22. Discovery Overview
This section discusses how Connext objects on different nodes find out about each other using the default Simple Discovery Protocol (SDP). It describes the sequence of messages that are passed between Connext on the sending and receiving sides.
The discovery process occurs automatically, so you do not have to implement any special code. We recommend that all users read this overview and 24. Configuring the Peers List Used in Discovery. The remaining sections contain advanced material for those who have a particular need to understand what is happening ‘under the hood.’ This information can help you debug a system in which objects are not communicating.
Discovery is the behind-the-scenes way in which Connext objects (DomainParticipants, DataWriters, and DataReaders) on different nodes find out about each other. Each DomainParticipant maintains a database of information about all the active DataReaders and DataWriters that are in the same DDS domain. This database is what makes it possible for DataWriters and DataReaders to communicate. To create and refresh the database, each application follows a common discovery process.
This chapter describes the default discovery mechanism known as the Simple Discovery Protocol, which includes two phases: 22.1 Simple Participant Discovery and 22.3 Simple Endpoint Discovery.
The goal of these two phases is to build, for each DomainParticipant, a complete picture of all the entities that belong to the remote participants that are in its peers list. The peers list is the list of nodes with which a participant may communicate. It starts out the same as the initial_peers list that you configure in the 44.2 DISCOVERY QosPolicy (DDS Extension). If the accept_unknown_peers flag in that same QosPolicy is TRUE, then other nodes may also be added as they are discovered; if it is FALSE, then the peers list will match the initial_peers list, plus any peers added using the DomainParticipant’s add_peer() operation.
You may also be interested in reading 51. UDPv4, UDPv6, and Shared Memory Transport Plugins , as well as learning about these QosPolicies: