Overview - Keysight N437 Series Programmer's Manual

1 Remote Operation

Overview

6
This programming guide supports LCA models beginning with the B
generation. These now include: the 43.5GHz to 67 GHz single-mode fiber
models N4373E, N4373D, N4373C and N4373B, the 4.5 GHz single-mode
fiber model N4374B, the 26.5 GHz single-mode fiber models N4375E,
N4375D and N4375B, as well as the 26.5 GHz multi-mode fiber 850 nm
models N4376E, N4376D and N4376B.
This chapter will help you control an LCA from your own computer. The
chapter covers how to write your own applications. The next chapter
explains examples based on VBA/Excel in more detail. Note that
applications for remote control can also be run on the LCA itself, which is
useful for automated measurement procedures.
The LCA is a remoting enabled, Microsoft .NET instrument that can be
controlled across any LAN that can relay an http web page. The provided
remote control client has an Active X interface and a .NET interface, so you
can program the LCA from COM and .NET enabled programming
environments such as C# and VBA.
Beginning with the LCA software version 3.00.03 for Windows XP systems
or 3.01.00 with Window 7, an SCPI interface is also available, which may
be more comfortable for other environments like Labview. The SCPI
interface can be used over either a LAN or USB port.
The LCA uses .NET remoting as the foundation for its external
communications. Remoting is the process of programs or distributed
components interacting across different processes or machines.
In .NET remoting, the server program publishes an object on a network
channel and the client program subscribes to that channel when loading
or connecting to that object. In the case of the LCA, a RemoteObject
object is published to an http channel and the subscribing client program
is the LCA RemoteClient. A Remoting server is embedded in the LCA
Server application.
The LCA RemoteClient is a layer of abstraction, which provides an easy to
use interface with methods to control the LCA. The LCA Remote Client
layer consists of 3 files, named "RemoteClient.dll", "RemoteObjects.dll"
and "RemoteClient.tlb".
These files are installed as part of the the LCA Remote Client installation
package, together with a number of programming examples.
Keysight N437x Series Lightwave Component Analyzer, Programmer's Guide