eProsima DDS Router

eProsima DDS Router is an end-user software application that enables the connection of distributed DDS networks. That is, DDS entities such as publishers and subscribers deployed in one geographic location and using a dedicated local network will be able to communicate with other DDS entities deployed in different geographic areas on their own dedicated local networks as if they were all on the same network through the use of eProsima DDS Router. This is achieved by deploying a DDS Router on an edge device of each local network so that the DDS Router routes DDS traffic from one network to the other through WAN communication.

Furthermore, DDS Router is a software designed for various forms of distributed networks, such as mesh networks in which nodes are deployed in different private local networks that are auto-discovered without any centralized network node, or cloud-based networks where there is a data processing cloud and multiple geographically distributed edge devices.

Following are some of the key features of eProsima DDS Router:

• WAN communication over TCP: it supports WAN over TCP communication to establish DDS communications over the Internet.
• Distributed nature: the user may deploy intermediate DDS Router nodes to discover new entities that enter and leave the network dynamically.
• Efficient data routing: DDS Router avoids data introspection achieving a zero-copy system in data forwarding.
• Easy deployment: it is based on an easily configurable modular system for users with no knowledge of computer networks.
• Topic allowlisting: it is possible to configure a DDS Router to forward just the user data belonging to a topic specified by the user.
• Dynamic topic discovery: the user does not need to fully specify over which topics to communicate (i.e. provide concrete topic names and types). The discovery of topics matching the allowlisting rules automatically triggers the creation of all entities required for communication.

Documentation

You can access the documentation online, which is hosted on Read the Docs.

• Introduction
• Getting Started
• User Manual
• Examples
• Use Cases
• Developer Manual
• Release Notes

Installation Guide

The instructions for installing the DDS Router application from sources and its required dependencies on a Linux environment are provided below. These installation instructions are a summarized version of the complete installation guide available online. Instructions for installing DDS Router on a Windows platform can be found here.

Requirements

eProsima DDS Router requires the following tools to be installed in the system:

• CMake, g++, pip, wget and git
• Colcon [optional, not required for CMake-only installation]
• Gtest [for test only]
• PyYAML [for YAML Validator only]
• jsonschema [for YAML Validator only]

CMake, g++, pip, wget and git

These packages provide the tools required to install DDS Router and its dependencies from command line. Install CMake, g++, pip, wget and git using the package manager of the appropriate Linux distribution. For example, on Ubuntu use the command:

sudo apt install cmake g++ pip wget git

Colcon

colcon is a command line tool based on CMake aimed at building sets of software packages. Install the ROS 2 development tools (colcon and vcstool) by executing the following command:

pip3 install -U colcon-common-extensions vcstool

If this fails due to an Environment Error, add the --user flag to the pip3 installation command.

Gtest

Gtest is a unit testing library for C++. By default, DDS Router does not compile tests. It is possible to activate them with the opportune CMake options when calling colcon or CMake. For a detailed description of the Gtest installation process, please refer to the Gtest Installation Guide.

PyYAML

PyYAML is a YAML parser and emitter for Python. It is used by the DDS-Router YAML Validator for loading the content of configuration files. Install pyyaml by executing the following command:

pip3 install -U pyyaml

jsonschema

jsonschema is an implementation of the JSON Schema specification for Python. It is used by the DDS-Router YAML Validator for performing validation of configuration files against a given JSON schema. Install jsonschema by executing the following command:

pip3 install -U jsonschema

Dependencies

Asio and TinyXML2 libraries

Asio is a cross-platform C++ library for network and low-level I/O programming, which provides a consistent asynchronous model. TinyXML2 is a simple, small and efficient C++ XML parser. Install these libraries using the package manager of the appropriate Linux distribution. For example, on Ubuntu use the command:

sudo apt install libasio-dev libtinyxml2-dev

OpenSSL

OpenSSL is a robust toolkit for the TLS and SSL protocols and a general-purpose cryptography library. Install OpenSSL using the package manager of the appropriate Linux distribution. For example, on Ubuntu use the command:

sudo apt install libssl-dev

yaml-cpp

yaml-cpp is a YAML parser and emitter in C++ matching the YAML 1.2 spec, and is used by DDS Router application to parse the provided configuration files. Install yaml-cpp using the package manager of the appropriate Linux distribution. For example, on Ubuntu use the command:

sudo apt install libyaml-cpp-dev

eProsima dependencies

If it already exists in the system an installation of Fast DDS library with version greater than 2.4.0, just source this library when building the DDS Router application by using the command:

source <fastdds-installation-path>/install/setup.bash

In other case, just download Fast DDS project from sources and build it together with DDS Router using colcon as it is explained in the following section.

Colcon installation

1. Create a DDS-Router directory and download the .repos file that will be used to install DDS Router and its dependencies:

mkdir -p ~/DDS-Router/src
cd ~/DDS-Router
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eProsima/DDS-Router/main/ddsrouter.repos
vcs import src < ddsrouter.repos

2. Build the packages:

colcon build --packages-select-regex ddsrouter

This repository holds several colcon packages. These packages are:

• ddsrouter_core: library with the main functionality of the DDS Router.
• ddsrouter_yaml: library to configure a DDS Router from a YAML.
• ddsrouter_tool: application to execute a DDS Router from a YAML configuration file.
• ddsrouter_docs: package to generate the DDS Router documentation using sphinx.
• ddsrouter_yaml_validator: application to validate DDS Router YAML configuration files.

NOTE: Those packages could be installed and use independently (according with each package dependency). In order to compile only a package and its dependencies, use the colcon argument --packages-up-to <package>. In order to explicitly skip some of these packages, use the colcon argument --packages-skip <package1> [<package2> ...].

Run an application

To run the DDS Router application, source the installation environment and execute the executable file that has been installed in <install-path>/ddsrouter_tool/bin/ddsrouter:

# Source installation
source <install-path>/setup.bash

# Execute DDS Router
./<install-path>/ddsrouter_tool/bin/ddsrouter

Validate a configuration file

To validate a DDS Router YAML configuration file, execute the following commands:

# Source installation
source <install-path>/setup.bash

# Validate a DDS Router configuration file
ddsrouter_yaml_validator --config-file ddsrouter-config.yaml

Testing

By default, DDS Router does not compile tests. However, they can be activated by downloading and installing Gtest and building with CMake option -DBUILD_TESTS=ON. Once done, tests can be run with the following command:

colcon test --packages-select-regex ddsrouter --event-handler=console_direct+

Getting Help

If you need support you can reach us by mail at support@eProsima.com or by phone at +34 91 804 34 48.