Introduction to HDDS

HDDS (High-performance DDS) is a modern, open-source implementation of the Data Distribution Service (DDS) standard, written entirely in Rust. It provides a publish-subscribe middleware that enables real-time, scalable, and reliable data exchange between distributed applications.

Key Features

Pure Rust Implementation

HDDS is written from scratch in Rust, providing:

• Memory safety without garbage collection
• Thread safety guaranteed at compile time
• Zero-cost abstractions for maximum performance
• No undefined behavior by design

Standards Compliant

HDDS implements the following OMG standards:

• DDS 1.4 - Data Distribution Service specification
• RTPS 2.5 - Real-Time Publish Subscribe wire protocol
• XTypes 1.3 - Extensible Types for dynamic type support
• DDS Security 1.1 - Authentication, encryption, and access control

High Performance

Designed for demanding real-time applications:

• Sub-microsecond latency with zero-copy data paths
• Millions of messages per second throughput
• Lock-free data structures for predictable performance
• NUMA-aware memory allocation for multi-socket systems

Interoperability

HDDS can communicate with other DDS implementations:

• FastDDS (eProsima)
• RTI Connext DDS
• CycloneDDS (Eclipse)
• OpenDDS

See our Interoperability Guide for detailed setup instructions.

Use Cases

HDDS is ideal for:

Domain	Use Case
Robotics	ROS2 middleware, swarm coordination, sensor fusion
Autonomous Vehicles	V2X communication, sensor data distribution
Industrial IoT	Factory automation, predictive maintenance
Aerospace & Defense	Mission-critical systems, real-time telemetry
Financial Services	Low-latency market data, order routing
Simulation	Distributed simulation, digital twins

Architecture

HDDS follows a layered architecture:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Application Layer                     │
│              (Your Code, ROS2, Custom Apps)             │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                       DCPS Layer                         │
│  (DomainParticipant, Publisher, Subscriber, Topic, QoS) │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                       RTPS Layer                         │
│    (Discovery, Writers, Readers, History Cache)         │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                    Transport Layer                       │
│              (UDP, TCP, Shared Memory)                  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Getting Started

Ready to dive in? Here's your path:

1. What is DDS? - Learn the fundamentals
2. Installation - Get HDDS on your system
3. Hello World - Write your first application

License

HDDS is licensed under the Apache License 2.0, making it suitable for both commercial and open-source projects.

Support

• GitHub Issues: github.com/hdds/hdds/issues
• Discord: discord.gg/hdds
• Documentation: You're already here!