Speaker
Description
Low-Level Radio Frequency (LLRF) systems are critical components of modern particle accelerators, providing precise control of the amplitude and phase of RF fields in accelerating cavities. Advanced control and feedback architectures increasingly rely on deterministic timing and fast communication to coordinate RF control, diagnostics and protection functions across distributed equipment. Traditionally, synchronization, trigger distribution and time-critical communications rely on independent infrastructures, requiring dedicated cabling and additional hardware.
This work presents the integration of White Rabbit (WR) technology into an FPGA-based LLRF platform through the incorporation of the HATI White Rabbit IP core. The integration provides deterministic sub-nanosecond synchronization, hardware timestamping capabilities and the generation of internally synchronized triggers directly within the LLRF system. These capabilities provide a common timing reference for the coordination of control and feedback functions across distributed LLRF systems while reducing the need for dedicated timing and trigger distribution lines.
Furthermore, the original WR communication architecture has been extended to support the deterministic transmission of ultra-low-latency data packets over the existing WR fiber network. This mechanism enables the exchange of time-critical information between distributed accelerator systems. Potential applications include the fast transmission of machine interlocks as well as the exchange of control-related data between distributed LLRF controllers, such as I/Q components for coordinated or distributed feedback schemes. By combining precise synchronization and deterministic low-latency data exchange over the same optical network, the proposed architecture provides a common infrastructure for timing, protection and advanced distributed control applications.
The proposed implementation has been integrated and experimentally validated in a laboratory White Rabbit network. High-rate packet traffic was transmitted between two WR nodes to characterize communication latency, determinism and reliability. The presented results demonstrate the feasibility of using White Rabbit not only as a precision timing network, but also as a deterministic ultra-low-latency communication infrastructure, enabling applications ranging from fast machine protection to time-critical data exchange between distributed LLRF controllers.
| Abstract Classification | Control Architecture and Strategies |
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