ACS from development to operations

Alessandro Caproni; Pau Colomer; Bogdan Jeram; Heiko Sommer; Gianluca Chiozzi; Miguel M. Mañas

doi:10.1117/12.2231700

8 August 2016 ACS from development to operations

Alessandro Caproni, Pau Colomer, Bogdan Jeram, Heiko Sommer, Gianluca Chiozzi, Miguel M. Mañas

Proceedings Volume 9913, Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy IV; 991313 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2231700
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2016, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Abstract

The ALMA Common Software (ACS), provides the infrastructure of the distributed software system of ALMA and other projects. ACS, built on top of CORBA and Data Distribution Service (DDS) middleware, is based on a Component- Container paradigm and hides the complexity of the middleware allowing the developer to focus on domain specific issues. The transition of the ALMA observatory from construction to operations brings with it that ACS effort focuses primarily on scalability, stability and robustness rather than on new features. The transition came together with a shorter release cycle and a more extensive testing. For scalability, the most problematic area has been the CORBA notification service, used to implement the publisher subscriber pattern because of the asynchronous nature of the paradigm: a lot of effort has been spent to improve its stability and recovery from run time errors. The original bulk data mechanism, implemented using the CORBA Audio/Video Streaming Service, showed its limitations and has been replaced with a more performant and scalable DDS implementation. Operational needs showed soon the difference between releases cycles for Online software (i.e. used during observations) and Offline software, which requires much more frequent releases. This paper attempts to describe the impact the transition from construction to operations had on ACS, the solution adopted so far and a look into future evolution.

Citation Download Citation

Alessandro Caproni, Pau Colomer, Bogdan Jeram, Heiko Sommer, Gianluca Chiozzi, and Miguel M. Mañas "ACS from development to operations", Proc. SPIE 9913, Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy IV, 991313 (8 August 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2231700

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Observatories

Telescopes

Antennas

Software development

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