1. Motivation#

The main goal of the “committee for the standardization of sample environment communication” is to establish a common standard protocol SECoP for interfacing sample environment equipment to experiment control software.

There is a task (7.1) within the European framework SINE2020 also dealing with this subject. In its description we read:

… The standard should be defined in a way that it is compatible with a broad variety of soft- and hardware operated at the different large scale facilities. … The adoption of this standard will greatly facilitate the installation of new equipment and the share of equipment between the facilities. …

This also covers the aims of the committee.

The idea is that a sample environment apparatus can easily be moved between facilities and instruments/beamlines. As long as the facilities have implemented a SECoP client within its ECS, and on the apparatus a SECoP server is implemented, using the apparatus for an experiment should be straightforward. An ECS can be built in such a way that the configuration of the apparatus may be as short as entering a network address, as the description can be loaded over the protocol.

Other requirements

  • The protocol should be easy to use.

  • It should be easy to implement in connection with existing ECSs and sample environment control software.

  • It should be possible to be implemented on the most common platforms (operating systems and programming languages).

  • The protocol should be defined in way that allows a maximum compatibility: Newer and older versions of the syntax should be compatible.

  • The protocol should be defined in a way that allows maximum flexibility: A simple (= equipped with minimal functionality) ECS implementation should be able to communicate with a complex SEC node (with wide-ranging functionality), and an ECS with extensive functionality should be able to deal with a simple SEC node that implements only a minimum of features.

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