Trends in Architecture and Middleware of Radio Telescope Control System

Table 1

Comparison the characteristics of the three-stage control system.

Name	The first stage: centralized control system	The second stage: distributed control system without middleware framework	The third stage: distributed control system based on middleware framework
Communication method	TCP/IP, UDP	TCP/IP, UDP	Middleware (ICE, TANGO, EPICS)
Granularity	—	Coarse	Fine
Application requirements	Single scientific requirements, centralized hardware distribution, simple equipment functions, single business logic function	Many kinds of hardware equipment and auxiliary equipment, complex functions of equipment, complicated business logic	Many types of hardware and auxiliary equipment, very complicated equipment functions, and quite complicated business logic
Call level	Code level, library	Modularity	Component, service
Invocation style	Call between functions or modules	Interprocess call	Interprocess call
Business logic	Centralized processing of all functions	Extract core business and improve module reuse	Increase the dispatch center to manage the service, the service call is transparent, and there is no need to care about dependencies
Development difficulty	Low	High	Medium
Maintainability	Weak	Strong	Medium
Deployment method	Centralized deployment of all functions	Distributed deployment with independent modules	Independent distributed deployment of components and services