Highly Reliable Network Visualization Systems for Control Centre Applications STAN Valentin Alexandru,
TIMNEA Radu Serban
Transport Faculty, Electronics Dept. “Politehnica” University of Bucharest – Bucharest, Romania
[email protected]
Transport Faculty, Electronics Dept. “Politehnica” University of Bucharest – Bucharest, Romania
[email protected]
GHEORGHIU Razvan Andrei, Transport Faculty, Electronics Dept. “Politehnica” University of Bucharest – Bucharest, Romania
[email protected] Abstract—Today's Command and Control Centres are complex networked environments, handling an increasing number of voice, video and data sources. Taking account that the human best sense is the visual one, the control room visualization solutions help operators to make theirs best, by presenting information it in the most efficient and ergonomic way. In order to collaborate all information sources, the modern data networks follow the trend of turning to cloud solutions, but respecting the high reliability level. Key words—Command and control centre, wall display, safety and security, critical infrastructure, networked visualization
[1]. INTRODUCTION The concept of Command and Control Centres is actually one of the most applicable solution for centralised decision and process conduct, because are permanently working systems, typically 24/7 and the experience of the last 10 years has been demonstrated the highly efficiency both in routine activities but also in case of emergencies. By reverse, the volume of information in the CCC is ever increasing, and the manage is hardly by every day. The newest trend in Control Centres infrastructure is to turn to Cloud technologies, in order to ensure scalability and expansion potential to the central networks, so as to offer to the system the capacity to well operate both now to 10 years over and covering all new input needs.
[2]. CONCEPT The concept of Command and Control Centre starts from the idea that the action has to be fully controlled from one central point. The Command and Control Centre are permanently working systems, typically 24/7, representing both the “heart” and the “brain” of the complex integrated system. The operators are responsible of all systems and actions, their job being the coordination and supervising of the automatic process in the field. Both companies and authorities increasingly seek to collaborate beyond the traditional boundaries of control centres and agencies, in order to obtain the best efficient solutions for coordinating activities and processes form a single and high-reliable point. By consolidating their efforts, they are striving towards distributed decisionmaking in order to make even smarter and faster decisions, and in the end solve crisis situations faster or manage processes more efficiently. Thus, combining with the Cloud-IP concept, the universal visualization platform, consisting of professional displays or video walls, powerful display controllers and smart control room management software has been adopted by most of the technology developers in order to collect all possible types of sources and data and to deliver and distribute the information and collaborate with decision-makers and information stakeholders in the most efficient way. Technically, by adopting the universal visualization platform concept, it is possible to collect and display nearly any signal format, ranging from analog to IP. More than this, by using real-time duplex solutions, the system allow to the users to realize their support mission for the field teams, ensuring the highest level of distribution of
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information without technically supplementary resources or costs. The concept has been developed in order to coverage at least the follow targets: ·
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Any source type: the real-time signals coming from highway sensors, vehicle GPS systems and other intelligent transportation systems, SCADA sources, digital maps or video sources. Using high resolution graphics and video input modules for interfacing with most suppliers, the universal visualization platform can be visualized without the need for specialized cabling or routings. Insert once, use anywhere: One of the strongest advantages of networking technology is the inherent switching capability. Visual content can now be sent around anywhere, wherever there is network connectivity. Less cabling, reduced cost: by making use of a standard IP network with unified cabling,
the cabling cost as well as and the use of all kinds of switchboxes or complex routing setups can be significantly reduced. ·
Unlimited amount of sources: the new visual sources can be added anytime, wherever they are located. The integrated streaming video solutions offer unmatched performance for the simultaneous processing of large amounts of streaming video signals in real-time with minimal latency.
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Full flexibility for display any source type, including video, DVI and screen scrapes, collect from a single source or a distributed network of sources, capture any density inputs, display sources locally or on remote displays and manage the content exactly corresponding with operators needs.
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Deliver anywhere the content: by connecting to the network, any terminal is able to take information and content, no mater of physically or software configurations if it adopts standard protocols.
Fig. 1 – Concept of Cloud visualization content networks
[3]. TECHNICAL ASPECTS & ARCHITECTURE The general known technologies for command and control systems and/or centralized process conduct solutions imply dedicated physically lines for different categories of channels and re-create the complete scenario on the video-wall or end-user console. Thus, the
“classical” solution need encoders for each video and/or audio channels, special streaming lines and data network for server farm to operator usage. This kind of solution has been evolved and it demonstrates highly reliability, but on the other part it is limited to physically resources and it needs structural interventions in case of extension or upgrade. More than this, the system is limited to
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implemented standards and operating systems (sometimes to proprietary protocols in according with developer technologies and commercial interests) and the up-grade can be not cost effective. The main facility of the control room is the display system, which generally is physically connected to the source by DVI interface to a dedicated server, equipped with proprietary video card. The display walls are composed of individual rear projection modules with LED or DLP (Digital Light Processing) technology. Appropriate controller units combine the projection modules to a giant monitor with almost unlimited resolution and size. The integration of the display wall into the IT infrastructure is done via standardized operating systems and communication protocols. The wall management is made 100% by specialized software embedded on a dedicated computer (video server device) which can also adapt the wall for handling of different scenarios (regular work on a synoptic map, network control and alarm, video windows, emergency situation etc). The new concept starts by the idea of uniform all data into one standard, by transforming all the information into one unitary streaming, available for being transferred by a standard and cost-effective network. The next step was to define what kind of a transport network is the best solution for all applications in order to obtain both enough bandwidth for the system and reserved capacity for other users which can use the same infrastructure. Even many network standards can deliver enough performance level, the most used and generally present solution has been identified as Ethernet 100/1000Mbps, which is available at most of the clients and is well know by most of the system administrators. Then, the optimum result is a general format adapting machine, developed on a dedicated hardware platform capable to transform any audio and video format, including live streaming, into a standard format capable to be transported on standard Ethernet local network. This kind of machine is a dedicated multi-processor system with real-time compression and multi-interface developed on an open-standard main-board in order to be able to offer to other developer’s possibility to realize their own interfaces. Compared with classical analog routing, audio-visual systems, the new concept provide the following unique value:
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Unmatched flexibility: o
Accept any input and mostly protocols, using internal dedicated decoder;
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View any display type
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Usable with large desktops without boundaries
Unmatched interoperability and ease of use: o
Auto detection of all components
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Non intrusive CMS GUI (simple sidebar)
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Customization via open API
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Components available on Linux, avoiding regular updates
Cost and Time savings: o
Cabling: IP vs point-to-point
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Scalable from pure software to hardware accelerated
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Encode centrally once; decode anywhere
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Centralized System Management
Audio Visual Collaboration: o
Shared views (perspectives)
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Display mirroring (view remotely)
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Software based KVM solution
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Manage roles (operators vs. supervisors vs. administrators)
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Integrated Audio
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Advanced Features for Custom Use
between
users
and
sites
The result fits in the data transfer by allowing people to see more from different places, and it helps with the transformation of formats with layout capabilities to help to cross correlate. Also, it helps to connect and send the right information to the right people at the right time due to its networking architecture and collaborative decision making. In the emergency applications, it reduce reaction times because of the remote reach through, the ability to send the picture to say the thousand words, and to explain to the people in the field what needs to be done and why.
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Other network Broadcast / streaming
Wall display TRANSFORM
Operators network
Video controller
Main network 4x Ethernet Gbit
Secondary IP Display
Admin console Secondary IP Display
Video network
Other network
Secondary operators
Local admin
Fig. 2 – System architecture
To manage the entire infrastructure, by using the network infrastructure the control room management software allows for fast and easy interaction. Personal operator views can easily be shared with other stakeholders for collaboration and then pushed on to group display walls. Reversely, the control room management software can bring up (pull) sources that are displayed at remote display walls or workstations onto the local operator's screen. If required, the operator can again push this remote view to the local video wall or any other PC with software loaded on it or by using a secure webbased interface, in accordance with client’s needs. The system hardware platform offers high redundancy: redundant networking based on IP technology, duplication of the central processing machine and N+1 redundancy on the output modules when combined with dual input projection modules. As result, the networked platform allows operators to easily share data with colleagues or supervisors and thus create shared situational awareness. Operators can create personal layouts and views and bundle them into perspectives that can be shared with other operators or supervisors for collaboration or approval. These can then be pushed on to more public group display walls locally or at remote locations. On the other hand, visualization platform allows operators and decision-makers to easily generate a preview of a multitude of sources (e.g. video, application screen data, external DVI feeds, etc.). By combining all these sources into new perspective, they
have a unique way to generate new knowledge on any type of display, from simple PC workstation to largescreen display system. More than this, the system offer a full range of professional visualization solutions fulfill practically any control room need, from wide-screen operator display to personal wall, to large-screen video wall for collaborative use. Dedicated solutions for daily business use or 24/7 mission critical applications are available. The display products have proven their value in installations all over the world in a wide range of applications.
[4]. NORMS AND STANDARDS All the equipments and network components have to respect the standards and recommendation as follow: · ANSI/EIA/TIA-568-B.2 “Commercial Building Telecommications Wiring Standard” ·
TIA/EIA-568-B.3 “Transmission performance specifications for 4-pair 100 Ohm category 6 cabling”
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EIA/TIA 606 “ Administration Standard for the Telecommunication Infrastructure of Commercial Buildings”
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ANSI/TIA/EIA-TSB-67/95 -"Transmission Performance Specifications for Field Testing of Twisted Pair Cabling System."
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IEEE 802.1d Spanning Tree Bridge
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IEEE 802.1p LAN Layer 2 QoS/CoS Protocol for Traffic Prioritization
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IEEE 802.1Q Virtual LANs (VLAN);
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IEEE 802.3 CSMA/CD or Ethernet;
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IEEE 802.3u 100 Mbps (Fast Ethernet);
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IEEE 802.3z Gigabit Ethernet over fiber standard (1000BaseX);
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IEEE 802.1w Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP);
[5]. CONCLUSION The proposed technology is the most efficient and reliable networks for Control Centers. By using of IP networking technologies, the visualization platform goes to universal and probably it is the future standardization. It is able to make information omnipresent throughout the organization and beyond. In addition, the smart control room management applications enables authorized decision-makers and stakeholders throughout the organization to collect and process any incoming source type; visualize it on any display device in the network, monitor, control and share any visual information.
[6]. REFERENCES [1]
Intelligent and Efficient Travel Management for European Cities. Project In-Time. Grant Agreement no. 238880, Description of Work (DoW), CIP ICT PSP 2008-2, EU; [2] Valentin A. STAN, Aurel Gheorghe VLAICU, Rares MUSAT, Constantin MOISA, Voluntary corp for emergency situations in metropolitan areas, TIEMS Conference, 2011. [3] Valentin A. STAN, Octavian DUTA, Command and control centre for Bucharest Integrated Centre for Emergency Management, ISU Conference, 2009. [4] Public documents of the Command and Control Centre [5] http://www.42U.com [6] BARCO Inc., Source distribution made easy, Public Presentation, 2013 [7] BARCO Inc., Transform_N_Sales Playbook, 2013
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