[Css-csts] Re: Effects of using individual Labels with MD-CSTS

Yves.Doat at esa.int Yves.Doat at esa.int
Mon Jul 15 02:33:37 EDT 2013


Dear John,

The problem I understand is that leaving in the Framework all the 
possibilities implies that the service as to refine the behaviour to 
ensure the service provider returns with a predictable behaviour names or 
labels.

I see in your proposed refinement that the intention is to enforce the 
provider to return names. As you correctly points out, this requires a new 
refined procedure.

Reading your new service, the questions I have are: 
1. what do we gain in leaving the flexibility? In my view not much.
2. What do we loose if the Framework imposes tor return names  whatever 
the user requests (names or labels)? Considering that the overall approach 
is based on names, I do not think we do loose much.

In view of the service specifications difficulties you are facing and 
considering that we do not loose much (It's my feeling), I would propose 
that whatever is requested (names or labels), the service provider always 
return names. 
That approach will in addition ensure a unique identification when 
troubleshooting will be required.

If everybody agrees and in view of the difficulties I am prepared to 
update the Framework for imposing the service provider to always return 
names.
Please let me know if you (the working group) would see an issue with that 
change and if you would agree.

Best regards

Yves



From:
John Pietras <john.pietras at gst.com>
To:
"Yves.Doat at esa.int" <Yves.Doat at esa.int>
Cc:
"CCSDS_CSTSWG (css-csts at mailman.ccsds.org)" <css-csts at mailman.ccsds.org>, 
"css-csts-bounces at mailman.ccsds.org" <css-csts-bounces at mailman.ccsds.org>
Date:
09/07/2013 22:48
Subject:
Effects of using individual Labels with MD-CSTS



Yves and CSTSWG colleagues ---
Yesterday I responded to Yves? message (see below). With regard to his 
question about whether the CSTS SFW should specify the behavior of an 
operation of a procedure when a Label is used in the subscription (e.g., 
can the return contain either a Label or a Name?), Yves expressed a 
preference for not locking it down in the CSTS SFW. I agreed with that 
preference, and suggested that the CSTS SFW could formally defer the 
specification of the behavior to the individual services. When I wrote my 
response yesterday, I thought that it would be sufficient to address the 
behavior as a refinement of some operation parameter values. 
 
Yesterday and today I modified the MD-CSTS specification to address the 
the behavior with respect to what gets reported/notified when a Label is 
used in the subscription or query. Unfortunately, it looks like the effect 
on the MD-CSTS (and other services using the Cyclic Report and 
Notification procedures and the GET operation) may be more extensive than 
I had originally anticipated. 
 
I?ve uploaded the modified MD-CSTS specification to the CWE at URL 
http://cwe.ccsds.org/css/docs/CSS-CSTS/CWE%20Private/Future%20Services%20using%20Toolkit/MonitoredDataCSTS/MonitoredDataCSTS_W-0.15-13-07-09.doc
 
The complications arise because according to the CSTS Guidelines (most 
recent version posted on the CWE ? October 2012), a change in or addition 
to  procedure behavior is defined as an extension, which in turn requires 
that a new Procedure Type Identifier be defined (along with a new name for 
the procedure) and a new procedure specification section to be added to 
the service specification. 
 
I tried to figure out how to add the specification of such behavior in the 
service specifications without needing to create extended procedures, but 
so far I have not had success. The best thing that I have been able to 
think of so far is that we might define a standard set of behaviors in the 
CSTS SFW and require that a service specification select among them (sort 
of like how we have defined standard state machines from which each 
service specification selects the one to which it conforms). If we have a 
standard set of behaviors, a service that selects which of those behaviors 
that applies to it could be considered to be refining (instead of 
extending) the behavior, and that would not involve creating a new 
Procedure Type Identifier. The Guidelines would also have to change to 
allow refinement of behavior.
 
How should we proceed? Do we just accept that any service that uses the 
Cyclic Report or Notification procedure or any procedure that uses the GET 
operation will have to be extended (that is, it will be impossible to 
simply adopt the Framework version of the procedure), or should we try to 
figure out how to ?standardize? this behavior in the Framework? I look 
forward to your (and other CSTSWG colleagues?) responses.
 
Best regards,
John
 
From: John Pietras 
Sent: Monday, July 08, 2013 11:57 AM
To: 'Yves.Doat at esa.int'
Cc: CCSDS_CSTSWG (css-csts at mailman.ccsds.org); 
css-csts-bounces at mailman.ccsds.org
Subject: RE: [Css-csts] RE: Updated CSTS SFW on CWE - labels
 
Yves,
My comments are interleaved below.
 
Best regards,
John
 
From: Yves.Doat at esa.int [mailto:Yves.Doat at esa.int] 
Sent: Monday, July 08, 2013 2:37 AM
To: John Pietras
Cc: CCSDS_CSTSWG (css-csts at mailman.ccsds.org); 
css-csts-bounces at mailman.ccsds.org
Subject: Re: [Css-csts] RE: Updated CSTS SFW on CWE - labels
 
Dear John, 

Thanks for your reply. 

1. No mixing of Names and Labels 
As you did not really object I kept the definition as is not allowing the 
mixture of names and labels in a request. 
The defined ASN.1 has not been changed and read as follows: 
ListOfParametersEvents                        ::=        CHOICE 
{        defaultList                        [0]        NULL 
,        paramEventNames                [1]        SEQUENCE OF Name 
,        paramEventLabels                [2]        SEQUENCE OF Label 
,        listName                        [3]        VisibleString 
,        functionalResourceName        [4]        FunctionalResourceName 
} 

My main argument to keep the definition as is, is simplicity. Allowing 
mixing would be possible but would introduce a complexity in the 
definition. The consequence of this approach is that a service user that 
will need to retrieve names and labels will have to issue two requests. 
In case someone would have a concern with that approach please let me 
know. 
As I stated in my earlier message, I have no objection to not allowing the 
mixture of Names and Labels. However, there two places in my proposed 
revised text (?921x1r2[Draft 201306] - Return Services-JVP?) that imply 
that they could be mixed. Below are proposed rewordings:
 
a)      Section 3.11.2.3.1 (b), second sentence: change ?The list of 
unknown Parameter Names and Parameter Labels shall be returned with the 
diagnostic.? 
to 
?The list of unknown Parameter Names or Parameter Labels shall be returned 
with the diagnostic.?
b)      Section 4.7.4.1.3.1 (b), second sentence: change ?The list of 
unknown Parameter Names and Parameter Labels shall be returned with the 
diagnostic.? 
to 
?The list of unknown Parameter Names or Parameter Labels shall be returned 
with the diagnostic.?
 

2. Return of Names when Labels are requested: 
Another aspect which you are addressing is what a service provider shall 
return in case a label is required. At the moment he can return a name or 
a label. 
In your proposed scenario, in case the service provider only "knows" one 
name whether he returns a name or a label does not make any difference and 
can be accepted. 
However in the case a service provider would "know" more than one name and 
return a label, the service user may be misled as he cannot be sure if the 
returned information is the requested on. 

A solution would be to force the service provider only to return names. In 
case a service user would request a label and the service would "know" 
more than a name, he would return all "known" names. The service user 
would have to filter/search himself for the desired one. This would 
resolve the uncertainty but I am not sure is the service user would "know" 
how to filter. 
The question is: Do we want the service provider to return only names and 
do not allow the return of labels? On one hand I adhere to this 
limitation, on the other hand this implementation would remove flexibility 
for the service definition and may be counter-productive. 
Currently the definition allows the service provider to return names and 
labels. 
This solution impacts the current definition and I would appreciate to get 
the position of the group members. 
(In case my explanation is not clear we should discuss the topic in a next 
teleconference.) 
It was my understanding from our discussion at the last telecon that we 
decided that if the user subscribed to a parameter or event using its 
Name, then the report/notification/etc. would have to use the full Name 
also. I don?t believe that we had any decision on what has to be returned 
when a Label is used in the subscription. In ?921x1r2[Draft 201306] - 
Return Services-JVP?, I tried to address this by proposing explicit 
requirements that (a) state that a Name returns a Name, and (b) defers the 
decision about what gets returned in response to a Label to the service 
specifications that use that procedure. 
Specifically, for the Notification procedure, the relevant requirements 
are:
4.8.3.2.3  If an event is subscribed in terms of an individual event name, 
the corresponding notification-type parameter (see 3.10.2.2.3.1) shall 
contain that event name.
4.8.3.2.4  The service specification or derived procedure shall specify 
the conditions under which it is permissible or required to use the event 
label or event name in a notification-type parameter that corresponds to 
an event that is subscribed in terms of an event label.
For the qualified parameters (which are returned for all procedures that 
deal with parameters) the relevant requirements are:
B2.3  If a parameter in the list-of-parameters parameter is identified by 
an individual parameter name, the corresponding qualified parameter shall 
include that parameter name.
B2.4 The service specification or derived procedure shall specify the 
conditions under which it is permissible or required to use the parameter 
label or parameter name in a qualified parameter that corresponds to a 
parameter in the list-of-parameters parameter that is identified by an 
individual parameter label.
If the CSTSWG agrees with this approach (Names result in Names, but the 
result of Labels is determined by the service) then I think the above 
requirements largely resolve the problem. The only resulting issue that I 
can think of is how such definition should be documented in the service 
specifications. I believe that since it would be a ?down selection? of 
existing possibilities (Names, Labels, or Names and Labels) it should be 
treated as a refinement. Does this seem correct to the rest of the CSTSWG?
The procedures in some services may be perfectly unambiguous with 
returning labels ? e.g., the production status of an SLE-like CSTS can be 
assumed to always apply to the production associated with that CSTS 
instance, and so the instance number is not necessary. 
However, for something like the MD-CSTS, it will always be necessary to 
return full Names. I will revisit the MD-CSTS specification to ensure (a) 
that it handles individual Labels as well as Names in the 
list-of-parameters and list-of-events parameters and (b) that it is clear 
that Names are always returned regardless of whether Names or Labels are 
used in the subscriptions. If we agree that this should be treated as a 
refinement, then I?ll make the appropriate changes to the MD-CSTS 
specification.
 
Best regards 

Yves
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