Remote Console System Using JAVA Applet for High Energy Accelerator
Components at the Photon Factory
Noriichi KANAYA, Seiji ASAOKA and Hideki MAEZAWA
Photon FactoryHigh Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK)
1-1, Oho, Tsukuba, 305, Japan
Abstract
A Remote Console System for the accelerator
components has been designed and implemented using
Java Applet for high-energy accelerator components at thePhoton Factory. When one of the accelerator components
malfunctions during operation of the accelerator, it isimportant to be able to inspect the faulty component at thevicinity of the accelerator in order to recover theaccelerator as fast as possible. Thus, the Remote Console
System has been implemented using Java Applet
particularly for monitoring components and Ultra-HighVacuum pressures of the twenty-two synchrotron radiation
beam lines and the 2.5 GeV storage ring. As a result, evenportable laptop personal computers and PCs can provide
control information in 3D images plus the same
information as those on the heavy consoles at the controlroom. The Remote Console System on a WWW browserthat allows analyzing operation of the synchrotron
radiation beam lines at any place without directly
accessing the control room is discussed.
1 Introduction
Consoles in the control room for high-energy accelerators
generally tend to be large and heavy displays, X-terminals
and workstations. If there is a failure in the accelerator, it
is useful to be able to locate a faulty component in thefield, i.e., at the vicinity of the accelerator. Particularly,
there are a number of users for a synchrotron radiation
facility who use an intense photon beam for theirexperiment at the same time. Shutting down theaccelerator caused by a malfunctioned device should be
avoided as much as possible, even for a half day.
In addition to normal operational data regarding theaccelerator, functionality for capability of dealing withthree-dimensional (3D) graphic image is expected foranalyzing the operational data in the field.
2 System description
The Remote Console system comprises an applet on
World-Wide-Web (WWW) browser, a proxy server on an
SGI workstation, and the operation server running on thecontrol computer VAX/VMS.
In addition to Java’s capability, due to its tight networksecurity mechanism than CGI, the Java Applet was chosen
as the implementation language for the system. Needlessto say, the Remote Console System can be utilized on any

WWW browser that supports Java Applet.
When invoked, the WWW browser initiates, inprinciple, the Remote Console System from the proxy
server on the SGI workstation through the network. The
Remote Console System then fetches operational
information and control data from the server on theVAX/VMS workstation, across the network that controls
the synchrotron radiation beam lines [1]. The RemoteConsole System then displays the operational and control
information on the WWW browser as the console screen.
The VRML (virtual reality modeling language) is known
as the standard language that is widely used for displaying
three-dimensional graphics (3D) and images. The 3Dgraphics images can be interactively moved/panned on thescreen from a different viewpoint by dragging the mouse.
Some World Wide Web browsers support VRML.
After being loaded, the Remote Console sends a request
to the proxy server on the SGI workstation using a socket
communication. The packet includes a list of components
and time information to be concerned. Upon receiving arequest, the server executes a SQL statement to connect
the on-line Oracle database [2] which is running on theVAX/VMS. The communication between the two servers
is done through an SQL*Net driver. Due to the security
restrictions of the WWW browser, the Applet is notallowed to make a direct link to the host, i.e., to theDatabase on the VAX in this case, except for the host fromwhich the Applet is loaded. Thus the server works as aproxy server.
Once the connection is established, the server executes
SELECT statements associated with the request submitted
by the Remote Console. After retrieving and collecting
operational data of the accelerator components from theDatabase, the server generates a 3D-image file in VRMLV.1.
The Remote Console on the browser is waiting for thecompletion of creating an image by the proxy server. Aftera completion message is sent back to the Remote Consolefrom the server, it starts loading the 3D-image file fromthe server. Since the Java Applet does not directly load a
VRML file in principle, the Remote Console executes anHTML code to load the 3D-image file. Usually, the size ofthe image file exceeds 6 Mbytes, containing theoperational data of twenty-two beam lines and pressure
data of the storage ring and beam-current data, and it takes
a few minutes to load.
Figure.1 shows a 3D image representing a fatal
deterioration that occurred downstream of a beam line. ItFig.1 3D image in VRML on the Remote Console showing a fatal pressure
rise downstream of a synchrotron radiation beam line.

Fig.2 Psuedo-3D image on the Remote Console showing
the same fatal pressure rise as in Fig.1.
takes more than five minutes to generate the 3D graphics
image on the PC/notebook running WindowsNT V.4.0.
The plug-in used for this system is the SGI CosmoPlayer
V.1.0. However, by closely and precisely viewing androtating the 3D image from different viewpoints anddistance, the Remote Console allows locating which partof the component is now malfunctioning in detail. By
using the Remote Console System, it was found that,
fortunately, the computer of automatic Ultra-HighVacuum protection system [3] could protect the UHV ofthe storage ring.
Figure. 2 shows a pusedo-3D image generated by theRemote Console in the same way, except for the fact thatthe image format used was in the GIF format. The image
has only 45 Kbytes in size, and can be loaded and generate
its image on the screen within one minute. The light spotin the circle of the Fig. 2 indicates a fatal pressure rise.
Since the viewpoint is fixed, there is no way tointeractively deal with the image to precisely locate whichpart is malfunctioning.
In addition, there is another query server on the VAX in
which all operational data and present status of theaccelerator component are mapped on the shared area
(global-section in VMS terminology)[4]. The Remote
Console can collect present operational data of theaccelerator components by querying the VAX through theserver. The server on the VAX simply replies operational
data to the server on the SGI workstation.
The Java environment is still evolving and growing
rapidly. Since as of 1997 not all WWW browser supports
Java RMI (Remote-Method-Invocation), we have
implemented the Remote Console using Java Applet andthe socket mechanism. This communication layer will bereplaced with RMI. The one-line Database system will beported to a UNIX workstation that supports pure Java. The
communication between the server on the SGI and theDatabase will be replaced with a Java thin-driver that
supports direct OCI (Oracle-Calling-Interface).

3 ConclusionThe Remote Console System for accelerator components
using Java Applet for high-energy accelerator components
has been discussed. The system can obtain operational
information of the accelerator components either in 3D
images or psuedo-3D images to allow inspecting the faulty
accelerator component not in the control room but in thefield.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to express their gratitude to thestaff of the Photon Factory Light Source Division for
operating the beam liens and the storage ring.
References
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