The control room technology has undergone two generations of analog and digital technology development, the network era has ushered in the explosive growth of the amount of information data and user demand, and the development speed of signal transmission technology is limited, and the bandwidth resources cannot meet the amount of data. Contradictions always exist. After the two generations of analog and digital technologies, the agent management system in the control room has entered the mainstream pattern of distributed IP KVM and fiber optic KVM technologies. The distributed IP KVM system has the advantages of simple technology, flexible system, easy expansion, and low project implementation threshold. It has become a technology that many manufacturers are currently pushing. However, signal compression and signal delay have always been inherent defects of the distributed agent management system.

Typical distributed KVM agent management system architecture

The optical fiber KVM occupies the high-end market of the control room industry due to its advantages of stable system, good real-time transmission, zero compression of signal, strong data concurrent processing capability, and high information security. It is used in large command centers and control centers in various industries. Wait for the scene.

The core difference between the fiber optic KVM and the distributed IP KVM is the product architecture. The distributed IP KVM system uses the network switch as the core of signal transmission, while the fiber optic KVM uses the product core called the "all-optical architecture", eliminating the network. The switch has a completely different product structure. The all-optical architecture brings unprecedented advantages to the control room agent management system in the past, and also brings a revolutionary efficiency improvement and operation experience to the control room.

Application scenarios of optical fiber KVM in high-end control room

How does the all-optical architecture solve the signal delay problem?

The all-optical architecture system is different from the IP architecture using the signal transmission mechanism of the network switch, but uses a completely independent FPGA signal processing architecture, which is equivalent to each signal has a dedicated channel, which avoids congestion when signal transmission occurs And the delay of the remote signal operation, to achieve lossless compression transmission of the signal, to ensure the extreme real-time and operability of the operator's signal operation. In practical applications, the signal delay of the all-optical architecture can be kept within 20ms, which is far beyond the range that can be recognized by the naked eye. It can be said that it is a nearly zero-delay operation experience. This is for broadcast, broadcast, air control and other industries. Said that it must meet the needs of use.

The air traffic control field is obviously unable to accept signal delay

For the distributed agent management system of IP architecture, due to the existence of network switches, the architecture of the bus backplane is adopted. The mode of transmitting signals through the Internet and the limited bandwidth resources still have significant delays in the signal. Although the IP architecture reduces the signal delay through various algorithms, it can reach the level of 60ms in an ideal test environment. However, in practical applications, the delay of the IP architecture is generally hundreds of milliseconds or even 1-2 seconds. The mouse cursor can perceive obvious drift and stutter. In some application scenarios that have high requirements for real-time signal, obviously It is difficult to meet the normal use requirements.

How to ensure information security?

The all-optical architecture independent signal transmission strips off the Internet and brings the natural advantage of high system security performance. Isolating the Internet transmission makes some network risks no longer an opportunity. This requires high information security levels and prevents information leakage for some requirements. The secret-related high-end control room project has huge application value. For specific use environments such as public security, government management, and emergency management, the level of information security brought by different networking methods is very different. The all-optical architecture is completely independent of the Internet and isolates the Internet from other network segments. The way is to completely cut off the entry point of network security threats, and solve the problem of information security at the bottom of the kettle.

For the distributed agent management system with IP architecture, the network switch is an information transmission carrier that must exist. With the help of the switch, the system can access the Internet and realize the transmission of signals, which gives the network criminals the opportunity to invade . In 2013, Barclays Bank in London, United Kingdom, was used to control computers by distributed IP KVM, resulting in the theft of 1.3 million pounds.

KVM equipment used by the Barclays Bank of London crime gang

How to achieve high concurrent information processing?

The all-optical system has no network switches and no congestion problems in the transmission channel, which brings powerful information concurrent processing capabilities. At present, optical fiber KVM manufacturers with strong technical strength have realized the product delivery capability of more than 800 signals concurrently in a single unit, and can support a higher number of signal channels after cascading through the system. For large and large command centers with a high number of national and provincial signals, the command and control system processes hundreds of signals or even thousands of signals at the same time to ensure the smooth transmission of each signal, the stable operation of the entire system, and the accuracy of information Communication is an indispensable use requirement.

As for the concept of decentralization, in fact, for KVM systems, whether or not a server is not the key to decentralization or not, the core of the entire system link is the network switch, the bus architecture of the network switch, and the memory and CPU. The product composition constitutes a centralized system architecture. In practical applications of distributed IP KVM systems, when the number of concurrent signals to be processed exceeds 50, the load of the signal on the transmission line increases sharply, and there will be a noticeable delay problem at the agent end. To keep the signal smooth and usable, The signal must be compressed even higher.

What is the effect of supporting ultra-high resolution signals?

The all-optical architecture system also has unique advantages in signal encoding and decoding methods. Through the optical fiber transmission medium, there is sufficient bandwidth to support lossless compression transmission of video signals, so that the optical fiber KVM system has good support for UHD video signals It supports signals with a resolution of up to 4K@60Hz, and can cover broadcast, broadcast, exhibition and other occasions that have high requirements for signal picture quality.

Distributed IP KVM uses commonly used coding and decoding methods such as JPEG2000, H.264/H.265, etc. Through gigabit switches, it must inevitably undergo high compression of the signal to ensure smooth transmission, which produces an unavoidable signal Quality problems, especially for ultra-high resolution video signals, cannot meet the needs of specific scenes.

How to ensure the synchronization of the large screen?

The all-optical architecture has no compression and zero delay signal processing, and the unique non-IP optical spell control function can ensure that the system has good synchronization when displaying large-screen signals, especially ultra-large-scale large-screen displays over 100 square meters. , There is no visible picture stuttering, tearing and smearing between each area of the large screen.

For a distributed agent management system, an excellent manufacturer can achieve a switch with 10 spell control nodes without obvious synchronization problems. If more than 10 nodes are loaded, it will make the system unable to display when a large screen signal is displayed. Dealing with synchronization issues well is not a very ideal choice in large-scale and ultra-large-scale projects.

Big screen application of Beijing Traffic Command Center (Image source: Xinhuanet)

In general, the product characteristics of the all-optical architecture make the fiber optic KVM system have the advantage of covering large-scale command centers and control center application scenarios. A large number of national and provincial public security, emergency, radio and television, power, air traffic control, mobile communication and other fields The large and super large command centers and control centers have adopted the fiber optic KVM command and control system construction plan; while the distributed IP KVM agent management system system has the advantages of convenient networking, high flexibility, low construction cost and strong versatility. It has also found a useful place in scenarios with huge numbers of small and medium-sized command centers, control centers, conference rooms, etc. in various industries.