Recent Activities toward Worldwide Remote Operations of Accelerators

N. Yamamoto, KEKICALEPCS2003,Korea

Remote Operation of Accelerator• Is it a new idea?

– NO• Most of large accelerators are controlled by

computers and network.• If you can access one of these computers from

network, you can operate an accelerator from anywhere in the world.

• “So why we need to discuss it?”

Control System

• Requirements for remote operation are anyway desirable for a control system.

• Therefore any modern well designed control system should be suitable for remote operations without modification!

Steve Hunt at “2nd GAN Workshop”

• Therefore a control system designed for remote operation should be suitable for any control system without modification!

Remote Operation of Accelerator• Is it a new idea?

– YES• Current control system is not designed daily “remote operation”

in mind.• Security

– Authentication– Dynamic Privilege control

• Hw Design for Remote diagnosis• Communication between remote “operators”

– Phone– Chat– Video conferencing– E-log– And more ?

GAN and World wide Remote Operation• GAN:Global Accelerator Network

– Proposed by Prof. Albrecht Wagner (DESY) in 2000.

– GAN is “a global collaboration to construct, commission and operate a large new accelerator facility, based on the experience of current large detector collaborations. ”

– ICFA Task Force was setup for this issue and published report in 2001.

– A series of GAN workshop was proposed in the report.

(Possible) GAN operation scenario

Remote Control

LOCAL Control

Remote Control

Characteristics of GAN: 1. Accelerator parts (e.g. injector, damping ring …) are produced

by multiple institutions.2. These institutions remain responsible for their part through

commissioning, running and upgrading it. 3. To allow institutions to fully participate there are control rooms

at multiple institutions. 4. Operators, accelerator physicists, hardware experts, and

module repair people are not necessarily resident at the accelerator site.

5. Maintenance people who can do intelligent trouble shooting and module swapping are on site.

6. During commissioning more people will be present at the site than during normal running.

7. There is good video conferencing for meetings and to allow a virtual presence in the control room

8. The logbook will be electronic so everyone has access to it.

GAN Workshops

• March, 2002: 1st Workshop @Cornel• Aug., 2002: Collaboratory tools@Berkley• Sept., 2002:2nd Workshop @Shelter Island

– Remote Operation

• March, 2003, WAO 2003 had one session on “remote operation”

• Oct. 2003, 3rd Workshop will be held at Trieste– Focus on Communication tools– http://www.elettra.trieste.it/cotogan2003

•Working Group 1•Accelerator Experiments with Remote Participation

•Working Group 2•Controls, Networking and Accelerator Hardware Issues

•Working Group 3•Telepresence: Technical, Sociological and Operational Aspects

GAN and World wide Remote Operation

– GAN is a network of• Laboratories/Organizations• People• Remote operation rooms distributed over the

world.

– World Wide Remote Control of an accelerator is a key component of GAN but NOT a last one.

– GAN discussion was started linear collider project in mind, but not limited to it.

GAN, Collaboratory, Virtual Lab. , GRID

• GRID:– Share Computer resources over network

• Virtual Lab– Network based education system

• Collaboratory– Communication tools to enhance collaborative work of people

over network.– Psychology/Sociology

• GAN:– Organization consists of multi-national institutes– + GRID + Collaboratory – + Remote operation

Tools for Remote control

• Modern controls system is “GAN-Ready”– Network based– Distributed– Multiple access

• Possibly add more functionality– Security

• Authentication• Dynamic Access Control

– Remote diagnosis• Control system design, tools• Hardware design for remote diagnosis

Dynamic Access Control

• Authentication at login time may not enough

• “Control Room” in charge should have a privilege to control access/operation from remote site/person.

Operator’s concern

– Standard Training for operators– Language for operation– Culture difference between CR– Trust building among operators in the

different groups.– ….– Sociological study might be necessary.

Tools for Communication

• Video conferencing/Communication– Needs High quality Audio-Video– Time delay – Psychology: position of camera, size,…– Back-Channel communication in the meeting.

• Informal information exchange outside of the meeting.

• J-PARC/SNS experiences shows the difficulty of tele-communication.– Lack of Suitable tools?– Or Nature of human communication?

Video conferencing:Does it Work?

1 to 1 1 to N orN*(1 to 1) N + 1

N to M

“Remote Experiment on Accelerator Physics”WG• Organized after 2nd GAN workshop• Discuss Remote Experiments

– Learn from the experience of remote experiments

• http://www.lns.cornell.edu/public/icfa/REAP/

Other Fields

• NSF: Published a report on “cyberinfrastructure”, Jan. 2003– NFS announcement on Oct. 13, 2003

• The National Science Foundation (NSF) announces the first steps it is taking to develop a state-of-the-art cyberinfrastructure likely to revolutionize the conduct of science and engineering research and education. These steps leverage the agency's recent investments in the Extensible Teasdale Facility and its six-year investments in the Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure.

• A lot of interests and some activities in :– Material Science– Fusion Science– Astronomy– Agriculture

Activity in KEK

• Collaboratory– Material Science– Remote operation of Experimental equipment– Tele communication using video conferencing.

• PKI/PMI tools– Just started – Prototype for evaluation

KEK IMSS: Remote Experiment

PKI Key and Secure VLAN

PKI Key

Tohoku U.

Secure

VLAN

Secure Collaboratory KEK

Conclusion

• Therefore a control system designed for remote operation should be suitable for any control system without modification!