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Working with eProsima Fast DDS - how-to

eProsima Fast DDS is a complete open-source Data Distribution Service (DDS) implementation for real-time embedded architectures and operating systems. This article describes how to install rmw_fastrtps_cpp, select it as your active RMW implementation, and verify that it is working. After you follow these steps, you can run ROS nodes using eProsima Fast DDS.

eProsima Fast DDS is a complete open-source DDS implementation for real time embedded architectures and operating systems. See also: https://www.eprosima.com/index.php/products-all/eprosima-fast-dds

Area: installation | Content type: how-to | Level: intermediate, expert

Prerequisites

Have rosdep installed.

Install packages

The easiest way is to install from ROS 2 apt repository.

$ sudo apt install ros-rolling-rmw-fastrtps-cpp

Build from source code

Building from source code is also another way to install.

First, clone Fast DDS and rmw_fastrtps in the ROS 2 workspace source directory.

$ cd ros2_ws/src
$ git clone https://github.com/ros2/rmw_fastrtps ros2/rmw_fastrtps -b rolling
$ git clone https://github.com/eProsima/Fast-DDS eProsima/fastrtps

Then, install necessary packages for Fast DDS.

$ cd ..
$ rosdep install --from src -i

Finally, run colcon build.

$ colcon build --symlink-install

Switch to rmw_fastrtps

The eProsima Fast DDS RMW can be selected by specifying the environment variable:

$ export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_fastrtps_cpp

See also: Working with multiple RMW implementations

Run the talker and listener

Now run talker and listener to test Fast DDS.

$ source /opt/ros/rolling/setup.bash
$ ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp talker

$ source /opt/ros/rolling/setup.bash
$ ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp listener