Outsourcing of the New Wave Form Acquisition, Surveillance
and Diagnostic System for the LEP Injection Kickers
E. Carlier, V. Mertens, M. C. Raichs° and J. Serrano°
CERN, SL-Division, CH-1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland° CRISA, Ground Segment Department, 9 C. Torres Quevedo, 28760 Tres Cantos, Madrid, Spain
Abstract
In 1996, a project has been launched to improve theacquisition, surveillance and diagnostic system of the LEP
injection kickers. The technical solution is formed by aVXI acquisition hardware and a Windows NT / LabVIEWsoftware environment. The realisation has been entirely
outsourced to industry. This paper discusses the different
phases of the project, from market survey over technicalspecification to acceptance tests, explains the technicalchoices and evaluates the results, presents the point of viewof both parties on the collaboration and concludes with theexperiences learned from this project.

‘acquisition controller’ as shown in Figure 1, consisting ofan embedded VXI PC (National Instruments VXIpc-745,
486 processor at 100 MHz with 32 MB of memory) and
one to four ‘acquisition systems’. Each acquisition system
consists of a Tektronix TVS641 4-channel waveform
analyser with external trigger facility and a Tektronix
TX4320 RF multiplexer allowing each acquisition channel
to be selected among 4 sources and the trigger among 8sources.
TS Toolkit
serverRemoteComputerRemoteComputerRemoteDisk server

HP/HP-UX

HP/HP-UX

PC/Windows

HP/HP-UX

1 Introduction
In 1996, a project has been set up to provide better
acquisition, surveillance and diagnostics facilities for all
SPS and LEP kickers at CERN, in the first instance for theLEP injection kickers [1]. This comprises tools to select,acquire, log, retrieve, and visualise signals from the beam
pickup and the kicker magnets, to analyse them, and tocompare them with stored reference pulses. These tools
must be applicable either on request for on-line diagnostic
and adjustment or run continuously in the background forautomatic equipment surveillance.
The desired functionality has been specified and therealisation of the project subcontracted to the Spanish
company CRISA. The system has meanwhile beendelivered to CERN. Its integration into the real applicationand the evaluation with kicker magnet measurement signals
are underway.

VXI Master
VXIpc-745Windows NT

Ethernet
TCP/IP

Acquisition Controller

VXI BusMonitor

KeyboardMouse

Waveform Analyser Signal Multiplexer
Tektronics TVS641 Tektronics VX4320

Acquisition SystemFigure 1: Hardware layout

2 Technical Solution

2.2 Software

One of the project goals was to use solely provenindustry standards for hardware and software. In fact, nospecific development was necessary to realise the project.
The hardware consists of a VXI acquisition system andthe software is based on a LabVIEW [2] environment
running either under Windows NT on the PC embedded inthe VXI crate or under HP/UX on a remote workstation,using the Open Software Foundation (OSF) Remote
Procedure Call in the Distributed Computing Environment(DCE).
Such hardware and software are already in use at CERN
and fully integrated into the controls environment.

Figure 2 gives an overview of the software layout. Thesoftware, entirely developed using LabVIEW, is organized
in a client/server scheme and is composed of three client
applications: the acquisition, the analysis, and the presentation task.
The data exchange between the different applications isperformed through a remote disk server in a HP workstation. All clients use a fixed data file format. HP-UX
clients access data files through NFS and Windows 95 orWindows NT clients access them through the SAMBA
software suite [3].
The acquisition and analysis tasks run in the acquisition
controller. The presentation task can either be executed in
the acquisition controller or in any remote computerconnected to the accelerator control system, under HP-UX,
Windows 95 or Windows NT, using iden-tical LabVIEW
application code.

2.1 Hardware
The acquisition hardware is lodged in a Tektronix
VX1410 IntelliFrame VXI crate and composed of anRemote Computer

Tenderingphase

Presentation
LabVIEWTS Toolkit
interface(HP-UX)
Synchronisation
Accelerator
controlMarket survey

NFS
Technicalspecification

Data

TS Toolkit
serverSynchronisation

Remote Diskserver
Data

TS Toolkit
interface(Windows NT)

Samba

Start-up

Analysis

Acquisition

Presentation

Technicalspecification(URD)

Call for tender

Development
phase
Detailed
softwarerequirements

SoftwareRequirement
Document (SRD)

Architectural
Architecturaldesign and code Design Document
production(ADD)

LabVIEWVISA drivers

Acceptancephase

Firmware

Software test
plan

Software Test Plan(SWTP)

Acceptance test

User Manual(UM)Acquisition Controller

Figure 2: Software layout.
Inter-task synchronisation is performed through the TS
Toolkit [4] which also implements the kicker control
system and serves as interface to the higher levels of theaccelerator control chain, e.g. for alarms. The interface tothe TS Toolkit is formed either by a shared library (HP-UXenvironment) or through a dynamic link library (Windowsenvironment).
The hardware is accessed via VISA drivers and is
VXIplug&play compatible in the WIN framework.
2.3 Performance
Using one acquisition system with all four channels
employed and all tasks (acquisition, analysis andpresentation) running on the embedded VXI a sustained
repetition rate of 0.2Hz has been achieved (sampling rate :1Gs/s, vertical resolution : 8bits) which is well beyond therequired rate.
3 Project organisation
The project life cycle has been divided into three main
phases: the tendering, the development and the acceptancephase, as shown in Figure 3. At the beginning, each phasehas been planned with fixed deadlines and a progressmeeting at its end.
The tendering phase comprised the market survey, thespecification and the call for tender. The development
phase was divided into the detailed software requirements
specification, the software production and the software
integration. The acceptance phase included acceptance

Figure 3: Project life cycle.
tests at the contractor’s premises and at CERN.
3.1 Tendering phase
At the beginning of the project, a market survey has been
carried out in order to qualify a first set of companies able
to realise the project. This phase has also been used toidentify the industry standards in this kind of applications.
40 companies have been consulted resulting in 25 replies ofwhich 15 were considered valid.
In the technical specification, care has been taken todescribe the project in terms of the desired functionality
rather than to specify detailed hardware and software
requirements. The main reason for this approach was tostay as close as possible to industry standards and to reduce
development costs.
The call for tender has finally been sent to 7 companies
resulting in 6 valid quotations. The contract has been
awarded to CRISA. The hardware has been directly
purchased by CERN and sent to CRISA for system
integration.
Even if the tendering phase took considerable time,(50 % of the total project), it contributed significantly to its
success. The market survey, which was not mandatory, wasreally useful to pre-select the most competent companies
for the call for tender, reducing cost and improving productquality.

3.2 Development phase

4.2 Contractor° (CRISA)

In the first part of this phase the project has beenpresented in detail to the contractor and the detailed
software requirements were identified. As a result a
Software Requirements Document (SRD) has been
provided which permitted to link the various user
requirements to measurable functions. The SRD also
contained a traceability matrix between the technicalspecifications and the software requirements which wasused at the end of the project to prove that all desired
functions could be achieved.
The second part of the development phase consisted in
the code production and in the software integration. In thisphase, CERN has only been involved in review meetings.

The usual activity of CRISA is hardware and softwaredevelopment and manufacturing for aerospace applications.
CRISA designs and produces on-board computers, control
equipment and DC/DC converters for satellites, andcommunications and test equipment for the groundsegment.
The project described above has been the first one
developed for CERN and the contract was awarded toCRISA in open competition. Our usual customers are theEuropean Space Agency (ESA) and major Europeanaerospace companies. Because of the new customer andapplication, the project has been a test of appliying ourknow-how outside the aerospace field.
Below we outline some of our initial concerns and how
was later the reality of the development, and some lessons
learned during the project:• In order for the potential contractors to prepare thebidding it is mandatory for a software project to have aclear User Requirements Document (URD) made by
the customer to start this phase. This has been the casein this project, and the document prepared by CERN
has fulfilled the expectations.
• The project has been structured in a Software
Requirements phase, followed by a design and coding
phase for each of the software components. An
Architectural Design Phase is necessary between these
two stages. The software described above was made of
3 different software packages, but the coupling between
them justified a common architectural design. We did itat the cost of a bigger effort in the early deliveries.
• CRISA is involved in aerospace field software projects
where the Quality Assurance (QA) and project control
standards are very demanding. The ESA Software
Engineering Standard PSS-05 has proven its validity
outside the aerospace field. The management uses of
the aerospace industry have proven adequate for thisproject. This has been favoured by a highly technicalcustomer with full understanding of the development
process.
• LabVIEW has widely proven its suitability forcommand and control applications. However, when thesoftware size and/or complexity start to grow, theproblems of LabVIEW’s unsophisticated development
environment arise. CRISA develops software mainly in
Ada and C, and in both cases with the application ofstrict design and development rules (HOOD
methodology, CASE tools and configuration control by
CRISA’s Software QA). LabVIEW is used at CRISA
because of its convenience (mainly for test equipment
development), and a set of coding rules has been
established for the use of LabVIEW in order to try toovercome these drawbacks.
• Meetings policy: the following meetings have been
held along the project, all in the contractor’s premises:a Kick-Off meeting, a meeting at the end of theSoftware Requirements definition phase, and theAcceptance Review. 1-2 more meetings during thedevelopment and coding phase would have been useful.

3.3 Acceptance phaseTowards the end of the project the contractor has
provided a Software Test Plan (SWTP). This contained a
traceability matrix between the SRD, the technicalspecification and the different tests to be performed. All
tests were carried out with an original hardware but
simulated input signals at the contractor’ spremises.
The hardware and software has been shipped to CERN.
Its integration into the control system is underway.
It is noteworthy that the contract includes a two-year
maintenance and the right to use as many copies of thesoftware as needed which allows to use the software inother applications without extra development cost.
4 Viewpoints
4.1 Tenderer (CERN)
In this kind of collaboration the professional approach of
the industry is a real advantage. Project management,planning, fixed deadlines and industry experience help toreach the scopes of the project and to obtain a ready to use
product. The tenderer can concentrate on the functional
aspect of the project as the management and the realisation
become the responsibility of the contractor.
At the end of the collaboration a complete application isdelivered and the required functional aspects are fully
tested before acceptance and use in operation. The follow
up of the project by the contractor and penalties for latedelivery help to keep and reach the fixed deadlines.
The final product is completely documented. A User
Manual (UM) and an Architectural Design Document(ADD) transmit the project know-how from the contractor
to the tenderer.
This kind of approach is also more rigid. It becomesdifficult to change or to add requirements once the detailed
software requirements are agreed upon and thedevelopment has started.
Specifying this kind of software project is not too
difficult when talking in terms of functionality. For thisapplication, the specification of the acquisition and analysis
processes is simple. On the other hand, the presentation
application includes the man machine interface and it
becomes really difficult not to specify its functionalities but
the desired look-and-feel.

•An engineering subcontractor like CRISA may be notfully aware of the complete system in CERN (the LEP
Injection Kickers). A certain isolation is necessary
between this complex high energy physics system andthe waveform surveillance system software subject of
the contract. This was CERN’s responsibility and theperformance was very good. CRISA saw only theaspects related to our software, while still a generalperspective was provided by CERN that allowed us tounderstand the rational behind the decisions.

The authors would like to thank all persons who haveincreased their trust in the successful integration ofcommercial hardware and software products into theexisting accelerator control system. Special thanks go to
Cristina Lara from the CERN Purchasing Service for her
support and advice during the market survey and the callfor tender.
References[1]

5 Conclusions
The present project was carried through in a pleasant andconstructive atmosphere and successfully finished to
specification within the predefined deadlines and costframe.
Subcontracting an entire software project to industry is
relatively straightforward if, like in the present case, theproject and its boundaries are well defined and if therequirements can be fulfilled using industry standards. This
reduces the duration and cost of the project.
Tenderers must be aware that outsourcing is not a means
to save massively manpower, but to receive usually better
tested and well documented products with a significant
remaining in-house effort. The follow up of a project needs
a continuous high attention and requires a permanent
availability of the tenderer.
Acknowledgements

[2]

[3]
[4]

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