Nanometrics Protocol (NP) Seismic Data

Packet Format and Processing

1 About this document

This document contains selected information about Nanometrics Protocol (NP) packet
format and processing. The information is targeted to assist customers in writing a util-
ity to convert streaming Nanometrics NP seismic data packets to WIN streaming for-
mat.
Please note that the information provided applies to seismic data streamed from Taurus
running firmware version 2.x and that it may change for subsequent Taurus firmware
versions. Confirm that the document is relevant to the version of Taurus firmware you
are using. Updated documents will be made available as required up until Taurus
firmware supports streaming seismic data in WIN format.
Contents
1 About this document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Conventions and terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
3 Overview of NP packet format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
4 Seismic data packets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4.1 Packet header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4.2 Data payload . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4.2.1 Payload header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4.2.2 Payload body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2 Conventions and terminology

All numeric values are unsigned integers and big-endian ordered (most significant byte
first, like Java and Motorola byte order) unless stated otherwise.
Š Bytes are 8 bits.
Š Bytes are packed without any hidden bytes inserted for alignment.
Š A “packet” refers to a single NP packet.
Š Each time-series packet will contain one data “payload”.
Š A “band” refers to a data channel.

3 Overview of NP packet format

Each NP data packet contains the following information:
Š A BandId: identifies the stream of NP packets by datasource and band name
Š Sequence Number: packet sequence within the scope of the packet’s BandId
Š Metadata Sequence Number: identifies associated metadata packets
Š Time: the time the data in the packet was generated, in nanoseconds since 1970
epoch

© 2006 Nanometrics Inc. Nanometrics Protocol (NP)

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 Š Geographic Location
Š Data payload
Taurus embeds NP packets in UDP packets for transmission via IP.

4 Seismic data packets

A seismic data packet is sent when full or when a significant event occurs (time change,
configuration change, going to reboot) that causes it to be flushed immediately.
Values in this section, for example an Offset field or a specific value in a field Descrip-
tion, are applicable to seismic data packets as created on Taurus.

4.1 Packet header

There is a single main header block for each packet.

Table 4-1 Packet header format

Offset Field Data type Description

0 NpVersion 2 byte integer ASCII characters 'N' & 'P'

0x4E50
2 PacketSize 2 byte unsigned integer The total size of the packet; either 499 or 243 for
seismic data packets, for 7 or 3 data frames
respectively
4 SequenceNumber 4 byte integer The sequence number of this packet in the
specified band. The sequence number starts at 0
and increments with every packet.
8 MetaSequenceNumber 4 byte integer The sequence number identifying the metadata
packet containing additional information for this
band. A value of –1 or 0xFFFFFFFF indicates that
there is no associated metadata packet.
12 StartTime 8 byte unsigned integer The time in nanoseconds from the epoch
(1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC) of the data which this
packet contains
20 Latitude 4 byte signed integer The latitude in micro-degrees of the device
producing the data found in the body of the packet
24 Longitude 4 byte signed integer The longitude in micro-degrees of the device
producing the data found in the body of the packet
28 Altitude 2 byte signed integer The altitude in metres of the device producing the
data found in the body of the packet
30 DataSource 4 byte model number The URI of the device which originally produced the
and serial number data;
0xE8 modelNum serialNum serialNum
where model numbers:
11 = Taurus, 13 = Trident 305

Nanometrics Protocol (NP) © 2006 Nanometrics Inc.

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Table 4-1 Packet header format (Continued)

Offset Field Data type Description

34 Band Name byte The URI of the band to which this packet belongs;
0x89, 0x8B, or 0x8D for "band/timeseries1/",
"band/timeseries2/", or
"band/timeseries3/" respectively
35 PacketExtensionBlock short Set to 0x00 0x00 for seismic data to indicate not
used.

4.2 Data payload

A seismic data payload is comprised of a fixed payload header block, containing 2 pay-
load header extensions, and a payload body.

4.2.1 Payload header

Table 4-2 Payload header format

Offset Field Data type Description

37 PayloadSize 2 byte unsigned integer Indicates the total size of the payload including
itself, the rest of the header including the
extension block, and the data;
206 or 462, depending on payload body size
39 Payload Name byte Set to 0x00 to indicate not used as there is
only one payload for a seismic data packet
40 PayloadMediaType byte Indicates the media type of data in the
payload; for seismic data is Steim1 Encoded
Time-Series
0x83
"application/dns.ca.nmx.steim1"
41 PayloadExtensionBlock Extension Block length Provides a means of adding additional
payload-specific fields to a payload;
0x00 0x08
43 NumberSamples 4 bytes Number of samples in this packet
0x05 0x87 numSamples numSamples
"http://nmx.ca/04/NP/numSamples"
47 SampleRate 4 bytes Sample rate used for data in this packet
0x05 0x85 sampleRate sampleRate
"http://nmx.ca/04/NP/sampleRate"

4.2.2 Payload body

The seismic data payload body consists of 3 or 7 frames of Steim1 compressed data
(without the 64 byte space for standard SEED headers) as described in Appendix B of
the SEED manual (http://www.iris.edu/manuals/SEEDManual_V2.4.pdf). The receiv-
ing application must add the standard headers to produce a valid MiniSEED data
record. The seismic data payload body starts at offset of 51.

© 2006 Nanometrics Inc. Nanometrics Protocol (NP)

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 Nanometrics Protocol (NP) © 2006 Nanometrics Inc.
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