The SKA -Challenges, Opportunities, and Industry

Involvement

Phil CrosbySKA Program Development Office

The SKA – “will be the largest scientific instrument on the planet”

• A ‘next generation’ global radio astronomy facility• To be built in either Southern Africa, or Australia•Will operate between around 70 MHz to 25 GHz• 50 times the sensitivity and 8000 times the survey speed of current instruments• a collecting area of around 1 million square meters over a vast unpopulated area • a combination of 3000-5000 dishes and wide FoV antennas• will employ beam forming technology on a scale not previously explored• Needs data transport system and computing power beyond that available today• Will address fundamental questions about the universe

SKA Key Science Questions• When & how were the first stars and galaxies

formed?

• What is the large scale structure of the universe? ‘Dark Energy’ ‘Dark Matter”

• What is the origin and evolution of cosmic magnetic fields?

• Was Einstein right? Can we detect gravitational waves?

• Planet formation and the ‘Cradle of Life’Will we find ET?

• EXPLORATION OF THE UNKNOWN

System DesignSystem Design Phase 2 construction Phase 2 construction ––mid + low freq mid + low freq

Preliminary SKA specs

External Engineering Review of design

Early ScienceEarly Science SKA mid+lowSKA mid+low

SKASKA--mid+lowmid+lowCompleteComplete

Phase 1 complete

Concept DesConcept Des’’nn

SiteSelect

Establish SKA

Organisation

Phase 1 implementation Phase 1 implementation ––low & mid freqlow & mid freq

06 | 08 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 20 |

Reference Design selected

SKA SKA PathfindersPathfindersCompleteComplete

Phase 3 Phase 3 --ConstructionConstructionSystem design SKASystem design SKA--hihiConcept & Tech Development for Concept & Tech Development for

Phase 3 Phase 3 -- SKASKA--hihi

• Target construction cost:for Phases 1+2

Civil worksAntennas & RF systemsSignal transmissionSignal processingSoftware development & computing hardwareDesign, integration, testing, and managementContingency

€ 1.5 billion (2007)

• Expected operating costs:

Salaries (400-500 staff)PowerMaterials & services including dark fibre leaseRenewal of instrumentation and computing(science centres additional)

€ 150 million /year

The SKA timeline & estimated project costs

Funding AgenciesNASANSF

United States of AmericaCIT / JPLCornell U / NAICHarvard U / Smithsonian Centre for AstrophysicsMIT / Haystack ObservatoryNRAONaval Research LabSETIU Cal – BerkleyU IllinoisU New MexicoU WinsconsinVirginia Tech

United KingdomU Manchester (JBO)Oxford UCambridge UU GlasgowLeeds UCardiff U

Funding AgenciesEuropean UnionNational Governments via Research CouncilsRadioNet

SwedenOnsala Space ObservatoryChalmers U of Tech

ItalyNational Institute

for Astrophy

sics

FranceParis ObservatoryU d’OrleansCentre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueOMMIC

NetherlandsAstronJIVEKapteyn Astro Inst Leiden UU Gronegan

PortugalIST-Centra

SpainFundacion Alcala – Nat. Astronomy ObservatoryU Valencia

PolandTorun Centre for Astronomy

GermanyMax-Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy

RussiaPushchino Astro Space Centre

AustraliaCSIRO-ATNFICRARSwinburne UU NSWU MelbourneU SydneyU AdelaideU TasmaniaU WA

Funding AgenciesARCDIISRCSIROWA Gov

New ZealandAuckland U of Tech

CanadaNRCLaval UMcGill UQueens UU CalgaryU MontrealU TorontoYork UACURA CASCA

Funding AgenciesNRCNSERC

South AfricaNRFU KwaZulu-Natal

Funding AgenciesDept Science & TechDept Trade & IndustryNRF

The SKA Global Network

Over 100 Organisations8 SKA Consortia

SKA Program Development Office• Based at University of Manchester, UK• Group of domain specialists• Mission – to deliver a costed design by 2012

Indian ConsortiumRaman Research InstituteTATA Inst for Radio AstronomyNat. Centre for Radio Astronomy Funding Agencies

Dept of Atomic EnergyDept of Science & Tech

ChinaNAO, Chinese Academy of Sciences Funding Agencies

Chinese Academy of SciencesMoSTDept Science & TechTsing hua U

Korea Korean VLBI Network

JapanKagoshima UNAOJ

SKA Movie – 3 minutes

The Challenges of Radio Astronomy

• The signals are extremely weak.– We need huge antennas to capture them– They need to be in special places

• Astronomers ‘compete’ with noise– From radio, TV, phones, machines, etc– From the equipment itself, amplifiers etc

• Signals are buried in the noise– Need smart techniques to ‘resolve’– This means huge computing power

• Large amounts of data to handle– Pushing boundaries in capacity, speed and

storage

Array Telescopes

VLA (USA)

Australia Telescope

E-MERLIN

But better instruments needed to answer the key science questions

ELTALMA

JWST

IXO

SKALOFAR

StationBeamform’g

Analog links …

DSPDSP

DSP

..

Digital links..

AA-lo

1st Stage DSP

O-EDSP

O-EDSP

.....

AA-hi

..

StationBeamform’g

StationBeamform’g

Mass Storage

AA Station

TimeTimeStandardStandard

Central Processing Facility - CPF

User interfacevia Internet

...

To ~250 AA Stations

...

DSP & Control

...

DSP & Control

To ~2400 Dishes

...

Dishes

Control Proc.

Correlator –

AA

& D

ish

PowerPowerSuppliesSupplies

2.7.4 Phase transfer

2.5.2 AA Tiles

2.6.1 LNA

2.7.2 Intra-station data links

16 Tb/s

80 Gb/s

2.7.3 Station-core data links

2.7.5 Monitor & control2.9.2 Computing hardware

2.6.2 Int. receivers2.8.1 Station DSP 2.8.2 Correlator

2.8.4 Non-imaging processors

Control Processors& User interface

Post Processor

2.9.4 Data management

2.9.3 Software engineering 2.9.5 Calibration2.9.6 Science post processing

2.1.x SKA system design2.9.1 SKA computing & software spec

2.9.4 Data management

2.11.1 AA infrastructure

Green SKA

2.4.x Dish design

2.5.1 Wide-band single pixel feeds

2.5.2 Phased array feeds

2.6.1 LNA

2.6.3 Cryo systems

2.8.1 Station DSP

SKA System Diagram on a Page

Diagram by Andrew Faulkner

SKA as e-science

AntennaArray

DSP(“correlator”)

Post-processingHPC

(“imaging”)Tier 0(SKA)

Tier 1(National)

Tier 2(Regional)

Tier 3(Institute)

Europe USA Australia South Africa

Pb/s

0.1 – 1 Tb/s

Gb/s

…………

Tier 4(Researcher)

E-science:Global collaboration in key areas of science, and the next generation of infrastructure that will enable it.More data, more computation, faster networks, more collaboration, exploration of data and models – in silico discovery, floods of public data, GRID computing, ..

• Each pair of antennas is called a baseline• The more different baselines there are, the more detailed the astronomical

image. • Short baselines - antennas are close to each other - provide coarse structure.• Long baselines provide the fine detail, the longer, the finer the detail.

Interferometry using arrays

Correlator

Data Processor

3 km

SKA is an “aperture synthesis”telescope

-A large aperture telescope is ‘synthesized’by sampling the wave-front in the aperture plane

Station

Central ProcessingFacility

Comms links

Max. Distance for Dense AAs

Dishes spread along spiral

Possible Site Schematic

Max. Distance for Central Power Dist’n

Dense AA

Sparse AA

Dishes

Concise Picture of Technology Options

• Numbers of dishes (2000-3000) depends on whether Phased Array Feeds and/or Aperture Arrays are used in the SKA.• Each technology is characterized by a frequency range and field of view.

Aperture Array Technology Production Thinking

Courtesy ASTRON, OPAR

Electronic Sensor

ASTRON Prototype – The Netherlands

Phased Array Feed Prototype

One of three prototypes under development.

Multi-pixel phased array feeds

from Dave Deboer

Dishes+Single Pixel Feeds

Prototype 15 m composite dish

USA Allen Telescope Array 42x6m hydroformed dishes

South Africa

Canada prototype 10 m composite dish

rms error: 0.25 mm

Final Mould Alignment

Composite Dish Manufacturing (Canada)

Removing from MouldMounted on Drive

rms error: 0.25 mm

Metal Dish Manufacturing

12m antenna stretch-formed panels

Patriot Systems

Novel Sheet Metal Structure

Wide field-of-view

Allen Telescope Array

Parkes

Base model SKA

Correlators – Ultimately Built in Industry

Electrical power – not solved yet

•Solar potential is high on both sites.•24-hour coverage is needed.

•requires storage or alternative night-time power source.

•Cost likely to be an issue if not subsidized.•30-50MW required for full SKA•Role for small scale (~100 kW) systems if they exist.

• Systems must withstand occasional flooding.• Priority power not needed for SKA but power-outage notice

might be needed.• Safety grounding issues in desert areas.• Lightning protection required• Equipment subject to unusually high temperatures and large

diurnal swings.• Power for redundant communication needed for emergency

shut-down• Staggered antenna slewing is standard practice for arrays.• Some equipment will require local UPS systems that may

need remote control.

Other Power Issues

The Pre-Cursor Projects

South Africa + 7 countries

Australia

Spectrum Measurements: 80 MHz – 1.6 GHz

SydneyPop. 4 million

NarrabriPop. 6,000

Boolardy

100 MHz 200 MHz

Industry Opportunities

From P. Hall

Summary of Opportunities in the SKA Signal Path

The SKA – “will be the largest scientific collaboration on the planet”

•To meet the SKA timelines, a very high level of industry involvement will be needed, especially R & D, and economical mass production and deployment .• Benefits to industry include opportunities to:-Grow and hone the creative energies of the best professionals-Perfect leading-edge techniques and products in a very demanding application,- Generate and share information in a benign and commercially non-threatening environment-Raise company profile/visibility by association with an innovative, high profile, international mega-science project- Gain early involvement and favourable positioning in a € 1.5 billion (2007) project spanning a wide range of engineering and computing disciplines.

Site works and Infrastructure

• Site studies, and infrastructure engineering

• Site works for design & construction of antennas, support buildings (offices, equipment, accommodation, etc) , cable roll-out, and repeaters

• Electrical supply to chosen site, in order of 50 MW (with a proportion of ‘green’ energy (TBD))

• High-speed (Tb/s) digital fibre optic links for distance regimes extending from 100 m to 3000 km

Industry Opportunities and the SKA

SKA Project Support, Tools, Operations & Maintenance

• Outreach and public education

• Project management, site supervision (works management), and Systems

engineering support

• Radio-frequency interference mitigation using coherent and incoherent

techniques

• High dynamic range (>60 dB) image formation using sparsely-sampled

Fourier plane data

•SKA scheduling, operations and maintenance models

High volume production & deployment

• Low-cost manufacturing of small to medium diameter dishes

• Advanced mechatronic systems for feed positioning and antenna control

• Decade bandwidth feed antennas for dish flux concentrators

• Broadband, active, phased arrays for aperture and focal plane applications

• Low noise wideband RF amplifiers for both cryogenic and uncooled

applications

• Low-noise, highly integrated, receivers for both cryogenic and uncooled

applications

• Low-cost, high-speed (Gs/s) analog to digital converters

Low-medium volume production & deployment

•High-speed digital signal processing engines (correlator) at 24 peta-flops/sec

• Ultra-fast supercomputing at 200 peta-ops/sec

• High speed data transmission at 160 Gb/sec

•Software engineering for robust, intelligent, array control and data processing

• Master oscillator time standards, and distribution

What kinds of firms should consider participating in the SKA?

• Information & Communication Technology (ICT) - hardware, software, digital fibre systems, data management, high-speed / high-volume data processing, control systems, modelling and simulation systems, networked enabled system deployment & management, integrated circuit design, fabrication, and test, telecoms systems.

• Engineering Construction & Maintenance (ECM) – building construction, electrical and mechanical services, R & D services, environmental services, fibre optic, power, civil engineering, land access consultants, remote infrastructure operations and maintenance, site management & planning, surveying services.

• Advanced Aerospace & Radar Technology and Equipment – antenna design and manufacture, image processing, radio astronomy, receiver feed systems, wideband phased arrays, RF devices, RFI mitigation.

• Advanced Materials and Manufacturing - advanced materials, composites, sheet metal fabrication.

• Systems Integration & Maintenance – project design, execution, interface management, risk management, scheduling, operations and maintenance of complex distributed systems.

• Transport, Training, and Other Goods & Services – regional support, recruitment and training, transport and logistics, community consultation and studies, regulatory monitoring.

Informatio1High-spee2ICT / elec3ICT data m4ICT distrib5ICT softw6ICT softw7ICT datab8Integrated9Telecomm10Engineerin11Building c12Electrical13Engineerin14Environme15Fibre optic16Infrastruct17Land acce18Remote in19Site mana20Surveying21Advanced22Antenna d23Image pro24Radio astr25Receiver f26RF device27RFI mitiga28Computer29High perfo30High-spee31Networkin32Advanced33Advanced34Advanced34Engineerin36Systems I37Integrated38Schedulin39Systems i39Transport40Other goo42Regional d43Transport44

Intellectual Property

• SKA has developed a Statement of Intent on IP.– Signed by organizations participating in the SKA.– Establishes ground rules on protection, licensing, and donation of foreground and

background IP for the SKA project.

• An IP strategy will be developed, with registered ownership– Negotiations in the spirit of scientific cooperation.– Signed by legal entities, when that becomes possible.

• SKA must have access to IP developed in the national & regional projects:

– Some of this will be generated in industry.– Where possible, IP licensed early for the SKA, so that it can be used in open

bidding, rather than giving advantage to a particular supplier.

To Summarise…• The SKA is an ‘icon’

project – a BIG leap.• Answers to key science

questions• Global collaboration

institutes & industry• Challenges yet to be

solved• Potential for industry

‘spin-off’ products & IP

Thank You

Phil CrosbySKA Program Development Office