Choosing among LabVIEW Communication Features

LabVIEW 8.5 Help
August 2007

NI Part Number:
371361D-01

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Each networking feature in LabVIEW is designed to meet a specific need for your application. The following table lists LabVIEW networking features and their characteristics.

Networking Feature	Use Case	Programming Required	Lossless Data Transmission	Multiple Writers/Readers	Transmission Delay	Transfer Rate
Shared Variable	Share live data with other VIs on your computer, a remote computer, or deployed to a target.	No	Yes	Many-to-Many	Low	High
DataSocket functions with the psp protocol	Share live data with other VIs on your computer, a remote computer, or deployed to a target.	Yes	Yes	Many-to-Many	Low	High
DataSocket functions with the dstp protocol	Share live data with other VIs on your computer, a remote computer, or deployed to a target.	Yes	No	Many-to-Many	Medium	High
DataSocket functions with the opc protocol	Retrieve live data from an industrial network using DataSocket as an OPC client.	Yes	No	Many-to-Many	Low	High
LabVIEW Web Server	Publish front panel images on the Web.	No	No	One-to-Many	Medium	Low
SMTP Email VIs	Send an email with data attached.	Yes	Yes	One-to-Many	High	High
TCP VIs and Functions	Communicate with an instrument that uses a protocol based on TCP.	Yes	Yes	One-to-One	Medium	High
UDP VIs and Functions	Communicate with a software package that uses a protocol based on UDP.	Yes	No	One-to-Many	Low	High
IrDA Functions	Establish a wireless connection to a remote computer.	Yes	Yes	One-to-One	Medium	Low
Bluetooth VI and Functions	Establish a wireless connection to a Bluetooth device.	Yes	Yes	One-to-One	Medium	Low

In addition to these networking features, you can share and access data in LabVIEW using the following options. If you want to create a file that contains data other VIs and applications can read, use the File I/O VIs and functions. If you want to control other VIs and LabVIEW applications on local and remote computers, use the VI Server. (Windows) If you want to access the features of many Microsoft applications, such as embedding a waveform graph in an Excel spreadsheet, use the ActiveX VIs and functions.

Choosing among LabVIEW Communication Features

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