The Joint COntrols Project Framework

The Framework is one of the subprojects of the Joint COntrols Project (JCOP), which is collaboration between the four LHC experiments and CERN. By sharing development, this will reduce the overall effort required to build and maintain the experiment control systems. As such, the main aim of the Framework is to deliver a common set of software components, tools and guidelines that can be used by the four LHC experiments to build their control systems. Although commercial components are used wherever possible, further added value is obtained by customisation for HEP-specific applications. The supervisory layer of the Framework is based on the SCADA tool PVSS, which was selected after a detailed evaluation. This is integrated with the front-end layer via both OPC (OLE for Process Control), an industrial standard, and the CERN-developed DIM (Distributed Information Management System) protocol. Several components are already in production and being used by running fixed-target experiments at CERN as well as for the LHC experiment test beams. The paper will give an overview of the key concepts behind the project as well as the state of the current development and future plans.