Architecting high - performance data - centric systems using data distribution service and switched fabrics

www.rfdesign.com April 2006 applications will span multiple, networked computers. Disaggregated or distributed systems are much easier to scale, make fault-tolerant, and upgrade. This distribution calls for new application infrastructures. Publish-subscribe communications is a key enabler of the new distributed architecture. Data sources publish their data to the network; data users subscribe to the data to receive real-time updates. This data-centric transformation is revolutionizing embedded and real-time system design as well. To disaggregate or distribute real-time embedded systems, new technologies are needed. On the hardware side, switched-fabric networks serve as high-performance communications conduits. To support distributed real-time software applications, new real-time publish-subscribe network software or middleware provides the data distribution services needed. The new data distribution service (DDS) for real-time systems standard from OMG defines a publishsubscribe mechanism that maps naturally to the topologies and capabilities of switched fabrics (Figure 1).