The Controlstar® supports two options for Enterprise integration:-

• The MQ SCADA Protocol for data directly from the unit.
• And IBM Cloudscape for connectivity at the SCADA level.

The Controlstar® communicates with the Aggregator. The Aggregator is responsible for marshalling the logged data (trend, events, and alarms) together with ‘live’ (current) data from each unit, and ensuring that an accurate version controlled image is presented to both the Cloudscape relational database, and the client SCADA’s.

The Controlstar® generates data that is transferred to the Aggregator over the network medium. This can be over an Ethernet connection, standard dial-up connection or more usually, a GSM connection. The Aggregator processes the data by checking its validity and then passing it to the powerful IBM Cloudscape embedded database, using the Java Database Connectivity technology (JDBC). The power of an underlying database system within this process allows for instant live updates to the SCADA interface.

• IBM Cloudscape offers some key features that make it perfect for the process of handling the data generated by the Controlstar.
• IBM Cloudscape is built entirely in JAVA, meaning it is totally platform independent and allowing it to connect to the existing SCADA package using JDBC technology.
• IBM Cloudscape can be embedded into applications, allowing for the database to function without the user even knowing it exists.
• By using a relational database system to store the data from the Controlstar®, it allows for integration with other external database systems through the industry standard of Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)

The database structure has been designed to allow for multiple Controlstars to be connected to one central database. This allows for data to be easily collated and simultaneously analysed.