Connecting new technologies for the SKA

The new test facility is a workspace where engineers will be testing prototypes and creating simulations of SKA software and hardware. Named the SKA-Low Prototype System Integration facility (SKA-Low PSI), the new facility has been set up for telescope systems testing in a controlled laboratory, prior to moving the components to the Observatory in outback Western Australian. The Low PSI has been filled with racks of equipment, infrastructure, network access, an operator room and an assets storage component.

The SKA-Low PSI replaces the virtual cloud-testing environment with a simulated real-world test space where ‘real-world’ problems with the new telescope technology are likely to be encountered and solved.

In the future, the Central Processing Facility (CPF) will be developed at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) site, becoming the major centre for control, monitoring, signal processing and communications for SKA. By developing the prototype (the SKA-Low PSI) engineers and project stakeholders have the ability to ‘mimic’ the CPF, executing tests which allows them to continually find and resolve as many issues as possible – without the cost of establishing the facility out at MRO until many interfacing risks have been addressed.

The first fibres are expected to be connected in 2020, followed by a series of ‘pairwise integrations’ – a task established to find defects by combining two products. This will help verify the Interface Control Documents (ICDs) which carry a high risk, due to two seperate teams being involved in this process. The risk is that either team might misinterpret the other team’s work, introducing defects into the system. The SKA-Low PSI reduces this risk by allowing both teams to test their interfaces together in a combined environment, and proactively work through these issues. 

People often think of radio telescopes as the antenna component, however this only makes the start of the entire telescope system. There are many systems that are working together with the antenna (e.g receivers, back-end instrumentation, telescope control, signal processing) to allow radio signals from space to be captured and translated into usable data. Now, these systems can all be tested with the SKA-Low PSI.

One of the benefits of building the SKA-Low PSI is that siloed SKA development teams will now have the ability, in a single location, to integrate their prototypes for simulated testing and learning, before building real products for the SKA MRO site.

CSIRO now has the ability to provide the SKA-Low PSI at zero cost to SKA stakeholders during prototype building and bridging stages, allowing learning considerations to be translated into cost-saving and risk mitigation strategies for SKA construction. 

A similar concept is being explored for the SKA-Mid telescope (which will be located in South Africa), with a PSI facility possibly being developed in Canada (CSP Talon team). Both PSI teams would provide enormous value through risk identification, testing and resolution management prior to large-scale funding being developed on the real SKA as a proactive solution for the overall project.