RTPD Client connection settings

An RTPD Client connection is a specific TCP/IP connection type, which is used for connecting to an RTPD (REF TEK error correction protocol) Service running on the localhost or an external computer. The RTPD service comes with the installation of REF TEK software supporting RTPD, such as their Data Acquisition Systems (DAS).

Trimble 4D Control Server supports three RTPD Client connection types:

• RTPD Client, which connects to a single data stream (for example, RT27 or BINEX data) provided by the RTPD server.
• RTPD Client Acc, which connects to all incoming Multiplexed Recording Format (MRF) data streams provided by an RTPD server. This connection type does not need information on the Data Acquisition Systems and data streams providing data to the RTPD server.
• RTPD Client Pos, which connects to a single MRF stream of position data provided by the RTPD server.

How does an RTPD Client connection differ from a TCP/IP Client connection?

• It does not connect to any TCP/IP server; it needs an RTPD server to connect to.
• It does not support dynamic port numbering.
• It does not support authentication.
• It supports the internal buffer of the RTPD Service.

Configuring an RTPD Client connection

To configure an RTPD Client connection, select the RTPD Client connection type. The properties of the Connection Settings category adjust themselves for the selected connection type.

Server name: Specifies the name (IP address or host name) of the RTPD server host socket.

Port number: Specifies the unique IP port number, which will be used for the communication using the TCP/IP protocol.

The following two properties identify the incoming (receiver) data stream provided by the RTPD service. The RTPD service provides all data streams of all Data Acquisition Systems (DAS) connected to it. The module using the RTPD Client connection, therefore, must know to which DAS unit and to which of the data streams arriving from a specific DAS it must connect to.

DAS ID: Identifies the DAS by its unit ID.

Stream ID: Identifies the stream of the DAS entered in the DAS ID property field. Valid ID numbers are between 0 and 15.

Realtime buffer: It may happen that data packets are too late, that is they do not arrive in order of their measurement time stamps. If using the RTPD Client connection type, the software may buffer the following data packets, if it detects that data packets are missing. Use the Realtime buffer property to specify the maximum time in milliseconds, for which the RTPD client waits to put the incoming data packets in order.

The following options let you define the behavior of the TCP/IP client, when the connection to the server was interrupted:

Automatic reconnect: A shutdown of a device or a breakdown of the network connection (for example, an unplugged network cable) may cause an attempt to automatically re-connect. If set to Yes, the Reconnect delay setting becomes available.

Reconnect delay: Only available if Automatic reconnect is set to Yes. Specifies a delay time, after which the client will attempt a re-connection to the server. Note that in the case of an unplugged network cable of the server, the client will now continuously try to access the server in the specified interval until it succeeds. Default: 10 seconds.

Use IP authentication: The RTPD Client connections types do not support IP authentication using the encrypted challenge / response DES (Data Encryption Standard) mechanism. Therefore, this setting is not available for editing and set to No.

Use a plain password: The RTPD Client connections types do not support IP authentication using a clear text password. Therefore, this setting is not available for editing and set to No.