An integrated experiment control system, architecture, and benefits: the LHCb approach

LHCb's Experiment Control System will handle the configuration, monitoring, and operation of all experimental equipment involved in the various activities of the experiment. A control framework (based on an industrial SCADA system) allowing the integration of the various devices into a coherent hierarchical system is being developed in common for the four Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the same architecture and tools can be used to control and monitor all the different types of devices, from front-end electronics boards to temperature sensors to algorithms in an event filter farm, thus providing LHCb with a homogeneous control system and a coherent interface to all parts of the experiment.