Signal Composer

Architecture

Here is a quick picture about the signaling architecture :

GlobalArchitecture

Key here are on both layers, low and high.

  • Low levels binding used as AGL service, handle data exchange protocol to decode/encode and retransmit with an AGL compatible format using Application Framework events. These are divided into two parts, which are :
    • A transport Layer binding’s plug-in that is able to read/write from a device.
    • Decoding/Encoding parts that expose signals.
  • High level signal composer binding gathers multiple low level signaling sources. Then from these sources, it exposes theirs raw signals or more interesting can creates new virtuals signals from them. Example: A signal made from gps latitude and longitude that computes the heading of vehicle. This is modular and each signal source should be handled by specific plugins which take care of get the underlying event from low level or define signaling composition with simple or complex operation to output value from raw signals.

A transport plug-in is a shared library that shares a common API to be compatible with low level services that is:

  • open/close: method to open a handle which could be a socket, file or device by example.
  • read/write: method to read and write a stream of data.

Configuration is made by sending a special packet using a write method to the handle. In brief, this could be compared to the layer 1 and 2 of OSI model.

There are three main parts with Signal Composer:

  • Configuration files which could be splitted in differents files. That will define:
    • metadata with name of signal composer api name
    • additionnals configurations files
    • plugins used if so, low level signals sources
    • signals definitions
  • Dedicated plugins
  • Signal composer API

Terminology

Here is a little terminology guide to set the vocabulary:

  • api: a binding API name
  • action: a function called at a certain time
  • callbacks: a function called at a certain time
  • event: the raw event that materialize the signal
  • plugins: a C/C++ code with functions that be called by signal composer service
  • sources: an external binding API that generate signals for the signal composer service
  • signals: an event generated by the Application Framework
  • virtual signals: a signal composed of raw signals with value calculated by a callbacks
  • raw signals: an event generated by a low level binding