This document contains a questionnaire regarding the technical requirements for installing a GNSS receiver station in Antarctica. It addresses logistics for personnel and equipment, installation of antenna, receiver, server, and networking requirements for data transfer, storage, and remote access. Specific questions are asked about site conditions, available infrastructure, personnel support, procurement, and customs procedures. The goal is to design a federated cloud infrastructure with servers in Italy, Brazil, and South Africa to process GNSS data from the Antarctic station.

1. Questionare from the Demogrape meeting taken place in Auckland the 25th of August 2014.
Participants: Emilia Correia, Pier Cilliers, Lucilla Alfonsi, Olivier Terzo, Vincenzo Romano
Updated the 10 of October
Next telco meetings: 12 of November at 10:30 UT (South Africa) and 13:30 UT (Brazil)
Items:
1) Technical requirements for station installation
1.1)Logistics requirements for persons and equipments
2) Technical requirements for server installation
3) Technical requirements for data communication from Antarctica
4) Technical requirements for data access and storage
5) Technical requirements for cloud management
6) Technical requirements for Applications/Processors
7) Hardware procurement and shipping
8) Technical requirements for hardware for the measurements campaign
1) The installation of the receiver is well known by the participants. Summarising the requirements for
the site:
‐ The ideal site installation of the antenna is on the top of a roof. Describe where the antenna
will be installed:
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
‐ The mast length has not to exceed 2 m, in order to avoid vibration effects. Is the mast available
locally?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
‐ The antenna needs a view free over the horizon at 360°, at least over an angle of 10°
How is the surround of the antenna in terms of obstacles?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
‐ Others GNSS antenna and metallic structures, around the antenna, must stay at least at 3
meters distance.
How is the surround of the antenna in terms of other antennas?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Do you already have an GNSS antenna installed? What kind of antenna?
Is the GNSS antenna installed active or passive?
Can eventually add a splitter to the existing GNSS antenna?
‐ No electromagnetic emission (radio links, wifi,…) have to be in the direction of the antenna or
close to it.
How is the surround of the antenna in terms of electromagnetic interference?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
‐ The distance between the antenna and the receiver place is installed can’t exceed 30 meters.
How far is the antenna from the place where the receiver will be installed?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
‐ The receiver site needs to be internal with this requirements:
Available space around 40x40x40 cm. Is a surface area of 40x40 cm
available?..........................................
Power needis around 200W, possibly by UPS net. Is such available?....................................

2. Is eventually possible to install an UPS?..........................................................
Is the local network connection available via Ethernet?..................................................
Can we obtain an IP address? Static or dynamic?...........................................
Can we have the remote control of the PC (i.e. by teamviewer)?.....................................
Is the environmental temperature of the site over 5°?...................................................
‐ The installation of the GNSS station requires a person with IT/electronic skill trained for the
scope in addition to the local support of generic technicians.
Can your Antarctic program identify and support the installation of the GNSS identifying a
person to be trained?....................................................
Has this a cost for the project?.................................
When can we recruit this person?....................
Is this person available to come to Italy for four weeks for the training? (Cost is covered by the
project)…………………………………………………..
Can we arrange one week of training in your institute? (Cost is covered by the project)
......................................
When the installation in the Antarctic base is foreseen?................................
Could the Antarctic station host an Italian expert for the installation?..............................
Which are the rules and procedure to send a foreigner expert to the base (cost, time, warranty,
medical requirements,…) ?..............................................................................
Can the personnel involved stay one month in the base to cover the installation and the
measurement campaign?.................................................
Is technical support guaranteed during the installation phase?......................................
Mechanic to antenna installation (20 hours)………………………………………………….
Electrician to Cable installation (4 hours)……………………..
Electrician to PC and receiver installation (2 hours)…………….
IT technician for network configuration (8 hours)……………….
Is the maintenance of the measurement station guarantee during the entire year (ordinary
maintenance is around 2 hours/months)?...................................................
2) The option we adopted is a full federated infrastructure based on 3 private servers installed in Italy,
Brazil and South Africa.
‐ Is the place for a 2U rack server available in your center?...........
‐ Have we firewall limitation?...........
‐ What bandwidth we have?............
‐ Is the Power and net guarantee continuously?
‐ Can we have a remote control of the server?...........
‐ Has your centre available a cloud infrastructure?..............
3) The data communication between Antarctica and the servers is based on the existing data
infrastructure
‐ Is data transfer based by FTP possible?
‐ What bandwidth is possible to have?
‐ Is the transfer available all the time of during preferred time?
‐ Can we install of the PC automatic procedures to manage the data transfer?
‐ I the connection between Antarctica and your centre reliable?
4) The technical requirements for data access and storage depends on the data archive structure.
‐ What is the dimension of the entire data archive?
‐ Is it a DB or just data archive?
‐ The data checking procedure is automatic?
5) The technical requirements for cloud management consist in the connection between the 3
servers.

3. Is a point to poit connection possible at the IP level?
What kind of protocol (tcp/ip, udp)?
6) The technical requirements for Applications/Processors is referred to what kind of application we
want to realised on the cloud infrastructure.
‐ Which kind of processor we want to integrate in the infrastructure (GBSC, Scint‐Proxies)?
‐ What language it use?
‐ In which OS it is realised?
‐ What libraries?
‐ Are other data available for the infrastructure (rinex, geomagnetic, auroral, ionosonde)
‐ If yes can we use them?
‐ What is the rule to use these data?
‐ Do you agree to share the processors among the 3 centers?
7) This part is related to the administrative and custom aspect for the procurements of the
instrumentation.
‐ Can we send the hardware directly from the factory to your center?
‐ Do you have particularly problems concerning custom?
‐ Can we ask to your polar administration to buy the instrumentation respecting the rules of
Italian Antarctic Program?
‐ Do you have a local seller for PC and servers?