For the "canonical" or “Program-it-Yourself” (PiY) approach to initiating an experiment, the workflow is precisely prescribed, and provides most flexibility.
Creation: First, a User (with the appropriate privileges) must create a new Experiment, defining the target
Testbed resources that this Experiment will use, and providing some other details. These Experiment attributes cannot be further modified after initial creation.
Sharing: Optionally, the Creator may select other Users to have access to this Experiment.
Develop: The User logs into AERPAW Virtual Nodes representing their Experiment in the Digital Twin, and writes/modifies code to realize the functionality they need.
Users typically execute the Experiment many times in the Digital Twin to iteratively develop the Experiment.
Submit to Testbed: Once the User considers the Experiment to be fully developed, they submit it for Testbed Execution.
Analyze results: Once AERPAW Ops triggers and completes Testbed Execution, and the User gets back notice of completion, the User can return to the Development mode to view results gathered by the Experiment code.
If desired, the User can then further modify their code, and re-submit for Testbed execution.
Retire: When the User is satisfied that they have completed their experimental activities, they can retire the Experiment to free up resources.
Note: After Phase-3 completion, Users will have the additional option of using the Sandbox environment for some Experiments; information on the Sandbox will be added to this User Manual at that time.
The lifecycle of Experiments that do not fit the Canonical model is conceptually very similar to the above Canonical lifecycle. In particular, the Creation step is nearly identical, and has to be executed through the same AERPAW Web Portal interface.
However, because of the variety of equipment that can be included in Non-Canonical Experiments, and their diverse configurability and interaction modalities, it is not useful to try to standardize the precise workflows.
Specific information about the workflows for specific Non-canonical Experiments is included later in this User Manual.
Generally speaking, the lifecycle of Non-canonical Experiments includes much more human interactions and consultations with AERPAW Ops at various steps.
Section 4.3 provides a flowchart view of all User Interaction.
Section 4.4 provides an overview of the User interactions common to both Canonical and Non-canonical Experiments.
Section 4.5 provides an overview of User Interaction steps specific to Canonical Experiments.
Section 4.6 provides an overview of User Interaction steps specific to Non-canonical Experiments.
Section 4.7 provides detailed walkthroughs of some of the above steps.