User Interface
Plugin Tree: Lists all the integration and simulation plugins. The Start and Stop buttons will start and stop any enabled integration plugins.
Plugin Configuration Panel: This panels displays the configuration for the currently selected plugin, either integration or simulator.
Log Panel: Shows all the log output from the application and plugins.
Integration simulator will load up two distinctly different types of plugins - integration plugins and simulation plugins.
Integration plugins are the Navtech Witness system plugins that integrate with external systems. The purpose of the integration simulator application is to enable testing these integrations without having to fully deploy a Navtech system.
Simulation plugins are specifically for the integration simulator. They simulate the rest of the Navtech system and provide output to the integration plugins, such as alarms or carriageway statistics. Selecting a plugin, whether integration plugin or simulation plugin, will display the plugin's configuration on the Plugin Configuration Panel.
Configuring Integration Plugins
To configure an integration plugin, we can select an integration plugin from the tree and click edit. This will give us the same configuration editor as we would get in the Witness 4 Client.
Saving the configuration will have the same effect as on an actual Witness system - plugins that are enabled will try to automatically start themselves.
Like Witness, on first launching the Integration Simulator, enabled plugins will automatically start. However they can be controlled using the Start and Stop buttons if required.
A plugin that is not enabled cannot be started.
Please see the details for each integration plugin:
Configuring Simulation Plugins
System Simulator
The System Simulator handles common system level settings, including System Profiles and Areas.
System Profiles: This simulates the Witness System profile. It shows the currently selected profile and allows you to change the profile. The profile can be changed by selecting the required profile and selecting the Set System Profile button. This can trigger outgoing profile status reports (e.g. ICD-001) and also respond to incoming profile change requests.
Areas: This simulates a fixed list of areas. Each area has a different type and displays the state. The state can be changed by highlighting an area and selecting the Set State button. In addition, if an area state is changed through an integration plugin then the modified state will be displayed here.
System Health Simulator
Highways Simulator
The included Highways Simulator simulation plugin can be used to set up Carriageway and Radar entities and can also be used to create carriageway statistics and highway alarm messages.
Configuration
By default, the Highways Simulator creates 2 carriageways with 10 sections each and 5 radars.
Use "Configure Radars" to change the number of Radars. This will delete all existing radars and create news one until the number is reached. Any integration plugin tied directly to radar or radar entity updates will be affected by this.
Use "Configure Carriageways" to change the number of carriageways and / or the number of sections per carriageway. This will recreate carriageways to meet input. All carriageways will be created with the 6 default rules (debris, ERA, person, queue, reversing and slow) plus an additional stopped vehicle rule and with 4 lanes.
Carriageway Configurations
Carriageways are generated with default settings.
This includes 11 m/s queue threshold, 16 m/s heavy traffic density and track density queue as 4. In some integration plugins that are able to output section queue and heavy traffic flags, these criteria will need to be met.
On restarting the system, we will have the same radars and carriageways as last usage.
Select "Save Configuration" to save the current configuration to file. You will receive a log message indicating a successful save and where the configuration file has been saved to. It should look something like "C:\ProgramData\Navtech\Integration Simulator\HighwaysSimulatorConfig.xml". C:\ProgramData will be different depending on where your window's application data folder is located.
To load the configuration file from your application data folder, click Load Configuration. If the relevant file is not found, a new configuration will be generated based on defaults.
You can pass configuration from one computer to another using save and load.
Sending Statistics
We can use the commands available in the Carriageway Statistics section to send statistics or traffic analysis reports.
"Send Statistics" will send random statistics for each section of the selected carriageway. You can change the selected carriageway from the Carriageway dropdown.
"Clear Traffic" will send stats for every section of the selected carriageway with 0 traffic and 0 speed. This will also raise the flag that the entire carriageway is clear of traffic.
If any section is selected, you can also send out Traffic Analysis messages from "Send Section TA". This will send out a randomized traffic analysis message with reports for the selected sections.
Similarly, you can use "Send Clear TA" to send a traffic analysis message with 0 traffic and 0 speed for all selected sections.
Need to verify if you have received the data correctly? Check what statistics were sent out from the log output.
Sending Alarms
To send alarms against carriageway rules, we first select the sections and rules we want to raise the alarm against. Optionally, we can select a lane for the alarms as well. We can then Add Alarms to include the selected alarms in the local alarm list. Note that the alarm simulator contains the same limitations as the actual Witness 4 system in that only one alarm can be raised for each rule and section combination and does not generate separate alarms for different lanes.
To remove an alarm, tick the checkbox for the alarm under "Clear" and click "Clear Alarms". You can select all alarms by selecting the checkbox in the column header.
The alarms are only send to the integration plugins on clicking the "Send Alarms" button.
System Health Simulator
The system health simulator plugin simulates health alarms on radars, management server, track engine and database connection. This plugin is installed by default with the integration simulator.
To generate simulated health alarms, simply select the health status on each radar drop down and select "Send Alarms". Warning or Unhealthy health statuses will cause an alarm message to be sent out to the integration plugins.
Note that if we are testing ICD006 Modbus plugin for Empty carriageways, we should remember that if any radar are in poor health, the empty carriageway flag will not be enabled.