Development of a Plug-and-Play Monitoring System for Cabled Observatories in the East China Sea

Abstract

Seafloor observatories enable long term, continuous and multidisciplinary observations, promising major breakthroughs in marine environment research. The effort to remotely control in situ multidisciplinary equipment performing individual and cooperative tasks is both a challenge and a guarantee for the stable operations of functional observatories. With China starting to establish ocean observatory sensor networks, in this study we describe a monitoring system for cabled observatories in the East China Sea (ESOMS) that enables this effort in a plug and play way. An information oriented monitoring architecture for ESOMS was first introduced, derived from a layered control model for ocean observatory sensor network. The architecture contained three components and enabled bidirectional information flow of observation data and commands, based on which architecture components were designed to enable plug-and-play control within related model layers. A control method enabled by general junction box (GJB) and ocean sensor markup language (OSML) was thus proposed as the plug-and-play solution for implementing ESOMS. The GJB-OSML enabled control method (GOE Control Method) mainly actualized two processes, one of which was that the in situ GJB interfaced and represented every attached sensor as a Sensing Endpoint in the cabled observatory network. The other process was that the remote ESOMS utilized the same IP/Port related information modeled by OSML to create/operate a Function Node acted as agent of the in situ sensor. A case study for using ESOMS in the Xiaoqushan Seafloor Observatory was finally presented to prove its performance and applicability. Given this successful engineering trial, the ESOMS design and implementation could be applicable and beneficial for similar efforts in future construction of seafloor observatory network both at home and abroad.

A Sensor Web Prototype for Cabled Seafloor Observatories in the East China Sea

“…Regarding the data source layer of the SWA, the general junction box (GJB) (manufacturer, city and country) dynamically interfaces and networks various marine sensors attached while the ocean sensor markup language (OSML) models the sensor information that contributes to the remote hot swapping control of in situ sensors in a standardized way [46]. The GJB-OSML enabled control method (GOE Control Method) is thus proposed as the plug-and-play solution at the data source layer.…”

“…The remote-control system guarantees that permitted users could remotely control the deployed seafloor observatory sensor equipment by sending control commands at the control center. With the information-oriented sensor web architecture and the GOE Control Method proposed in Section 2, the remote-control system is implemented as a web-based, module-integrated, plug-and-play marine sensor control system in a C/S mode [46]. Regarding the server component, an embedded Linux programmed communication control module is introduced in the general junction box (GJB) to provide the transparent conversion between serial communication and network communication for receiving and sending data.…”

A Sensor Control Model for Cabled Seafloor Observatories in the East China Sea

“…On the other hand, the ocean sensor markup language (OSML) implemented in the service layer could model sensor information in a standardized way and contribute to the remote hot swapping control of in situ sensors. The GJB-OSML enabled control method (GOE Control Method) was thus proposed as the plug-and-play solution for implementing ESOCS [ 22 ]. In this way, the remote client in the application layer could instantly control any newly added sensor in the sensing layer.…”

“…The guaranteed data source provides subsequent information service platforms with the information base for data processing, data storage, data analysis, data application, and close-loop observation. As stated above, current sensor control systems for seafloor observatories are application-oriented and focus on specific engineering requirements rather than general model research [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. In this paper, we propose a sensor control model for cabled seafloor observatories to provide a theoretical specification for designing, developing and deploying a sensor control system.…”

An Automatic Instrument Integration Scheme for Interoperable Ocean Observatories

“…Yu et al implemented a plug-and-play monitoring system, in which a centralized and configurable host software is deployed onshore to manage all instruments [13]. The NEPTUNE project developed an Enterprise Service Bus (EBS)-based data management and archiving system (DMAS) to real-time interact with instruments and manage data [14]. However, every instrument requires manual configuration to bind itself with its description file and its driver once it is reintegrated into the system.…”