network

1070

J. Locatelli, F. Cecillon, C. Cocho, A. Elaazzouzi, Y. Le Goc, P. Mutti, H. Ortiz, J. Ratel
ILL, Grenoble, France

The commissioning of the new instruments at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) has shown the need to extend instrument control outside the classical desktop computer location. This, together with the availability of reliable and powerful mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets has triggered a new branch of development for NOMAD, the instrument control software in use at the ILL. Those devices, often considered only as recreational toys, can play an important role in simplifying the life of instrument scientists and technicians. Performing an experiment not only happens in the instrument cabin but also from the office, from another instrument, from the lab and from home. The present paper describes the development of a remote interface, based on Java and Android Eclipse SDK, communicating with the NOMAD server using CORBA via wireless network. Moreover, the application is distributed on “Google Play” to minimise the installation and the update procedures.

Slides THCOAAB08 [2.320 MB]