The ANTARES offshore data acquisition: a highly distributed, embedded and COTS-based system

ANTARES is a neutrino telescope project based on strings of Cerenkov detectors in deep sea. Some 400 detectors are spread over a volume of 3000 000 m/sup 3/ at 2000 m underwater, which calls for a highly distributed, embedded data acquisition system. Based on commodity off-the-shelf (COTS) low-power integrated processors and industry standards such as Ethernet and CORBA, the foreseen system is expected to run for 3 years without any direct access to the hardware. We present the system's performance needs and constraints, and discuss the solutions that were imagined. We also make a case on the advantages and drawbacks of COTS electronics and software, and present recommendations on how to use COTS components efficiently in similar projects and HEP projects in general.