Integrated Computer Control System CORBA-Based Simulator
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UCRL-ID-133243 Integrated Computer Control System CORBA-based Simulator P. J. Van Arsdall R. M. Bryant F. W. Holloway January 15, 1999 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory This is an informal report intended primarily for internal or limited external distribution. The opinions and conclusions stated are those of the author and may or may not be those of the Laboratory. Work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract W-7405-ENG-48. DISCLAIMER This document was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor the University of California nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or the University of California. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or the University of California, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. This report has been reproduced directly from the best available copy. Available to DOE and DOE contractors from the Office of Scientific and Technical Information P.O. Box 62, Oak Ridge, TN 37831 Prices available from (423) 576-8401 Available to the public from the National Technical Information Service U.S. Department of Commerce 5285 Port Royal Rd., Springfield, VA 22161 Integrated Computer Control System CORBA-based Simulator FY98 LDRD Project Final Summary Report P. J. Van Arsdall R. M. Bryant F. W. Holloway January 15, 1999 Introduction The CORBA-based Simulator was a Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project that applied simulation techniques to explore critical questions about distributed control architecture. The simulator project used a three-prong approach comprised of a study of object-oriented distribution tools, computer network modeling, and simulation of key control system scenarios. This summary report highlights the findings of the team and provides the architectural context of the study. For more information, the reader is referred to detailed project reports listed in the references. For the last several years LLNL has been developing the Integrated Computer Control System (ICCS), which is an abstract object-oriented software framework for constructing distributed systems. The framework is capable of implementing large event-driven control systems for mission-critical facilities such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF) [1] [Figure 1]. Tools developed in this project were applied to the NIF example architecture in order to gain experience with a complex system and derive immediate benefits from this LDRD. The ICCS integrates data acquisition and control hardware with a supervisory system, and reduces the amount of new coding and testing necessary by providing prebuilt components that can be reused and extended to accommodate specific additional requirements. The framework integrates control point hardware with a supervisory system by providing the services needed for distributed control such as database persistence, system start-up and configuration, graphical user interface, status monitoring, event logging, scripting language, alert management, and access control. The design is interoperable among computers of different kinds and provides plug-in software connections by leveraging a common object request brokering architecture (CORBA) to transparently distribute software objects across the network of computers. Figure 1. Computer rendering of the NIF control room. Because object broker distribution applied to control systems is relatively new and its inherent performance is roughly threefold less than traditional point-to-point communications, CORBA presented a certain risk to designers. This LDRD thus evaluated CORBA to determine its performance and scaling properties and to optimize its 2 UCRL-ID-133243 use within the ICCS. Both UNIX (Sun Solaris) and real-time (Wind River VxWorks) operating systems were studied. Performance of ICCS deployment was estimated by measuring software prototypes on a distributed computer testbed and then scaled to the desired operating regime by discrete-event simulation techniques. A study of CORBA protocols continues to guide software optimization as NIF software is being implemented and tested. The message-driven nature of distributed control places heavy demands on computers and network switches, so a complementary simulation of network architectures for several protocols was undertaken using a network modeling tool (OPNET Modeler). Additional workflow simulations were developed in a general simulation tool (Simprocess) to assess system behavior of high-stress operational scenarios. Understanding the risks and decisions that trade-off in designing the framework and supporting hardware architecture was enhanced by a concurrent program of simulation and prototype validation of the ICCS applied to the NIF example. Integrated Computer Control System Architecture The I CCS i s a laye r ed ar c hite ctur e cons is ting of f r ont - end pr oce ss or s ( FE P) c oor dinat ed by a s uper vi sor y s ys tem [ Fi gur e 2] . S uper vis or y cont r ols , whi ch ar e host ed on U NI X w or kst ati ons, pr ovi de ce ntr al ize d oper at or contr ol s a nd st atus , dat a ar c hiving, a nd int egr at ion s er vic es . FE P uni ts ar e t ypica lly c onst r ucte d f r om V ME - bus or P CI - bus cr at es of int er f ac es and em bedded c ontr oll er s that att ach t o contr ol points ( e.g. s te pping mot or s, photodi ode s ens or s, a nd puls e pow er s upplie s) . F EP s of tw ar e pr ovi des the di st r ibute d s er vic es neede d by the s uper vi sor y s ys tem to oper a te t he cont r ol point s. T he s of tw ar e i s dis tr i buted a mong the comput er s and pr ovide s pl ug- in s of tw ar e e xtens ibi lit y f or att achi ng cont r ol point s a nd other s of tw ar e se r vice s by us ing t he CO RBA pr ot ocol. F unct ions r equi r ing har d r e al- t ime impl eme ntat ion do not c ommuni cat e over t he net wor k a nd ar e al loca ted t o sof t wa r e r es ide nt w ithi n the F EP s or embe dded cont r olle r s. P r ec is e tr i gger ing of f as t i nst r ument ati on is handle d by an inde pendent tim ing s yst em, w hic h r eli eves the s of tw ar e a nd netw or k f r om s uppor ti ng har d r ea l- ti me c ommuni cat ions . 3 UCRL-ID-133243 Supervisory Controls File Server File Server Operator Consoles Database Sun UltraSPARC Workstations S witched Front End Processors Network Front End Processors Event-driven coordination Timing System PowerPC-based SPARC-based VME crates PCI crates Precision real- Actuators Sensors time coordination Actuators Sensors Figure 2. Simplified Integrated Computer Control System architecture. The oper at or cons ole pr ovi des the hum an int er f ac e in t he f or m of ope r ator di spl ays , data r et r ieva l and pr oc es si ng, and coor di nati on of contr ol f uncti ons. S uper vi sor y s of tw ar e is par t iti oned int o se ver al cohes ive subs ys tem s, e ach of w hic h contr ol s a pr ima r y subs ys tem ( s ome N I F exam ples ar e ali gnment contr ol s, l as er dia gnost ics , and pow er c onditi oning) . A dual s er ve r conf igur a tion pr ovi des enhanc ed per f or m ance wi th the added be nef it of gr ea ter a vail abil ity i n the e vent one se r ver f ai ls . Se ver al data bas es ar e i ncor por ate d to ma nage bot h exper i ment al da ta a nd data use d dur ing oper a tions and m aint enanc e. The s ubsys te ms ar e i ntegr a ted t o coor dina te ope r ati on of dis tr ibut ed equi pment . Som e of the per f or m ance r equir e ment s t hat dr ove the s im ulat ion s tudy ar e lis te d in Ta ble 1. Requirement Performance Computer system start-up < 30 minutes Respond to broad-view status updates < 10 seconds Respond to alerts < 1 second Perform automatic alignment < 20 minutes Transfer and display digital motion video 10 frames per second Human-in-the-loop controls response < 100 ms Table 1. Typical ICCS performance requirements.