The RX-Channel-BySatellite 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-BySatellite replaces the RX-Channel device in FILTER-BY-Satellite workflow mode on modern M&C systems which store the channel data in a central SQL database. The device complements the TX-Channel-BySatellite logical device which provides a similar function for transmit chains.
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-BySatellite device assists the operator in this task with the following functions:
With this device, the operator first selects the antenna to be used, then the satellite this antenna shall be pointed to. Selecting the satellite actually commands the antenna controller to point the antenna to this satellite. Next the device reduces the list of displayed satellite channels to those which may be received with this antenna/satellite. After selecting a channel from the list, the IRD parameters are set, the IRD input signal is selected automatically and - if necessary - the antenna is moved to point to the satellite referenced in the selected channel. Other functions of this device are:
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
With this device, the 'channel' field only shows the channels of the satellite the selected antenna actually is pointed to. To move the antenna to another satellite, either the 'satellite' field in the RX-Channel-BySatellite device screen may me used or the antenna may be controlled via it's own screen. Changing the antenna pointing automatically changes the subset of satellite channels displayed in the 'channels' field. The typical sequence of operation in this mode is as follows:
Selecting the satellite channel will automatically select the appropriate l-band matrix input and set the IRD parameters. Only if the input selection is ambiguous, e.g. if the satellite can be received through a fixed and a motor driven antenna at the same time, the input selection must be done explicitly.
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-BySatellite device with the IRD and the input switch.
| parameter | description |
|---|---|
| switchId | Enter the message identifier here of the parameter which shall receive the switch setting, e.g. "MATRIX.12.position". Look at the list of device driver variable definitions to see correct name of this setting at the device type you are using. |
| configFile | The name of the configuration file, the RX-Channel-BySatellite device reads the matrix input assignments from. You may use a common configuration file for all RX-Channel-BySatellite devices in the system or an individual file. The file format is described at the end of this chapter. |
| frequencyId | The parameter with the message ID entered receives the receive frequency setting from the device. |
| fecId | The message ID for setting the FEC |
| symbolRateId | The message ID for setting the symbol rate |
| dvbModeId | The message ID for setting the DVB-S/DVB-S2 mode. For most IRDs use the 'dvbMode' parameter for this. For the Scopus IRD2900 please read it's driver documentation for this parameter. |
| nlcModeId | The message ID for setting the NLC mode. |
| rollOffId | The message ID for settings the roll of |
| modulationId | The message ID for setting the modulation mode (QPSK, 8PSK etc.) |
| decoderInputId | The message ID to switch the IRD's decoder input between SAT/IP/ASI |
| ipTypeId | The message ID for selecting the IP protocol family (UNICAST/MULTICAST) at the IRD. |
| ipProtocolId | The message ID for selecting the IP protocol (UDP, RTP, etc.) at the IRD. |
| srcIpAddressId | The message ID for setting the IP source or multicast address at the IRD. |
| srcIpPortId | The message ID for setting the IP port at the IRD. |
| ipFecId | The message ID for enabling / disabling the IP FEC |
| decPhysInterfaceId | The message ID for selecting the physical network interface number at the IRD |
| irdLockFaultId | The message ID for the lock fault flag of the IRD. |
| lockByIP | Setting this to YES forces the device to require a lock to be released from the same computer from where it was set. |
To make the RX-Channel-BySatellite 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-BySatellite 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-BySatellite 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:
| column | contents | remark |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | switch position / matrix input | If the input numbering starts at one or at zero, depends on the matrix / switch device driver. |
| 2 | antenna name | The antenna name must not contain spaces, commas or pipe characters. |
| 3 | polarization | A one letter code, one of the follwing: X for horizontal Y for vertical P if the antenna must turn the feed in order to change the polarization |
| 4 | LNB LO frequency for this port | The LO frequency must be given as a decimal number (MHz) with a decimal point (no commas, no thousand's separators are allowed) |
| 5 | < or > | If this column contains ' < ', the switch position is used for frequencies below the limit contained in the next column. ' < ' works the other way round. |
| 6 | frequency limit for this port | The frequency limit must be given as a decimal number (MHz) with a decimal point (no commas, no thousand's separators are allowed) |
Example:
# Example configuration file for a RX-Chnnel-BySatellite 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-BySatellite 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
| name | type | flags | range |
|---|---|---|---|
| info.driver | TEXT | R/O | StringRange R/O |
| info.type | TEXT | R/O | StringRange R/O |
| info.frame | TEXT | R/O | StringRange R/O |
| config.switchId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.configFile | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.frequencyId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.frequency.min | FLOAT | SAVE SETUP | DoubleRange (0.000 .. 0.000) |
| config.frequency.max | FLOAT | SAVE SETUP | DoubleRange (0.000 .. 0.000) |
| config.fecId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.symbolRateId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.dvbModeId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.nlcModeId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.rollOffId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.modulationId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.decoderInputId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.ipTypeId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.ipProtocolId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.srcIpAddressId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.srcIpPortId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.ipFecId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.decPhysInterfaceId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.irdLockFaultId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.lockByIP | CHOICE | SAVE SETUP | EnumRange (NO YES) |
| config.listMode | CHOICE | SAVE SETUP | EnumRange (NAME ALIAS) |
| antenna | CHOICE | EnumRange (unknown) | |
| satellite | CHOICE | EnumRange (unknown) | |
| input | CHOICE | EnumRange (unknown) | |
| fec | CHOICE | EnumRange (AUTO 1/2 1/3 1/4 2/3 3/4 2/5 3/5 4/5 5/6 6/7 7/8 8/9 9/10) | |
| polarization | CHOICE | EnumRange (X Y) | |
| comment | TEXT | SAVE | StringRange |
| rxFrequency | FLOAT | DoubleRange (0.000 .. 0.000) | |
| symbolRate | FLOAT | DoubleRange (0.0000 .. 0.0000) | |
| dvbMode | CHOICE | EnumRange (DVBS DVBS2 NS3 NS4) | |
| nlcMode | CHOICE | EnumRange (OFF ON) | |
| rollOff | CHOICE | EnumRange (0.02 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.35) | |
| modulation | CHOICE | EnumRange (BPSK QPSK OQPSK 8PSK 16PSK 16QAM 64QAM 256QAM 16APSK 32APSK) | |
| decoderInput | CHOICE | EnumRange (SAT IP ASI) | |
| ipType | CHOICE | EnumRange (UNICAST MULTICAST) | |
| ipProtocol | CHOICE | EnumRange (UDP RTP TCP ZIXI) | |
| srcIpAddress | TEXT | StringRange | |
| srcIpPort | INTEGER | IntegerRange (0 .. 65535) | |
| ipFec | CHOICE | EnumRange (OFF ON) | |
| decPhysInterface | INTEGER | IntegerRange (1 .. 4) | |
| channel | CHOICE | EnumRange (unknown) | |
| shortChan | CHOICE | EnumRange (unknown) | |
| reset | TEXT | StringRange | |
| locked | BOOLEAN | R/O | BooleanRange R/O (true false) |
| satLocked | BOOLEAN | R/O | BooleanRange R/O (true false) |
| polLocked | BOOLEAN | R/O | BooleanRange R/O (true false) |
| togglelock | TEXT | NOPRESET | StringRange |
| locksource | TEXT | R/O | StringRange R/O |
| channel.save | TEXT | SAVE NOPRESET | StringRange |
| rfLocked | BOOLEAN | R/O | BooleanRange R/O (true false) |
| ipLocked | BOOLEAN | R/O | BooleanRange R/O (true false) |
| unsupportedPol | BOOLEAN | R/O | BooleanRange R/O (true false) |
| unsupportedFreq | BOOLEAN | R/O | BooleanRange R/O (true false) |
| display | TEXT | R/O | StringRange R/O |
| dispColor | TEXT | R/O | StringRange R/O |
| eventDescription | TEXT | SAVE | StringRange |
| faults.01 | ALARM | R/O | AlarmFlagRange R/O (IRD lock) |
| faults.02 | ALARM | R/O | AlarmFlagRange R/O (Config file) |
| faults.03 | ALARM | R/O | AlarmFlagRange R/O (Wrong antenna) |
| faults.04 | ALARM | R/O | AlarmFlagRange R/O (Wrong band) |
| faults.05 | ALARM | R/O | AlarmFlagRange R/O (Wrong polatization) |
| faults.06 | ALARM | R/O | AlarmFlagRange R/O (Database access) |