A communication

protocol for a
distributed control
system with LabVIEW
L.Catani
(INFN Roma Tor Vergata-Italy)
what is it?
it is a tentative to develop a communication protocol to
support distributed controls using the LabVIEWTCP/IP and
UDP libraries.
it is also potentially compatible with other standards or widelyused protocols
actually, it started as a development of XML-RPC in LabVIEW,
let s call it XMLvRPC
motivations
LV supports distributed controls in different ways:
VI Server
DataSocket
VI reference
TCP/IP and UDP
http server
and interface to .NET

they all work fine but only TCP/IP and UDPprovides

enough flexibility .
..and the possibility to integrate non-LabVIEWsystems
main components in XMLvRPC
the XMLvRPC client and server
variantdata as input/output .all purpose sender/receiver XML-RPC methodCallformat i
s used large binaries management .avoid huge XML code written in G (LabVIEW) .ensure
portability methodCall(services) are plug-and-playUser-Agent: LabVIEW(XMLvRPC -LC
)
Host: controller1.domain.orgContent-Type: text/xmlContent-length: 67<?xml versio
n="1.0"?>
<methodCall>
<methodName>synch_me</methodName>
<params>
<host>controller1.domain.org</host>
</params>
</methodCall>
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<methodResponse>
<methodName>get_image_data</methodName>
<params>
<String>
<Name>image(2)(U8)</Name>
<Val>fiËWÓ b HÇæ S0å #L Y öÿ.xrQITXÎoe3ioHÜï./Z/Íçç_ÿ÷‾iå¥Oy#
Jt° ¬=àWrÕmص¨@S~.IñlpªÓiw_ô>ìüÌ/YOiÔ»fi iñ/g©E.\Y.. . . . . . . . . . . . .
.ê g*¢°OEzö[p2.n.+fiÎçÑÊR Õ 7 g´.«ò3 r —ùõ9ÉÇ Çº;º 
F+ nË.M.Ïu.å)©«¢»È fl.ógæ p
</Val>
</String>
</params>
</methodResponse>
the package (same for all)
Configuration file; defines the role of the componentClasses and elements known
in the systemsubVIs libraryknown methods for this unit (if it is a client)
known methods for this unit (if it is a controller)
known methods for this unit (if it is a UDP receiver)
known methods for this unit (if it is a UDP sender)
system Database if this unitis a Configuration DBUDP receiver: running on Config
uration DBUDP sender: running on controllers and consolesGlobal variablesInitial
ize global var. and service according to the
COnfig_local.xml fileContains PRE and POST XML processors (binaries
management)
services registration at startuptriggeredby UDP broadcast
under development on VMson a MS Virtual Server R2