The Control Unit of the KM3NeT Data Acquisition System

TL;DR

The paper presents the design and implementation of a modular, resilient Control Unit software for KM3NeT's underwater neutrino detectors, enabling continuous data acquisition despite network or hardware failures.

Contribution

It introduces a highly modular, upgradeable Control Unit with dynamic resource management and failover capabilities, tailored for long-term, reliable operation in a challenging environment.

Findings

Software successfully tested on multiple operating systems

Supports data acquisition during network failures

Ensures high availability through failover mechanisms

Abstract

The KM3NeT Collaboration runs a multi-site neutrino observatory in the Mediterranean Sea. Water Cherenkov particle detectors, deep in the sea and far off the coasts of France and Italy, are already taking data while incremental construction progresses. Data Acquisition Control software is operating off-shore detectors as well as testing and qualification stations for their components. The software, named Control Unit, is highly modular. It can undergo upgrades and reconfiguration with the acquisition running. Interplay with the central database of the Collaboration is obtained in a way that allows for data taking even if Internet links fail. In order to simplify the management of computing resources in the long term, and to cope with possible hardware failures of one or more computers, the KM3NeT Control Unit software features a custom dynamic resource provisioning and failover technology, which is especially important for ensuring continuity in case of rare transient events in multi-messenger astronomy. The software architecture relies on ubiquitous tools and broadly adopted technologies and has been successfully tested on several operating systems.