AlfIPbus

Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.11165

AlfIPbus was developed as a temporary Detector Control System (DCS) solution for the Fast Interaction Trigger (FIT) detector in the ALICE experiment. Its primary purpose is to serve as a software translator between the IPbus protocol, used in the previous DCS setup, and the new custom SWT FIT protocol in the updated system. AlfIPbus provides a fast and reliable translation mechanism and is fully compatible with FRED software.

Building

Dependencies

• BOOST 1.83.0
• DIM

Instruction

git submodule update --recursive --init \
mkdir build                             \
cmake3 -S . -B build                    \
cmake3 --build build                    \

Steps to Configure and Enable alfipbus service

1. Copy the Service File
   First, copy the alfipbus.service file to the systemd unit file directory (the default is /etc/systemd/system). You can do this with the following command:

   sudo cp alfipbus.service /etc/systemd/system/
   

2. Edit the Service Configuration Next, you need to set the necessary environment variables and other options in the service file. Use the command below to open the file for editing:

   sudo systemctl edit alfipbus.service
   

   In the editor, define the following environment variables:

   • NAME: Set the name of the service.
   • DEVICE_ADDRESS: Specify the device address.
   • LOG_FILE: Provide the path where the log file should be stored.
   • TIMEOUT: Define the timeout period for the service.
   • DIM_DNS_NODE: Set the DNS node details.

   Additionally, configure the following options:

   • User: Specify the user that should run the service by setting the User option.
   • WorkingDirectory: Set the directory where the log file will be created by setting the WorkingDirectory option.

   AlfIPbus executable file is expected to be located within /usr/local/bin. You may move it there or specify another ExecStart path.

3. Enable the Service Once the service configuration is complete, enable the service to start at boot with this command:

   sudo systemctl enable alfipbus.service
   

4. Reload the Systemd Daemon After editing and enabling the service, reload the systemd daemon to apply the changes:

   sudo systemctl daemon-reload
   

Command line options

• name/n [name]- ALFIPbus server name
• log_file/f [filename] (f)- Log file name (if not specified, logs will be sent to std::cout)
• link/l [IP address]:[remote port] (l) - set the IP address and port for consecutive links (can be used multiple times)
• t [time in miliseconds] - IPbus request timeout (in miliseconds)
• v - verbose

SWT Frame

SwtLink is compatible with SWT frame designed for ALICE's FIT detector.

| SWT ID (4b) | NOT USED (8b) | Transaction type (4b) | ADDRESS (32b) | DATA (32b) |

Transaction type code	Transaction
0x0	read
0x1	write
0x2	RMWbits AND
0x3	RMWbits OR
0x4	RMW sum
0x8	block read
0x9	block read non-increment

---

READ

Request

SWT ID (4b)	NOT USED (8b)	Transaction type (4b)	ADDRESS (32b)	DATA (32b)
0011	00000000	0000	addresss	ignored

Response

SWT ID (4b)	NOT USED (8b)	Transaction type (4b)	ADDRESS (32b)	DATA (32b)
0011	00000000	0000	addresss	data

---

WRITE

Request

SWT ID (4b)	NOT USED (8b)	Transaction type (4b)	ADDRESS (32b)	DATA (32b)
0011	00000000	0001	addresss	data

Response

None

---

RMW bits X <= (X & A) | B

Request

SWT ID (4b)	NOT USED (8b)	Transaction type (4b)	ADDRESS (32b)	DATA (32b)
0011	00000000	0010	address	AND mask
0011	00000000	0011	address	OR mask

Response

Only to first frame

SWT ID (4b)	NOT USED (8b)	Transaction type (4b)	ADDRESS (32b)	DATA (32b)
0011	00000000	0010	address	data before operation

---

RMW Sum X <= (X + A)

Request

SWT ID (4b)	NOT USED (8b)	Transaction type (4b)	ADDRESS (32b)	DATA (32b)
0011	00000000	0100	address	data to sum

Response

SWT ID (4b)	NOT USED (8b)	Transaction type (4b)	ADDRESS (32b)	DATA (32b)
0011	00000000	0100	address	data before operation

---

Block read - incrementing

Request

SWT ID (4b)	NOT USED (8b)	Transaction type (4b)	ADDRESS (32b)	DATA (32b)
0011	00000000	1000	address	number of words

Response

Each word is send in separate frame

SWT ID (4b)	NOT USED (8b)	Transaction type (4b)	ADDRESS (32b)	DATA (32b)
0011	00000000	1000	word address	data

---

Block read - non-incrementing

Request

SWT ID (4b)	NOT USED (8b)	Transaction type (4b)	ADDRESS (32b)	DATA (32b)
0011	00000000	1001	address	number of words

Response

Each word is send in separate frame

SWT ID (4b)	NOT USED (8b)	Transaction type (4b)	ADDRESS (32b)	DATA (32b)
0011	00000000	1001	address	data

Testing

Testing framework was provided by frun36 and is available here.

In-container-test

The test for developers is available within the test/in-container-test directory and can be executed using the in-container-test.sh script. Running this test requires the DIM DNS server to be running on your machine. The script builds the AlfIPbus within a container and subsequently builds a container for the testing framework.

The test is conducted using three containers: ALF, Mock, and Generator. The configuration for the test is stored in test/in-container-test/common-storage/test-configuration.sh. Logs from all three containers are output to the test/in-container-test/common-storage/output directory. If all tests pass, a message will be displayed at the end of the Generator log file.