Design and Development of a High-Speed Data-Acquisition System for the Korean VLBI Network

Abstract

A new high-speed Data Acquisition System (DAS) has been developed for the millimeter-wave VLBI array newly constructed in Korea, the Korean VLBI Network (KVN). The KVN DAS is specially designed to support the most distinctive feature of the KVN, that is simultaneous reception of multiple frequency bands (22, 43, 86 and 129-GHz bands in the current KVN system) for realizing multi-frequency phase referencing, which is the key technology for successful millimeter-wave VLBI observations toward active galactic nuclei and astronomical maser sources. Although the basic functions of the KVN DAS succeed technological elements originally developed in the VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry) Project, essentially new designs have been introduced for the simultaneous processing of four data streams in the optical data-transmission system, the digital filter, and the digital spectrometer. The KVN DAS system consists of four Gigabit Samplers (GBS), Optical Transmission System (OTS), Digital Filter Bank (DFB), Digital Spectrometer (DSM), and the data recorder. The DFB realizes very flexible and phase-stable channelization of up to four data streams. The DSM facilitates quick look of power and cross-power spectra of observed data. The VLBI output data from the DFB are recorded to the Mark5B recorder with a maximum rate of 1-Gbps. We discuss in the present paper the primary specifications, designs, and experimental results of the KVN DAS system.