User - Radar Configuration

Introduction

The System Configuration page allows you to change the configuration of the system.

System Configuration

Once you have logged into the Vertex system the System Configuration screen will be displayed.

In the examples below, SafeGuard™ has not been enabled. If SafeGuard™ has been enabled the Navigation Data options will not be available on this page. Instead they are available to configure via the SafeGuard™ Configuration page. For more information please refer to: Configuration Options.

The following fields will be displayed and most are editable:

IP Address: IP address of the radar sensor.

Subnet Mask: IPv4 subnet mask.

Gateway: IPv4 gateway.

Syslog Address: IPv4 address of the target syslog server. Once configured the radar will send logging data to the syslog server over the network.

Link Speed: The maximum link speed that the network could reach.

User Password: The user’s password.

FFT Data

Protocol: Select the protocol mode:

Navtech: This is the default setting. Nav mode outputs data over TCP/IP to the client.
CAT 240: Please refer to:https://navtechradar.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PROD/pages/2265514016/User+-+System+Configuration#FFT-Data-Settings-for-CAT-240-Option.

Sensor Port: The port used for raw TCP / IP data. In general we do not recommend customers change this port.

IP Address: If CAT-240 has been selected as the Protocol, then you will be able to amend the IP address.

Max Packet Size: If CAT-240 has been selected as the Protocol, then you will be able to amend the maximum packet size.

Point Data

We use Navigation Mode or CA-CFAR Mode to extract significant features in the radar data. A threshold is applied to the data and any feature or target which exceeds this threshold is reported as a data point. This data point includes the range, bearing and it's amplitude. Both modes provide all the detected points per azimuth in a single network message. The number of points reported is constrained for performance reasons.

Navigation Mode differs from CA-CFAR Mode because it uses a sub-resolving technique to significantly improve the range calculation for each point. When the radar is operating in its highest resolution this can lead to sub 2cm accuracy.
The Navigation Mode uses a configurable fixed threshold to identify targets however the CA-CFAR Mode has the advantage of using a dynamic threshold based on cell averaging.

Output Format: Select the Navigation Output Format. The CA-CFAR Mode output is an alternative to the standard Navigation Mode output.

Navigation Mode: This is the default setting. Nav mode outputs data over TCP/IP to the client. Fore more information about Nav Points please see: https://navtechradar.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PROD/pages/2261516289/TCP+Networking#Navigation-Data-Message.
CA-CFAR Mode: This mode outputs data over UDP. Please refer to: https://navtechradar.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PROD/pages/2229239935/UDP+Networking#Point-Cloud-Data for more information about Point Cloud data.
None: When this option is selected, there will be no output of data.

When None is selected other operations will all still function, but the modifications will have no effect until the Point Data Output Format is re-enabled.

IP Address: If CA-CFAR Mode has been selected as the Output Format, then you will be able to amend the IP address. This is used in conjunction with the Sensor Port parameter and defines the endpoint that the UDP messages are sent to.

Port: This field echoes the Sensor Port field shown on the FFT Data. In general we do not recommend customers change this port.

Time Sync

Protocol: Select the time source protocol:

NTP: This is the default setting. This setting synchronises the clock to less than one millisecond of Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
PTP: PTP uses a local area network to synchronise the clock, and achieves accuracy in the sub-microsecond range.

NTP Address: The IP V4 address of the NTP time source (if NTP has been selected above).

If the system is using PTP instead of NTP, then this field will be hidden and not available to edit.

Changing the FFT Data

Select the drop-down arrow in the Protocol field in the FFT Data section:
Select the desired Protocol from the Protocol Mode drop-down:
You can then amend any available parameters as desired and click Apply. (If you have selected CAT-240 there will be additional options. Please see: https://navtechradar.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PROD/pages/2265514016/User+-+System+Configuration#FFT-Data-Settings-For-CAT-240-Option for further information).
A Data Applied confirmation message will be displayed:
Select Commit Changes:
A Config Saved Confirmation message will be displayed:
You will then need to reboot the system for the FFT Data changes to take affect:
Click Reboot:

FFT Data Settings for CAT-240 Option

Sensor Port: The port used for raw TCP / IP data. In general we do not recommend customers change this port.

IP Address: This is used in conjunction with the Sensor Port parameter and defines the endpoint that the UDP messages are sent to.

If the IP Address specified is a multicast address (that is, an IP address between 224.0.0.1 and 239.255.255.255) this will enable multicast sending of the CAT-240 data to that address.

Max Packet Size: This parameter specifies the maximum CAT-240 UDP packet size and is used to minimise potential problems of data loss when sending high-volume data over UDP.

Message datagrams larger than the Max Packet Size will be split into smaller messages, with no message exceeding the Max Packet Size (although they may be smaller).

The default setting of 1400 will alleviate the data loss problem on most networks. However, the client (receiving) application will need to re-assemble multiple packets into a single azimuth of data.

If the network configuration supports Jumbo Frames, the Max Packet Size may be set up to 9000 before packet loss may become a problem.

Larger values increase the risk of data loss.

More information about UDP packet loss and message splitting can be found here: https://navtechradar.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PROD/pages/2421260375/ASTERIX+CAT-240+Protocol+For+Video+Data#Packet-fragmentation.

Changing the Point Data

To change the Output Format:

Select the drop-down arrow in the Output Format field in the Point Data section.
Select the desired Output Format from the drop-down (If you have selected CA-CFAR Mode there will be an additional IP Address and Port options):
Click Apply:
A confirmation message will be displayed. Select Commit Changes:
A Data Applied confirmation message will be displayed:
You will then need to reboot the system for the Navigation Data changes to take affect:
Click Reboot:

Changing the Time Sync

The Time Sync panel allows the radar's time server source to be changed.

To change the source click the drop down arrow in the Protocol field to show the choices:
Choose either NTP or PTP. If NTP is selected, the user must enter a valid NTP server address. If PTP is selected, the NTP server address field is hidden, as it is not relevant.
Once you have made your changes, click the Apply button to save the settings:
A Data Applied confirmation message will be displayed:
Then click the Commit Changes button:
A Config Saved confirmation message will be displayed:
You will then need to reboot the system for the Time Sync changes to take affect:
Click Reboot: