AnaCom, Inc. - Products

SUPERVISOR SOFTWARE OVERVIEW

Description:

AnaCom Software, Supervisor; now provides a convenient way to monitor and control an arbitrary number of remote transceivers, BUCs, and protection switches (PS.) Communications with outdoor equipment is accomplished through an arbitrary number of RS-232C serial ports - whatever is available. RS-485 is also supported using an AnaCom supplied converter and cable - depending on the configuration desired. Supervisor uses AnaCom's proprietary packet protocol to establish reliable communication between a PC running the Supervisor program and the outdoor equipment. If connected to a protection switch, the PS can further connect to ODU equipment via a common RS- 485 bus to each transceiver.

Note: An AnaCom Transceiver or BUC must be connected to the PC in order for the software to operate.

Hardware Requirements:

PC running Microsoft Windows 98SE, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Vista.
A minimum of 10 Mbytes of hard drive disk storage is required.
One or more dedicated serial communications (Com Ports.) Supervisor now supports whatever serial ports are provided and USB is also supported if user supplies an RS-232C adapter for it.

Supervisor 9 has been tested with USB-to-serial-port adapters containing the following controllers:

* ATEN (used by IOmega, Hummingbird, and others)
* Prolific (used by various manufacturers)
* MosChip (various other manufacturers)

Adapters with these controllers have been tested with Supervisor 9 under both Windows XP and Vista (32 bit).

User Interface and Features:

Monitor and Control (M&C) functions are done through the ODU Monitors window which contains a tabbed interface, each tab is dedicated to a transceiver, BUC (RFTs,) or a PS.

A second tabbed interface (Comm Ports window) is used to control the active serial ports being used by the program.

This design allows for M&C functions to be conducted at a high level using the ODU Monitors window, or at a much lower level using the Comm Ports window.
A Summary Status Board is used for monitoring alarm faults for all the outdoor equipment that is connected. Status of any unit can be seen with a glance - alarm faults are highlighted.
Alarm faults and system status can be captured by a log file. Additionally, log files can be sent to an email recipient by specifying an SMTP server.
The operational parameters are updated at a user-defined polling interval. Obvious red-highlighted parameters indicate warnings or immediate emergencies requiring user attention or knowledge.
Configuration files are automatically created and stored for reconnecting to monitored equipment when the program is restarted.

A configuration file can be saved for each site a user is responsible for and then reloaded easily.
Files containing batch commands can be sent to any connected device.
The program is designed with a balance between automatic operation and manual control so efficient and effective real-time monitoring and control of critical transceiver operations can be realized with a minimal learning curve. There are popup tooltips given for all buttons, and extensive built-in HELP documentation.

Packet Protocol:

Communication with outdoor equipment employs AnaCom's proprietary packet protocol, which treats each unit as a network entity known by its unique address. Packet activity (transmitted or received) is indicated in the Com Ports window. The packet protocol includes error checking for enhanced reliability. Supervisor scans all baud rates automatically if necessary, to find outdoor equipment connected to the PC's serial port, making user setup as simple as possible.

A document describing this protocol is available to those wishing to write their own NMS, or encorporate the control of AnaCom equipment in an existing NMS program.

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