Service-Oriented Architecture for Next Generation, Large-Scale Accelerator Control Systems

Traditional tools for developing accelerator control systems do not scale for control systems of next-generation large-scale accelerators, such as the new International Linear Collider (ILC). Such systems consist of many sub-accelerators, actuators, sensors, and operation teams. A paradigm is needed to encourage the development of a heterogeneous control subsystem and to provide a mechanism to deploy and update the software modules robustly. Most importantly, there needs to be a framework to integrate heterogeneous subsystems in order to perform various experiments. This project will develop a reference Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) for ILC control sys¬tems. A SOA promotes multiple levels of loose coupling to increase the robustness and adaptability of overall applications. Various control subsystems and activities will be separately implemented and packaged into ¿services¿ with well-defined ¿interfaces¿ for clients to interact with them. New applications and control processes then will be ¿composed¿ by integrating and orchestrating these services via their service interfaces. Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: A SOA for control systems should be applicable to any large scale industrial control or mission-critical system, such as air traffic control and industrial manufacturing process control systems.