[TangerineSDR] Software Specifications drafts for review at DCC

Mon Sep 16 15:11:01 EDT 2019

Hello All:

Attached are 3 documents: high level Functional Specs for the Local Host and Central Control System, and a version zero draft Detailed Design spec for the Central Control (with Nathaniel’s comments).  I have spoken at length about them with Nathaniel, and we would ask that you review the attached specs (if possible, prior to DCC). If you are able to attend DCC, we’d like to discuss your comments there (we hope to go over the specs at DCC); if you will not be at DCC, feel free to send your notes to me and/or Nathaniel. We have some ideas for further ways to improve the specs, but we are sure that you will think of things that we did not.

-73 & C U @ DCC – Bill, AB4EJ

From: Nathaniel A. Frissell Ph.D. <nathaniel.frissell at scranton.edu>
Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2019 11:39 AM
To: Engelke, Bill <bill.engelke at ua.edu>; Phil Erickson <pje at mit.edu>; Rachel Frissell <rachelfrissell at gmail.com>
Subject: RE: Central Control System - design spec

Hi Bill and Phil,

Rachel (and Anthony!) were kind enough to read over the documents with me this morning and make some comments. I’ve attached them. I know the PDF comments can be a bit difficult to use, but I think it is still the best way. I’ve also summarized the major points below.

For the Friday evening review session, should we invite the other team leaders? Also, Tom sent out a list of questions that need to be answered. Maybe we can use that Friday night time to also have a general discussion on those?

73 de Nathaniel W2NAF

Major Comment Summary
Central Control – Functional Specifications

  1.  Need to accommodate multiple stations per account.
  2.  Need a glossary of acronyms as an appendix.
  3.  Access to any function that can degrade the performance of the whole network needs to be carefully controlled.
  4.  We may need multiple levels of science users to allow for comment 3.
  5.  Need ability for science users to export/download observations.
  6.  We need a PI and institutionally-approved data policy. (Goes beyond the scope of this document, but will influence choices in this document.)

Central Control – Detailed Specifications

  1.  Stations can have multiple instruments, and not all instruments will be of the same type.
  2.  We need the system to not only work with the Tangerine Data Engine, but also the low-cost PSWS version that CWRU will be developing, and stand-alone systems such as Ward’s stand-alone magnetometer implementation. This will probably require defining a standard, open API that the different developers can work with.
  3.  This document seems to view most observations as a campaign-mode, or large-file bulk uploads. We need the system to have the ability to collect real-time, low-bandwidth streams of observations, too.
  4.  We need to define a PI and institutionally reviewed data policy.

Local Host – Functional Specifications

  1.  We need to ensure a certain amount of compatibility with the low-cost version of the PSWS. This can include defining a standard, open API and an initial mode of operation that simulates the CWRU observations.
  2.  We will need to define more than one level of science user, such as PI-level or admin-level science user. We need to carefully limit access to functions that can degrade the performance of the entire network.
  3.  Features that are of direct benefit to the amateur radio community are very important and need to be included, not optional. We should put more thought into what is best here.

From: Engelke, Bill <bill.engelke at ua.edu<mailto:bill.engelke at ua.edu>>
Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 11:24 AM
To: Nathaniel A. Frissell Ph.D. <nathaniel.frissell at scranton.edu<mailto:nathaniel.frissell at scranton.edu>>; Phil Erickson <pje at mit.edu<mailto:pje at mit.edu>>
Subject: RE: Central Control System - design spec

This is fine by me - Bill

From: Nathaniel A. Frissell Ph.D. <nathaniel.frissell at scranton.edu<mailto:nathaniel.frissell at scranton.edu>>
Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 10:07 AM
To: Phil Erickson <pje at mit.edu<mailto:pje at mit.edu>>
Cc: Engelke, Bill <bill.engelke at ua.edu<mailto:bill.engelke at ua.edu>>
Subject: RE: Central Control System - design spec

I agree. I’m looking at the schedule, and it looks quite packed. What about sometime during the Friday night social… maybe 7 PM we have a breakout session?

Here is the schedule so far:
https://www.tapr.org/pdf/DCC_2019_Schedule_Preliminary_2019-09-05.pdf

73 de Nathaniel

From: Phil Erickson [mailto:pje at mit.edu]
Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 10:54 AM
To: Nathaniel A. Frissell Ph.D. <nathaniel.frissell at scranton.edu<mailto:nathaniel.frissell at scranton.edu>>
Cc: Engelke, Bill <bill.engelke at ua.edu<mailto:bill.engelke at ua.edu>>
Subject: Re: Central Control System - design spec

Hi Nathaniel,

  OK, but we should pick what day rather than doing this ad-hoc.  The meeting is not long from now.

73
Phil
-----
Philip Erickson, Ph.D.
Atmospheric Sciences Group
MIT Haystack Observatory
Westford, MA  01886  USA

email: pje at haystack.mit.edu<mailto:pje at haystack.mit.edu>
WWW: http://www.haystack.mit.edu
voice: +1 617 715 5769
fax:   +1 781 981 5766

Public key: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x54878872

On Wed, Sep 11, 2019 at 4:37 PM Nathaniel A. Frissell Ph.D. <nathaniel.frissell at scranton.edu<mailto:nathaniel.frissell at scranton.edu>> wrote:
Hi Phil,

That sounds fine. Yes, Friday or Saturday at DCC would be great.

73 de Nathaniel

From: Phil Erickson <pje at mit.edu<mailto:pje at mit.edu>>
Date: Wednesday, September 11, 2019 at 3:14 PM
To: "Nathaniel A. Frissell Ph.D." <nathaniel.frissell at scranton.edu<mailto:nathaniel.frissell at scranton.edu>>
Cc: "Engelke, Bill" <bill.engelke at ua.edu<mailto:bill.engelke at ua.edu>>
Subject: Re: Central Control System - design spec

Hi Nathaniel,

  I'm on a plane early Sunday morning, and have little to no time for these comments before TAPR DCC due to a separate trip next week before that conference combined with the usual crushing load here.  If some kind of a get-together happens at DCC, could we make it happen on Saturday at some point or Friday so that I can participate?

73
Phil W1PJE

-----
Philip Erickson, Ph.D.
Atmospheric Sciences Group
MIT Haystack Observatory
Westford, MA  01886  USA

email: pje at haystack.mit.edu<mailto:pje at haystack.mit.edu>
WWW: http://www.haystack.mit.edu
voice: +1 617 715 5769
fax:   +1 781 981 5766

Public key: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x54878872

On Tue, Sep 10, 2019 at 1:05 PM Nathaniel A. Frissell Ph.D. <nathaniel.frissell at scranton.edu<mailto:nathaniel.frissell at scranton.edu>> wrote:
Hi Bill,

Sounds good! Yes, let’s prioritize a get-together on this at DCC. I think the DCC group should include the people I listed below. I also know they are doing a SatNogs tutorial on Sunday morning, which I am very excited to attend because of our connection to their project.

Yes, most of the Monday telecon has been hardware, but I think that can shift as priorities need to. We can also do daytime telecons as needed since you have choir Monday nights.

Thanks!

73 de Nathaniel

From: "Engelke, Bill" <bill.engelke at ua.edu<mailto:bill.engelke at ua.edu>>
Date: Tuesday, September 10, 2019 at 11:06 AM
To: "Nathaniel A. Frissell Ph.D." <nathaniel.frissell at scranton.edu<mailto:nathaniel.frissell at scranton.edu>>
Cc: Phil Erickson <pje at mit.edu<mailto:pje at mit.edu>>
Subject: RE: Central Control System - design spec

Hello Nathaniel –

There is one more doc (attached), which is draft zero (which means it may be worth as much) – which is a Detailed Design spec for Central Control.  In short, it shows some of what users will see and use when they create their central account, set up their profile, etc., for management of spectrum data uploads.  This is patterned after the very clever SatNOGS Network UI.

I can’t make the Monday telecoms in most cases, since I have a choir rehearsal that runs 7 PM to 9:30 (Central) every Monday; especially now, we are prepping for fall concert.  That is why I have been hoping we could have a get-together during DCC.  Moreover, the Monday night telecom so far has concentrated 99% on hardware; so it might be a slightly different group of people who would be interested in this (of course anyone is welcome, but I’m just sayin’)…

  *   TNX ES 73 - Bill

From: Nathaniel A. Frissell Ph.D. <nathaniel.frissell at scranton.edu<mailto:nathaniel.frissell at scranton.edu>>
Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2019 8:28 AM
To: Engelke, Bill <bill.engelke at ua.edu<mailto:bill.engelke at ua.edu>>
Cc: Phil Erickson <pje at mit.edu<mailto:pje at mit.edu>>
Subject: Re: Central Control System - design spec

Hi Bill,

Thank you for your work on this. Yes, I think we need to have a review very soon. How about Phil and I give initial thoughts by e-mail before TAPR. After we do that, maybe we can do a group review at one of the TangerineSDR Monday telecons?

I think the important people to involve early (besides Phil and myself): David Kazdan, Kristina Collins,  Scotty Cowling, Tom McDermott, Hyomin Kim, and Ward Silver. That should cover the high-level leaders of the different parts of the project.

To confirm… these are the two documents we need to look at?
https://tangerinesdr.com/TangerineSDR_documents/CentralControlFSpecV0.1.pdf
https://tangerinesdr.com/TangerineSDR_documents/LocalHostFunctional%20Spec%200.5.pdf

73 de Nathaniel W2NAF

From: "Engelke, Bill" <bill.engelke at ua.edu<mailto:bill.engelke at ua.edu>>
Date: Monday, September 9, 2019 at 2:24 PM
To: "Nathaniel A. Frissell Ph.D." <nathaniel.frissell at scranton.edu<mailto:nathaniel.frissell at scranton.edu>>
Subject: Central Control System - design spec

Hello Nathaniel –

As you might have been aware, I have done a first draft of how the Central Control System for Spaceweather Network will work.  I need to have a design review session to go thru my initial ideas to see if you feel like it is on the right track. Not sure who should attend, but I am sure I need at least you and Phil Erickson.  I expect your schedule is already pretty full, but we do need to at least have a brief look at this, since it is possible that the NSF will activate us at any time, and we will need to start in a timely fashion when that happens.    I am planning to attend the DCC (but we don’t have to do this at the conference if your schedule will not allow it) – any thoughts?

73

W. D. Engelke (Bill), Asst. Research Engr.
Center for Advanced Public Safety
Cyber Hall
The University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
Desk: (205) 348-7244
Mobile: (205) 764-3099

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