VILLASnode/doc/nodes/OPAL.md

OPAL-RT Asynchronous Process

The communication between OPAL-RT models and VILLASnode is established by using asynchronous programs. Asynchronous programs are are a feature of RT-LAB. They are used to exchange data between Simulink models and custom C programs. There are two ways to exchange sample values with an OPAL-RT simulator:

1. Use our adapted version of OPAL-RT's AsyncIP example for asynchronous processes (see clients/opal/ directory) In this mode, OPAL will send sample data via UDP to VILLASnode. VILLASnode has to use the socket node-type.
2. Run VILLASnode as an asynchronous process itself. This is a highly experimental feature and implemented in the node-type opal. It requires a 32-bit version of the villas-node. Data exchange is then handled using OPAL-RT's libOpalAsyncApi.

The following description applies only to the opal node-type:

Configuration

Every opal node supports the following special settings:

send_id (integer)

recv_id (integer)

reply (boolean)

Example

nodes = {
	opal_node = {					# The server can be started as an Asynchronous process
		type	= "opal",			# from within an OPAL-RT model.

	### The following settings are specific to the opal node-type!! ###

		send_id	= 1,				# It's possible to have multiple send / recv Icons per model
		recv_id	= 1,				# Specify the ID here.
		reply = true
	}
}

Arguments for OPAL-RT block

RT-LAB already provides a block to establish simple TCP/IP communication: ??? This block is based on a more generic block used for aynchronous programs: ???

@todo Insert name of RT-LAB blocks.

Param	Description	Example Value
FloatParam[0]	Protocol
FloatParam[1]	RemotePort	10200
FloatParam[2]	LocalPort	10201
StringParam[0]	RemoteAddr	192.168.0.10
StringParam[1]	LocalAddr	192.168.0.11
StringParam[2]	InterfaceName	eth2

@todo Complete documentation for the OPAL-RT Simulink module.