NovaStar Data / Overview

• Introduction
• Data Model
• Data Quality
• Retired and Test Data

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Introduction

NovaStar is a complex software system that includes data collection, management, processing, and access features. It is helpful to understand the NovaStar design and data management in order to use data web services. This page provides information about important NovaStar data, relationships between data, and features related web services.

Data Model

The following sections are provided in an order to explain the data model, which includes objects and relationships between objects. Understanding the data model may require jumping forward and back.

• Stations - locations at which data are collected, may be physical or virtual
• Points - conceptually similar to "sensor", may be physical or virtual
• Data Types - types of data stored at a point
• Data Generators (result in data in the database)
  • Overview
  • Calibrations - convert raw data to scaled values
  • Ratings - convert scaled values to other values
  • Equations - calculate point data
  • Data Imports - import data from other systems
  • Forecasts - forecasted time series
• Data Reports and Time Series - data values
• Alarms - indicate detection of critical conditions
• NovaScore - qualitative data representation for conditions

Data Quality

See the following:

• Data Quality - automated and manual quality control

Retired and Test Data

The NovaStar system focuses on real-time data. However, it can also serve as an archival system for time series and other data. During the life of the system, some points (sensors) and stations may be taken out of service (retired), and are no longer collecting data. However, the data may be retained for historical purposes. Such stations are indicated by using Status=Retired in the station description. Similarly, retired points have Status=Retired in the point description.

Stations and points can also be indicated for testing using Test=true in the description. For example, use test data during software development or when testing new hardware prior to deployment in operations.

Retired and test data may be of interest in some cases but are generally not of interest for real-time operations. The following table indicates how retired and rest data are handled by services. See the includeRetiredPoints, includeRetiredStations, includeTestPoints, andincludeTestStations` service parameters to control whether retired and test data are returned.

Service	Required/Test Data Included by Default	Comments
stations Cache	Yes	Cached data are used to improve performance. Services filter the cached data as required.
points Cache	Yes	Cached data are used to improve performance. Services filter the cached data as required.
stations	No	Stations are generally used for real-time data requests. Use includeRetiredStations=true if necessary.
points	No	POints are generally used for real-time data requests. Use includeRetiredStations=true if necessary.
ts	Yes	Uses the stations cache to find time series. Time series for retired and test data can be requested.
tscatalog	Yes	This service is used to list historical and real-time stations so all stations are included. Use includeRetiredStations=false to disable retired stations.
stationStatistics	No	This service is mainly used for real-time data so omit retired stations and points. Use includeRetiredStations=true to enable retired stations.
stationSummaries	No	This service is mainly used for real-time data so omit retired stations. Use includeRetiredStations=true if necessary to enable retired stations.