CSP.LMC Common Package

General requirements for the monitor and control functionality are the same in both telescopes. In addition two of three other CSP Sub-elements, namely PSS and PST, have the same functionality and use the same design for both the telescopes.
Functionality common to Low and Mid CSP.LMC includes: communication framework, logging, archiving, alarm generation, subarraying, some of the functionality realated to handling observing mode changes, Pulsar Search and Pulsar Timing, and to some extent Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI).
The difference between LOW and MID CSP.LMC is mostly due to the different receivers (dishes vs stations) and different CBF functionality and design. More than the 50% of the CSP.LMC functionality is common for both telescopes.
The CSP.LMC Common Package comprises all the software components and functionality common to LOW and MID CSP.LMC and is used as a base for development of the Low CSP.LMC and Mid CSP.LMC software.
The CSP.LMC Common Package is delivered as a part of each CSP.LMC release, via a Python package that can be used as required for maintenance and upgrade.
CSP.LMC implements a high level interface (API) that Telescope Manager (TM), or other authorized client, can use to monitor and control CSP as a single instrument.
At the same time, CSP.LMC provides high level commands that the TM can use to sub-divide the array into up to 16 sub-arrays, i.e. to assign station/receptors to sub-arrays, and to operate each sub-array independently and conccurently with all othe sub-arrays.
The top-level software components provided by CSP.LMC API are:

Components listed above are implemented as TANGO devices, i.e. classes that implement standard TANGO API. The CSP.LMC TANGO devices are based on the standard SKA1 TANGO Element Devices provided via the SKA Base Classes package.

CSP.LMC Master

The CSP Master provides API for monitor and control the CSP Element. CSP Master implements CSP Element-level status indicators, configuration parameters, housekeeping commands.
CSP Master is the primary point of access for CSP Monitor and Control.
CSP Master maintains the pool of schedulable resources, and it can relies on the CSP CapabilityMonitor device, as needed.

CspMaster API Documentation

CSP.LMC Subarray

The core CSP functionality, configuration and execution of signal processing, is configured, controlled and monitored via subarrays.

CSP Subarray makes provision to TM to configure a subarray, select Processing Mode and related parameters, specify when to start/stop signal processing and/or generation of output products. TM accesses directly a CSP Subarray to:

  • Assign resources

  • Configure a scan

  • Control and monitor states/operations

Resources assignment

The assignment of Capabilities to a subarray (subarray composition) is performed in advance of a scan configuration. Assignable Capabilities for CSP Subarrays are:

  • receptors (MID) or stations (LOW)

  • tied-array beams: Search Beams, Timing Beams and Vlbi Beams.

In general resource assignment to a subarray is exclusive, but in some cases the same Capability instance may be used in shared manner by more then one subarray.

Inherent Capabilities

Each CSP subarray has also a set of permanently assigned inherent Capabilities: the number and type is different for LOW and MID instance.
Only the Inherent Capabilities related to the Processing Mode are common to both instances.
These are:

  • Correlation

  • PSS

  • PST

  • VLBI

An inherent Capability can be enabled or disabled, but cannot assigned or removed to/from a subarray.

Scan configuration

TM provides a complete scan configuration to a subarray via an ASCII JSON encoded string. Parameters specified via a JSON string are implemented as TANGO Device attributes and can be accessed and modified directly using the buil-in TANGO method write_attribute. When a complete and coherent scan configuration is received and the subarray configuration (or re-configuration) completed, the subarray it’s ready to observe.

Control and Monitoring

Each CSP Subarray maintains and report the status and state transitions for the CSP subarray as a whole and for individual assigned resources.
In addition to pre-configured status reporting, a CSP subarray makes provision for the TM and any authorized client, to obtain the value of any subarray attribute.

CspSubarray Class API Documentation

CSP.LMC Capabilities

Capabilities represent the CSP schedulable resources and provide API that can be used to configure, monitor and control resources that implement signal processing functionality. During normal operations, TM uses the sub-array API to assign capabilities to the sub-array, configure sub-array Processing Mode, start and stop scan.
The CSP.LMC Common Package implements the capabilities that are shared between LOW and MID instances.
These are:

CSP.LMC Search Beam Capability

The Search Beam Capability exposes the attributes and commands to monitor and control beamforming and PSS processing in a single beam.
The mapping between an instance of the CSP Search Beam and the internal CSP Sub-element components performing beamforming and search is established at initialization and is permanent.

CSP.LMC SearchBeamCapability API Documentation

CSP.LMC Timing Beam Capability

The Timing Beam Capability exposes the attributes and commands to monitor and control beamforming and PST processing in a single beam.
The mapping between an instance of the CSP Search Beam and the internal CSP Sub-element components performing beamforming and search is established at initialization and is permanent.

CSP.LMC TimingBeamCapability API Documentation

CSP.LMC VLBI Beam Capability

The VLBI Beam Capability exposes the attributes and commands to monitor and control beamforming and VLBI processing in a single beam.

CSP.LMC VlbiBeamCapability API Documentation

CSP.LMC CapabilityMonitor

This device…

CSP.LMC CapabilityMonitor API Documentation