5.3. What’s New in 7.0.0

5.3.1. DDS-XML format for Limited Bandwidth Endpoint Discovery Plugin

The Limited Bandwidth Endpoint Discovery (LBED) plug-in uses an XML file to statically specify the QoS (and other information, such as the Topic or type being used) of the endpoints that should be “discovered.” However, in previous versions, this XML (the way to specify the configuration, the labels, the schema, etc.) did not follow the OMG’s DDS Consolidated XML Syntax, unlike other RTI elements such as USER_QOS_PROFILES.xml, XML-Based Application Creation, or RTI System Designer. This created in the RTI ecosystem the coexistence of two different ways to define DDS systems using XML: the standardized one used by most tools and the one that only LBED uses.

Since it is possible to represent the LBED configuration using DDS-XML, this release has updated the LBED plugin to follow the DDS-XML standard. This way, if you already have a DDS-XML description of your system, it can be used directly for LBED, without needing to translate it to another schema. If you don’t have the DDS-XML description of your system, now you can create it using RTI System Designer: the resultant XML file will be compatible with LBED.

The usage of the DDS-XML standard gives the plug-in more flexibility in specifying QoS for your endpoints: QoS libraries and profiles (including the built-in ones) can be used. Also, it is possible to take advantage of the inheritance between profiles.

While improving the LBED XML configuration, other changes were made to improve ease of use and LBED functionality:

  • In previous versions of the plugin, a separate XML file was required for specifying the LBED information of the endpoints that needed to be discovered. Now, the usage of an external XML file is optional and it is possible to specify the LBED information in the same XML file in which you specify the QoS policies of your entities (e.g., USER_QOS_PROFILES.xml). In this way, USER_QOS_PROFILES.xml could act as an “XML database of DDS Entities”, containing information of a local application’s entities (like their QoS profiles or XML-Based Application Creation definitions) as well as the information that the plug-in requires of other applications’ entities that need to be discovered.

  • In addition to the LBED properties, in the new version of the plugin there is an alternative way of enabling the LBED plugin for a DomainParticipant that requires fewer changes in the configuration: setting the Builtin Discovery Plugins mask with the DPSE (Dynamic Participant discovery, Static Endpoint discovery) value.

  • When LBED is used, you need to manually define an RTPS object ID for each endpoint in the application. Now, if you use XML-Based Application Creation in your applications, you don’t need to specify the RTPS object ID; the new version of LBED is able to automatically determine the corresponding RTPS Object ID of each endpoint.

  • In previous versions of the plug-in, the TRANSPORT_MULTICAST and TRANSPORT_UNICAST QoS policies only supported the UDPv4 transport. Now, both QoS policies support all Connext builtin transport plugins:

    • Multicast supports UDPv4 and UDPv6.

    • Unicast supports UDPv4, UDPv6, and SHMEM. It also supports the RTI Real-Time WAN Transport (UDPv4_WAN).

  • RTI has improved the debuggability of the LBED plugin with more meaningful log messages and the usage of Activity Contexts.

To learn more about how the new LBED plug-in works and its features, see the RTI Limited Bandwidth Plugins User’s Manual. The new “Limited Bandwidth Endpoint Discovery Plugin” chapter guides you step by step to modify a generated Connext project to use the Limited Bandwidth Endpoint Discovery plugin.

5.3.2. Third-Party Software Upgrades

The following third-party software used by Limited Bandwidth Plugins has been upgraded.

Third-Party Software

Previous Version

Current Version

Zlib

1.2.11

1.2.12

This upgrade may fix potential vulnerabilities. See Fixes Related to Vulnerabilities.

For information on third-party software used by Connext products, see the “3rdPartySoftware” documents in your installation: <NDDSHOME>/doc/manuals/connext_dds_professional/release_notes_3rdparty.