TIME PROTOCOL BASED TIMING SYSTEM FOR TIME-OF-FLIGHT INSTRUMENTS

• US 20150046741A1
• Filed: 08/07/2013
• Published: 02/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Baker Hughes Holdings LLC (Baker Hughes Company)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Yen, Yichin, Chou, Fred YuFeng, DeLong, Michael Barry
• Granted Patent: US 9,541,947 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/400
• CPC Class Codes: G04F 10/00 Apparatus for measuring unknown time intervals by electric means
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 7/00 Synchronisation radio-controlled time-pieces G04R
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/12 Synchronisation of different clock signals provided by a plurality of clock generators
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/14 Time supervision arrangements, e.g. real time clock
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/065 using timestamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0661 using timestamps

Abstract

Presented herein are systems, methods, and computer-readable media for recording event times in particle detection scenarios. The systems, methods, and computer-readable media involve the identification of one facility device as a grandmaster clock among at least two facility devices of a facility device set, where the respective facility devices are selected from a facility device type set including a beam monitor; a neutron instrument; a neutron chopper; a nuclear reactor; a particle accelerator; a network router; and a user workstation. The system, method, and computer-readable medium also involve configuring the facility devices to synchronize a clock component with the grandmaster clock; and, upon detecting an event, retrieve from the clock component of the selected facility device an absolute event timestamp that is independent of event times of other events, and store a record of the facility event and the absolute event timestamp in the data store.

Claims

1. A system for configuring a particle detector facility to record event times, the system comprising:

a grandmaster clock designating component comprising instructions that, when executed on a processor of at least one selected facility device of a facility device set of the particle detector facility, wherein the selected facility device is selected from a facility device type set comprising;

a beam monitor facility device,

a neutron instrument facility device,

a neutron chopper facility device,

a nuclear reactor facility device,

a particle accelerator facility device,

a network router facility device, and

a user workstation facility device,

cause the at least one selected facility device to identify one facility device of the particle facility as a grandmaster clock; and

a clock synchronizing component comprising instructions that, when executed on the processor of the selected facility device further comprising a clock component and a data store, cause the selected facility device to;

synchronize the clock component with the grandmaster clock; and

upon detecting an event;

retrieve from the clock component of the selected facility device an absolute event timestamp that is independent of event times of other events; and

store a record of the event and the absolute event timestamp in the data store.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the event arising within the particle detector facility is selected from an event set comprising:

an experiment initiation event;

an experiment completion event;

a particle emission event;

a particle collision event; and

a particle detection event.

3. The system of claim 1, synchronizing with the grandmaster clock further comprising:

communicating with the grandmaster clock through an Ethernet network connection according to a transmission control protocol (TCP) to synchronize the clock component of the selected facility device with the grandmaster clock.

4. The system of claim 1, synchronizing with the grandmaster clock further comprising:

synchronizing the clock component of the selected facility device with the clock component of the grandmaster clock according to a precision time protocol (PTP) synchronization technique.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein:

at least one facility device comprising a master clock is further configured to synchronize a clock component of the master clock with the grandmaster clock; and

synchronizing with the grandmaster clock further comprises;

synchronizing the clock component of the selected facility device with the clock component of the master clock.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the selected facility device further comprises a master clock; and

the instructions of the clock synchronizing component are further configured to, upon receiving, from a second facility device of the particle detector facility, a request to synchronize a second clock component of the second facility device with the clock component of the master clock, synchronize the clock component of the master clock with the second clock component of the second facility device.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions of the clock synchronizing component are further configured to, upon detecting a divergence of the clock component and at least one other clock component of at least one other facility device, resynchronize the clock component of the selected facility device with the grandmaster clock.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the instructions of the clock synchronizing component are further configured to, after resynchronizing the clock component of the selected facility device with the grandmaster clock, resynchronize the clock component of the selected facility device with a second clock component of a second facility device of the particle detector facility.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions of the clock synchronizing component are further configured to:

detect at least one event property of the event; and

record the event property with the event and the absolute event timestamp in the data store.

10. A method of configuring a particle detector facility to record event times, the method comprising:

among at least two facility devices of a facility device set of the particle detector facility, the respective facility devices selected from a facility device type set comprising;

a beam monitor facility device,

a neutron instrument facility device,

a neutron chopper facility device,

a nuclear reactor facility device,

a particle accelerator facility device,

a network router facility device, and

a user workstation facility device,

identifying one facility device as a grandmaster clock; and

for respective selected facility devices that comprise a clock component and a data store, configuring the selected facility device to;

synchronize the clock component with the grandmaster clock; and

upon detecting an event;

retrieve from the clock component of the selected facility device an absolute event timestamp that is independent of event times of other events; and

store a record of the event and the absolute event timestamp in the data store.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the event arising within the particle detector facility is selected from an event set comprising:

an experiment initiation event;

an experiment completion event;

a particle emission event;

a particle collision event; and

a particle detection event.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein:

respective selected devices further comprise an Ethernet network connection; and

synchronizing with the grandmaster clock further comprises;

communicating with the grandmaster clock through the Ethernet network connection according to a transmission control protocol (TCP) to synchronize the clock component of the selected facility device with the grandmaster clock.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the Ethernet network connection further comprises a power over Ethernet (PoE) channel; and

the selected facility device further comprises at least one device component configured to receive power from the power over Ethernet channel of the Ethernet network connection.

14. The method of claim 10, synchronizing the clock component of the selected facility device with the clock component of the grandmaster clock further comprising:

synchronizing the clock component of the selected facility device with the grandmaster clock according to a precision time protocol (PTP) synchronization technique.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein:

at least one selected facility device further comprises a master clock having a second clock component and configured to synchronize the second clock component of the master clock with the grandmaster clock; and

synchronizing the clock components of at least one selected facility device further comprises;

synchronizing the clock component of the selected facility device with the second clock component of the master clock.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein:

at least two facility devices of the particle detector facility are identified as master clock respectively associated with at least one other facility device; and

synchronizing the clock component of the selected facility device further comprises;

synchronizing the clock component of the selected facility device with the second clock component of a selected master clock that is associated with the selected facility device.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

configuring at least one selected facility device to, upon detecting a deviance of the clock component of the selected facility device and a second clock component of at least one other facility device, communicate with the grandmaster clock to resynchronize the clock component of the selected facility device with the grandmaster clock.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

after resynchronizing the clock component of the selected facility device with the grandmaster clock, resynchronize the clock component with the second clock component of the other facility device.

19. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

configuring at least one selected facility device to;

detect at least one event property of the event; and

record the event property with the event and the absolute event timestamp in the record of the data store.

20. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a selected facility device having a clock component and a data store among at least two facility devices interoperating within a particle detector facility, cause the selected facility device to record events by:

identifying, among the facility devices, a grandmaster clock;

synchronizing the clock component of the selected facility device with the grandmaster clock; and

upon detecting an event;

retrieving from the clock component of the selected facility device an absolute event timestamp that is independent of event times of other events; and

storing a record of the event and the absolute event timestamp in the data store.