Specifications

1 Scope of Work
MCS stands for “monitoring and control system”. With the current allocation of ONR FY07 funds
plus the currently-planned allocation of FY08 funds, Virginia Tech will develop MCS for the first
LWA station (“LWA-1”) to a sufficient level to facilitate LWA-1 “initial operational capability”
(IOC). Here are some caveats:
1. Although this work is specific to LWA-1, the development will be such that that replication
of the MCS design (including hardware and software) for subsequent LWA stations will be
straightforward.
2. Selected capabilities that might not be necessary or desired for subsequent stations – e.g., spe-
cific capabilities intended to support the design or integration of other subsystems, and support
for “outrigger” antennas for use in station commissioning exper iments – will be accommodated,
with the extent of the accommodation being at the discretion of Virginia Tech.
3. The development will be such that the integration of the station MCS with a future multistation
“LWA-wide” MCS will be straightforward. However, the specification or development of the
“LWA-wide” MCS is outside the scope of this work.
4. All MCS hardware that is installed in LWA-1 will purchased by the LWA Project Office (in-
formally, this has been referred to as the “pile of parts” cost). Materials and supplies which
are used to develop MCS – but not intended for installation in the station – will be purchased
by Virginia Tech. However, some of what is purchased by Virginia Tech for MCS development
may, at Virginia Tech’s discretion, be provided to the Project Office for installation in LWA-1.
This s tatement of work is intended as elaboration for project management purposes only. Existing
official documents take precedence all matters pertaining to administration and contracts.
2 MCS Functions
The following is a brief summary of the functions that MCS performs.
1. Monitoring of the station “state”, the progress of commanded activities, and status informa-
tion provided by integrated subsystems.
2. Logging. MCS will maintain a record of activity, including commands received; the beginning,
ending, and changes in the status of observations; key changes in system or subsystem state
(e.g., error conditions reported, actions taken); and so on.
3. Control. MCS converts commands from users into commands issued to station subsystems.
Users do not interact directly with LWA subsystems. “Control” also includes the commanding
of LWA subsystems to perform certain tasks which might occur independently of explicit
user commands; e.g., diagnostics which are performed p er iodically, or which are automatically
initiated when certain conditions are detected.
4. Data Recording. In lieu of a station-level data aggregation and communication (DAC)
subsystem (not funded by the project office), MCS will provide a rudimentary data recording
capability. See Section 3 for elaboration.
5. User Interface, including remote operation. See Section 4 for elaboration.
6. Application Software, including diagnostic and operational aids. See Section 5 for elabora-
tion.
Data reduction is outside the scope of this work, except for certain limited capabilities which are
intrinsic to monitoring and diagnostic features identified elsewhere in this document. The data
product delivered to users is essentially the data which is produced by the digital processing (DP)
subsystem, plus metadata captured by (or generated by) MCS.
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