Architectural Requirements for a LOFAR Generic Node

Computing nodes in a flexible network arrangement must support a range of programming facilities. Modern controllers allow already programs stored in different degrees of permanency. Other measures are more focused on structural changes. The overall potential is to-day not supported by a single device. It is the purpose of this paper to outline the architectural requirements for a generic LOFAR node in an approach towards a self-healing network. This covers both aspects of reconfiguration and self-test. From a basic framework of programmable flexibility and test measures, a scheme is advocated that provides a transparent software extensions to the popular boundary scan test for hardware. Keywords-digital signal processor, field-programmable gate-array, reconfiguration, self-test