Communication architecture of the Detector Control System for the Inner Tracking System

Abstract

This paper presents the proposed communication architecture of the Detector Control System (DCS) for the Inner Tracking System (ITS). The purpose of the DCS is to acquire and control the states of the ITS. Since the ITS is not yet fully implemented, an emulator of the communication architecture is being developed. The proposed architecture comprises five levels. At the bottom, the detector is emulated by sensors connected to microcontrollers. Each microcontroller is then connected to a Raspberry Pi which represents the ALICE low-level front-end (ALF) electronics at the second level of communication architecture. The third level is represented by Front-End Device (FRED), a Linux server where more than one ALF device can be connected. FRED is then connected to the fourth level, implemented by the SCADA interface - WinCC OA. Above all these levels is an archiving and configuration database setup. Configuration bypasses the SCADA interface and is managed directly through FRED. The purpose of the emulator is to verify the proposed architecture in terms of data throughput and cooperation of the mentioned modules