1.554 RX-Channel-ActivationBased

The RX-Channel-ActivationBased logical device controls the basic parameters of an IRD and an input switch for the IRD which selects antenna, frequency band and polarization. RX-Channel-ActivationBased replaces the RX-Channel device in ACTIVATION-BASED workflow mode on modern M&C systems which store the channel data in a central SQL database.

Although all individual IRD parameters are directly accessible with the device, the typical way to operate the device is to select a satellite channel from the list and to select the proper input signal for the IRD. The RX-Channel-ActivationBased device assists the operator in this task with the following functions:

• The list of available input signals is dynamically generated by the device, the list entries are composed of "antenna name", "frequency band", "polarization" and satellite name. E.g. ANTENNA3-11Y-ASTRA19.2 denotes an 11GHz vertical signals, received from the ASTRA19.2 satellite through ANTENNA3. With motorized antennas, the satellite name is derived from the antenna's Antenna-Management device, telling the actually commanded satellite name.
• If you select a satellite channel from the database, parameters like frequency, symbol rate, DVB-S/DVB-S2 selection etc. are taken from the database and commanded to the IRD. Additionally the list of available inputs is confined to those signals which match the frequency band and polarization plane of the selected channel. You may remove this confinement at any time by selecting the "manual" satellite channel.
• The RX-Channel-Activation-Based device accounts for the LO-frequency defined for a selected input and sets the proper receive frequency at the IRD (in terms of L-band frequency). If you change the input, the LO-frequency may change as well and the RX-Channel-ActivationBased device commands a new frequency setting to the IRD.

The device implements the ACTIVATION-BASED operation mode of the RX-Channel device. This combines the 'first select the the satellite channel' paradigm of the FILTER-BY-CHANNEL mode with an advancement of the locking mechanism of the FILTER-BY-SATELLITE mode and adds a number of additional function to this. Here the most important one is, that the device is capable to select automatically an antenna which is suitable to receive the selected satellite channel. 'Activation' in this context means to select and point an antenna for the satellite channel to receive, to connect the IRD to this signal and finally lock the resources used to prevent other instances of the RX-Channel-ActivationBased device from changing parameters which would interrupt the reception.

Device window pages

The following table shows which device window pages are available with this individual device type. Tool-bar functions not mentioned here are described at the general description of device windows .

• --- The main control (line settings select) page for the device. The layout of this page differs for the individual operating modes
• --- The fault page
• --- The device info page.
• --- The maintenance page. The configuration parameters from this page are described below.

Operation

The typical work flow for operating this device is as follows:

1. Select the desired satellite channel from the list.
2. Set the antenna select mode either to MANUAL, AUTO or AUTO-NO-FIXED. The latter mode skips (typically small) antennas with fixed pointing when selecting the antenna.
3. With manual antenna select mode select the antenna to be used
4. Click the "ACTIVATE" button.

With automatic antenna selection, the device searches for a suitable antenna and select this automatically. It selects the antenna with this priority (highest first):

1. A fixed pointing antenna receiving the selected satellite
2. A motor driven antenna which already is pointed to the selected satellite
3. A motor driven antenna which actually is pointed to another satellite but not in use.

If more than one antenna is available in one of these search steps, the antenna with the larger diameter is used. The AUTO-NO-FIXED mode skips the first search step.

Configuration parameters

At the maintenance page of the device window there are a couple of configuration parameters which must be set to interconnect the RX-Channel-ActivationBased device with the IRD and the input switch.

To make the RX-Channel-ActivationBased device work, at least the frequencyId and symbolRateId fields must be set to the message IDs of the corresponding IRD parameters. If some other parameters are not supported by the IRD, leave the message ID fields empty, the same applies to the lock fault if a lock fault signalling in the RX-Channel-ActivationBased device is not desired.

The configuration file format

The RX-Channel's configuration file is a plain text file which defines the matrix / switch input assignments. As this is a system wide assignment, you usually will edit one common configuration file for all RX-Channel-ActivationBased devices connected to one input matrix.

In the file all empty lines and lines starting with a '#' character are ignored. All other lines are treated as table rows where the cells are separated by space characters. Each row describes one matrix input as follows:

Example:

#  Example configuration file for a RX-Channel-ActivationBased device
#
#
#  input no.    polarization       freq. limit [MHz]
#  |            |                  |
#  |   antenna  |  LO freq. [MHz]  |
#  |   |        |  |               |

  01   ARD      X  9750.0        < 11800.0 
  02   ARD      Y  9750.0        < 11800.0
  03   ARD      X  10600.0       > 11800.0 
  04   ARD      Y  10600.0       > 11800.0 

  05   NDR      X  9750.0        < 11800.0 
  07   NDR      X  10600.0       > 11800.0 

  17   SNGR     X  9750.0        < 11800.0 
  18   SNGR     Y  9750.0        < 11800.0 
  19   SNGR     X  10600.0       > 11800.0 
  20   SNGR     Y  10600.0       > 11800.0 
   
  09   EBU      X  10000.0       < 11800.0   
  10   EBU      Y  10000.0       < 11800.0   

  11   W1       X  9750.0        < 11800.0 
  12   W1       Y  9750.0        < 11800.0 
  23   W1       X  10600.0       > 11800.0 
  24   W1       Y  10600.0       > 11800.0  

  13   ASTRA    X  9750.0        < 11800.0   
  14   ASTRA    Y  9750.0        < 11800.0   
  15   ASTRA    X  10600.0       > 11800.0   
  16   ASTRA    Y  10600.0       > 11800.0  
    
  21   EB_12V   Y  10600.0       > 11800.0   

  22   W1_V     Y  10000.0       < 11800.0   

  

The RX-Channel-ActivationBased device parses this file on startup and when it receives a new name for the configuration file. So when you change the configuration file in the running M&C system, the best way is to restart the M&C server process to make all devices read the configuration file again.

Variables defined by this device driver