OPAL-RT’s TCP/UDP I/O interface comes included with RT-LAB and HYPERSIM and enables the exchange of data using raw Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) streams and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) datagrams. 

With the proper user configuration, a driver is initialized on the target simulator at the start of the simulation and each configured TCP server will wait for a connection from a client, each configured TCP client will try to connect to the defined server, and each UDP port will begin data transmission. The driver supports multiple streams allowing exchange of data between multiple targets, applications, external equipment, etc. The format used for the data exchange is configurable by the user. This is an asynchronous driver that will not incur high-latency, allowing models to run without having to wait for transmission or reception of network frames, which typically have a non-predictable latency.

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is a connection-oriented communications protocol that facilitates the exchange of messages between computing devices in a network. It is the most common protocol in networks that use the Internet Protocol (IP); together they are sometimes referred to as TCP/IP. 

User Datagram Protocol (UDP), a communications protocol that facilitates the exchange of messages between computing devices in a network. It’s an alternative to the transmission control protocol (TCP). In a network that uses the Internet Protocol (IP), it is sometimes referred to as UDP/IP.