Starting with the RTG Software and Connecting to a Server

Connect to a server to create an RTG session. Complete the following steps to get started with the RTG software.

  1. Configure the VST instrument(s) in NI MAX as described in the VST documentation.
  2. Run RTG Server.exe from the <Program Files>\National Instruments\RTG\app folder on the host computer. The RTG gRPC Server window opens.
    Figure 38. RTG gRPC Server Window


    Server Status
    Listening Port Status

Server Default Settings

The RTG server default settings are as follows:

  • The gRPC server port is 50052.
  • The server finds the IP address of the host computer automatically. Use the IP address or computer name to access the gRPC server through a gRPC client.

Refer to Configuring RTG with the INI File or Through an Option String to change the server default settings in the INI file.

Remote Communication

For remote communication, the Radar Target Generation software includes a designated server, RTG Server.exe, to listen for remote commands by way of gRPC. gRPC is an open-source, language-agnostic framework that uses protocol buffers to send data between systems and services. For more information about gRPC, refer to Introduction to gRPC on the gRPC Open Source Framework website.

When using the Remote API, users can establish a connection to the RTG server and send data in the following ways:

  • Un-Encrypted (Default)—For an un-encrypted connection, users must specify a server IP address and server port number in the [Setting] section of the RTG configuration file prior to launching the server. The server IP address is then coupled with the server IP address in the [DriverSetup] section to ensure that you can send and receive commands directly to the RTG system.
  • Encrypted—For a secure encrypted connection, users must specify a path of a Signed Certificate on the system running the server, the path of the private key, the server IP address, and the server port number in the [Setting] section of the RTG configuration file. This must then be paired with the Signed Certificate on the client and the IP address of the server to which to connect in the [DriverSetup] section..

    • Users can generate classes from the protocol buffer file, for their language of choice, using open-source protocol buffer compilers. RTG provides a remote LabVIEW API, built on LabVIEW code generated from the protocol buffer file. Users can use this remote API in the same manner as RTG's local API.

    NI provides an example script to generate a certificate using OpenSSL. Find this example on the ni/grpc-labview repo on GitHub.