Addressing the software and hardware trade-offs of an embedded distributed system: the case of the ANTARES data acquisition and detector control

ANTARES is an astroparticle project featuring a neutrino telescope for the observation of violent phenomena in the universe. It is based on 900 photomultipliers detecting the Cerenkov light emitted by upward going muons as a signature of muon-neutrino interactions in the matter below the detector. The photomultipliers are organized as triplets into a network of 300 detection nodes spread over a volume of 30 000 000 m3 at 2500 m underwater, calling for an offshore embedded and highly distributed data acquisition system, relayed by an onshore computing farm for triggering and storage. The technical challenges and trade-offs stemming from the reliability constraints and intrinsic complexity of such a system could not be addressed without resorting to specific, state-of-the-art electronics and software design technologies. In this paper, we present the system´s performance needs and constraints, and discuss the effective solutions that were imagined and their relevance to large-scale embedded distributed systems that will make the future of astroparticle and high energy physics experiments