Magellan Telescopes Project: Upgrade of Local Area Networks in Baade and Clay Telescopes

Local Area Network: What is it ? A computer network that spans a relatively small area. LANs are confined normally to a single building or group of buildings. A system of LANs connected together over long distances is called a wide-area network (WAN). Benefits: Network connectivity is a very cost-effective way to communicate vital data from disparate systems, as well as providing continuous remote monitoring and control capabilities. Let’s do it !

What do we want to connect to our LAN ? All telescope control computers (serial communication lines). Distributed Input/Output devices (position, temperature sensors, etc., using serial communication). Peripherals (compressors, pumps, etc). The goal is the replacement of all “long” serial lines currently used through the telescopes. ALSO Instruments using Ethernet connections (PANIC, CCD Servers). Ethernet based sensors (LDSS3, Iodine Cell, MOE Lamps controller, MMFS Lamp controller, many more to come…) Most of these are currently connected to the OPEN Internet World

Why is this effort for? SECURITY !!!! AGAINST EXTERNAL ATTACKS EITHER HACKERS  Privacy !! OR LIGHTNING  Isolation !!

2001 Lightning Incident Costs DescriptionQtyCost/UnitTotal CostLines involved Telescope(aprox.) Vane End PC KVM Adam Serial DGH Serial DGH Serial DGH Serial Main Drive I/O Card Direct M3 Interface Card Direct Cybex KVM Switch KVM Pc Hard Drive Power Actuator Test bench Pc Power Gcam DSP Board Camera Gcam Pwr Board Power Guider IMS Module Serial Telephone Central Plant Telephone Magellan Server Pc Power  TOTAL COST $ 11300

Telescope Zones Switch Control Room Interface Equipment Room Tunnel and Compressor Room Local Area Network Serial Lines Ethernet Fiber Link Telescope SwitchInterface SwitchInterface SwitchInterface

Isolation: What do we need to isolate ? Control room Equipment Room TelescopeTunnel Serial lines 19/328/16 4/16 Ethernet lines 4/242/24~8/241/24 Keyboard, video & Mouse lines 1/13/3 Direct signal lines 5/12 Guider cameras lines 315 Actual/Planned in project

What interfaces do we need ? Serial lines  Serial Servers  Serial to Ethernet Ethernet lines  Switches  Backbone network Optic fiber links  Isolated Zones KVM lines  KVM over IP  Isolated Keyboard KVM Extenders Video and Mouse Signal lines  Ethernet I/O  Signal transmission over IP Camera lines  Optoisolators card  (to be found)

Serial to Ethernet Connection Possibilities Using Socket Based Applications  New projects Network attached server based applications with the ability to utilize socket services can communicate with remote serial devices attached to terminal servers. Using Serial Based Applications  Next step for DOS based control PCs Software applications that have been written to communicate with external devices directly connected to serial COM ports. A COM port “re-director” driver utility is installed on the application server in conjunction with a serial terminal server. Serial Device to Serial Device Connections (Serial Tunneling)  THIS NOW Simple extension of existing communications between serial devices. By using serial terminal servers, these devices can be interconnected over an IP network. Secure Serial Device to Device Connections (Encrypted Serial Tunneling) Same as before but with data encryption. Protocols such as SSH (Secure Shell or Secure Socket Shell ) using encryption techniques.

The equipment selected: Comtrol DeviceMaster PRO Device Servers Can be used in harsh or electrically noisy environmental conditions  25KV surge protection. -37º to 74ºC. Software selectable—RS-232, RS-422, or RS-485 serial interfaces.  No more RS232-RS485 converters! Hardware and software flow control  Complete handshaking control Programmable via Network.  Resolve issues remotely No need for OS-specific drivers when using serial “tunneling” between units over any distance via Ethernet.  Transparent integration Software developer Kit. Windows/Linux drivers available.  Nice for future applications

Latency tests (Veritest 2003) ProductNetwork ProtocolAvg. Latency (ms) Native PC SERIAL PORT5.67 Comtrol DeviceMaster RTS 1 PortTCP/IP Comtrol DeviceMaster RTS 1 PortRapid Transport Service™ 9.47 Comtrol DeviceMaster RTS 16RMTCP/IP7.13 Comtrol DeviceMaster RTS 16RMRapid Transport Service™ Digi One IA RealPortTCP/IP Digi PortServer TS 16TCP/IP Lantronix UDS 100TCP/IP Lantronix UDS -10TCP/IP  Speed at which the application and device can communicate.

Ethernet Speed 10 Mbit/s (10 Mbps) Ethernet 10BASE5 (Thickwire) -- Original 10Mbit/s implementation of Ethernet. 10BASE2 (Thinwire) ohm RG-58 coaxial cable, up to 200m. Fast Ethernet (100 Mbit/s) 100BASE-TX -- Up to 100m over cat-5 cable. 100BASE-FX -- Up to 2km for full-duplex multimode fiber. Gigabit Ethernet (1Gbits/s) 1000BASE-T – Up to 100m over cat-5e or cat-6 copper cabling. 1000BASE-SX – Up to 550m over multi-mode fiber. 1000BASE-LX -- Up to 10 km over single-mode fiber. 1000BASE-LH – Long-haul solution up to 100 km. 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10Gbits/s) 10GBASE-SR – Up to 80m. 300 m over a new 2000 MHz. multi-mode fiber. Reasons:  Avoid bottlenecks with fast serial lines needs.  New large imagers (FourStar and MegaCAM).

Switch: 3Com® Baseline Switch 2816-SFP Plus Layer 2 Smart browser-based user interface Traffic prioritization, Voice over IP, etc. 4 ports for SFP (Small Factor Pluggable) 1000Base-SX interfaces Fiber optic Cable: LC/LC 50M This is a standard multimode fiber cable with LC type connectors,

KVM: Which approach to choose? KVM over IP + Fiber video extenders Telescope Operator Linux PC CONTROL ROOM ZONE 4 Computers EQUIPMENT ROOM ZONE 1 Computer TELESCOPE ZONE 3 Computers (8) KVM over IP Interface s (8) Monitors (4)Fiber s VIDEO Extende r LAN TUNNEL ZONE PROS: Simple. Multiple displays in Operator computer CONS: Needs software. Less reliable Expensive fiber video extender Price tag: 15K per telescope

KVM: Which approach to choose ? Fiber KVM Extenders Telescope Operator Linux PC CONTROL ROOM ZONE 4 Computers EQUIPMENT ROOM ZONE 1 Computer TELESCOPE ZONE 3 Computers (1) KVM Over IP Interfac e (8) Monitors (4)Fiber s KVM Extende r LAN TUNNEL ZONE (1) KVM SWITCH Telescope Operator Local KVM PROS: Very reliable. No software from Local KVM CONS: Expensive KVM extender. KVM Over IP has to access through the switch. Lots of cables. Price tag: 17.5k per telescope

Discrete I/O Signals Acromag i2o modules  one Module is used as input and another one as output. They connect over the LAN. Guider cameras Gcam control includes 3 computers, control and video cables and a multiplexer unit for up to 15 cameras on the telescope side Isolation solution still to be found. Probably an optoisolator based interface board ? Other solution would be a redesign of video/communication to use fiber lines

Magellan Telescopes: Creation of a Local Area Network Reasons:  Private network protection for existing and coming applications.  Lightning protection of telescope equipment  Future upgrade of control computers  Technology state of the art

What does it cost ? Serial lines replacement  $12,000 per telescope KVM replacement  $15,000 per telescope Discrete Lines replacement  $2,000 per telescope