October 01, 2018 - By Adam Mitz, OCI Partner, OpenDDS Product Lead, and Principal Software Engineer
Middleware News Brief (MNB) features news and technical information about Open Source middleware technologies.
The Object Management Group's (OMG) middleware standard Data Distribution Service (DDS) for real-time systems defines a framework for applications to share data using a publish/subscribe paradigm, which helps shield them from the inherent complexities of distributed computing.
OpenDDS is an open-source implementation of the DDS standard created and supported by OCI. OpenDDS includes bindings for C++ and Java, and bindings for JavaScript and .NET-based languages, such as C#, are provided via add-ons.
Unlike low-level transport protocols, DDS implementations like OpenDDS are aware of the schema and semantics of the data. The Industrial Internet Consortium Connectivity Framework defines a stack model consisting of multiple layers.
The DDS API sits at the Framework Layer, providing syntactic interoperability among heterogeneous systems.
OpenDDS also includes an interoperable standards-based Transport Layer providing technical interoperability: communication with other DDS peers (be they OpenDDS or another DDS implementation) using the RTPS protocol.
Many alternatives to DDS provide only the Transport Layer, requiring each application to provide its own solutions to the concerns of the Framework Layer.
DDS applications share data across a network. Without the features defined by the DDS Security specification, this data is sent in the clear. This limits non-secure DDS to closed networks or to networks that provide security outside the application space, such as VPNs.
To broaden the applicability of DDS, the OMG developed the DDS Security specification.
With DDS Security, now available in OpenDDS, applications take advantage of configurable data protection for both infrastructure- and application-generated messages. Data can be protected by signing, (i.e., data is sent in the clear, but with a signature to prevent modification), or to accommodate more stringent data protection requirements, data can be encrypted.
This middleware-focused SETT article will help you get up to speed with the new OpenDDS security specification and find out how to enhance data distribution in your apps.
Software Engineering Tech Trends (SETT) is a regular publication featuring emerging trends in software engineering.
