ActiveLink : an embedded systems solution for generic cross-platform communication

A trend in automation is the increasing connectivity of devices and applications in order to provide new types of functionality. To combine functionality, it is necessary that devices can communicate with each other.In recent years, we have seen the emergence of a special type of software, called middleware, that aims at nterapplication communication.In this paper we present ActiveLink: a solution for cross-platform communication between embedded systems. ActiveLink is lightweight, easily portable, and supports many communication protocols. ActiveLink has been developed by CMG, supported with research from the Eindhoven University of Technology [1]. We discuss ActiveLink in the context of the requirement for embedded systems and compare its features to that of mainstream middleware.