New framework to simplify real-time applications

The OMG has adopted the Data Distribution Service specification, a publish-subscribe framework that will become the standard communications model for systems with real-time networking requirements.

The OMG has adopted the new Data Distribution Service specification, endorsing a publish-subscribe framework that will become the standard communications model for systems with real-time networking requirements.

OEMs and system builders from many industries are users of real-time distributed data, these include: aero/defence, medical and industrial controls.

A new international standard addressing their needs has now been approved.

One widely used industry standard is Corba.

However the client-server model at the heart of Corba is not well suited to real-time applications that need to distribute data.

"The OMG adopted the DDS specification to address the need for a data-centric publish-subscribe standard", said Doc Allen Chairman of the RTESS PTF at OMG.

"The DDS specification is the most significant addition to OMG's networking standards since Corba 1.0".

"The publish-subscribe communications model excels at efficiently distributing data between applications", states Gerardo-Pardo Castellote, Real Time Innovations CTO and co-author of the DDS specification.

Present day publish-subscribe implementations are either based on proprietary in-house technologies or upon a few commercially available solutions.

The need for a unified framework has grown, Castellote continues, "with the new DDS standard, establishing communications is simple.

Publishers register data they will be producing with middleware and subscribers register the data they are interested in receiving.

Then the publisher sends, or publishes, the data and the middleware handle the rest.

The model is robust, efficient and data-centric, exactly what real-time systems need".

Real-time networked systems were traditionally composed of complex linked applications requiring a high degree of synchronisation.

In such a scenario, much of the complexity was handled at the application level.

With the need for reduced costs and the trend toward increased interoperability, the resultant change in system dynamics has required a new model for application development.

The hardware, operating system and network functions have become part of the core platform.

The middleware delivers a reliable and cost-efficient framework that provides complex real-time services to the application developer in a simple-to-use format.

The new DDS standard will appeal to designers of distributed and networked applications such as those deployed in: shipwide area networking; spatial telemetry and command systems; optical switch control plane communications; full motion flight simulators; and industrial controllers.

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