JOSS

REUSE.toml

@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ path = [
     "etc/labs/lab3.pcap",
     "tests/valgrind.supp",
     "packaging/archlinux/villas-node.install",
+    "VILLASnode-modular.png",
 ]
 precedence = "aggregate"
 SPDX-FileCopyrightText = "2018-2023, Institute for Automation of Complex Power Systems, RWTH Aachen University"

paper.bib

@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+% Author: Alexandra Bach <alexandra.bach@eonerc.rwth-aachen.de>
+% SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2014-2025 Institute for Automation of Complex Power Systems, RWTH Aachen University
+% SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+@misc{villasnode_docs,
+  author = {Vogel, Steffen and Bach, Alexandra and Potter, Dennis and Stevic, Marija and Pitz, Manuel and Mirz, Markus},
+  title = {VILLASnode Documentation},
+  howpublished = {\url{https://villas.fein-aachen.org/docs/node/}},
+  note = {Accessed: 2025-05-20},
+  year = {2025}
+}
+
+@article{monti_global_2018,
+	title = {A Global Real-Time Superlab: Enabling High Penetration of Power Electronics in the Electric Grid},
+	volume = {5},
+	issn = {2329-9215},
+	url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8458285},
+	doi = {10.1109/MPEL.2018.2850698},
+	shorttitle = {A Global Real-Time Superlab},
+	abstract = {The Global Real-Time Superlaboratory (Global {RT} Superlab) represents a vendor-neutral distributed platform based on the virtual interconnection of digital real-time simulators ({DRTSs}) and hardware-in-the-loop ({HIL}) setups hosted at eight geographically distributed laboratories in the United States and Europe (Figure 1). This article describes the efforts toward the realization of this largescale virtual infrastructure and explains a demonstration of the multilab setup for simulation and testing of next-generation global power grids.},
+	pages = {35--44},
+	number = {3},
+	journaltitle = {{IEEE} Power Electronics Magazine},
+	author = {Monti, Antonello and Stevic, Marija and Vogel, Steffen and De Doncker, Rik W. and Bompard, Ettore and Estebsari, Abouzar and Profumo, Francesco and Hovsapian, Rob and Mohanpurkar, Manish and Flicker, Jack David and Gevorgian, Vahan and Suryanarayanan, Siddharth and Srivastava, Anurag K. and Benigni, Andrea},
+	urldate = {2023-10-10},
+	date = {2018-09},
+	note = {Conference Name: {IEEE} Power Electronics Magazine},
+	keywords = {Real-time systems, Internet, Power system stability, Laboratories, Distributed databases, Power electronics, Power grids}
+}
+
+@inproceedings{Pitz2024,
+  author = {Manuel Pitz and Felix Wege and Niklas Eiling and Steffen Vogel and Vincent Bareis and Antonello Monti},
+  title = {Automated Deployment of Single-Board Computer Based Grid Measurement and Co-Simulation Equipment},
+  booktitle = {2024 Open Source Modelling and Simulation of Energy Systems (OSMSES)},
+  year = {2024},
+  location = {Vienna, Austria},
+  pages = {1--6},
+  doi = {10.1109/OSMSES62085.2024.10668996}
+}
+
+@article{Mehlmann2023,
+  author = {Gert Mehlmann and Uwe Kühnapfel and Felix Wege and Alexander Winkens and Christian Scheibe and Steffen Vogel},
+  title = {The Kopernikus ENSURE Co-Demonstration Platform},
+  journal = {IEEE Open Journal of Power Electronics},
+  volume = {4},
+  pages = {987--1002},
+  year = {2023},
+  doi = {10.1109/OJPEL.2023.3332515}
+}
+
+@article{Bach2025,
+  author={Bach, Alexandra and Monti, Antonello},
+  journal={IEEE Access},
+  title={Remote Real-Time Testing of Physical Components Using Communication Setup Automation},
+  year={2025},
+  volume={13},
+  number={},
+  pages={39066-39075},
+  keywords={WebRTC;Testing;Protocols;Delays;Control systems;Automation;Security;Interoperability;Emulation;Containers;Communication automation;geographically distributed facilities;real-time experiment;remote coupling;remote physical component testing},
+  doi={10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3546311}
+}

paper.md

@@ -0,0 +1,110 @@
+<!--
+Author: Alexandra Bach <alexandra.bach@eonerc.rwth-aachen.de>
+SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2014-2025 Institute for Automation of Complex Power Systems, RWTH Aachen University
+SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+-->
+
+---
+title: 'VILLASnode: Open-source real-time coupling of distributed infrastructures'
+tags:
+
+- C/C++
+- Real-time
+- Distributed experiments
+- Electrical grid simulation
+
+authors:
+
+- name: Alexandra Bach
+  orcid: 0009-0005-7385-4642
+  affiliation: 1
+- name: Leonardo Carreras
+  orcid: 0000-0002-9033-1051
+  affiliation: 1
+- name: Laura Fuentes Grau
+  orcid: 0009-0004-8997-7009
+- name: Steffen Vogel
+  orcid: 0000-0003-3384-6750
+  affiliation: "1, 3" # (Multiple affiliations must be quoted)
+- name: Manuel Pitz
+  orcid: 0000-0002-6252-2029
+  affiliation: 1
+- name: Niklas Eiling
+  orcid: 0000-0002-7011-9846
+  affiliation: 1
+- name: Felix Wege
+  orcid: 0000-0001-6602-9875
+  affiliation: 1
+- name: Andres Acosta
+  orcid: 0000-0003-3066-8354
+  affiliation: 1
+- name: Iris Köster
+  affiliation: 1
+- name: Prof. Antonello Monti
+  orcid: 0000-0003-1914-9801
+  affiliation: "1,2"
+
+affiliations:
+
+- name: Institute for Automation of Complex Power Systems, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
+  index: 1
+- name: Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology, Aachen, Germany
+  index: 2
+- name: OPAL-RT Germany GmbH
+  index: 3
+
+date: 15 May 2025
+bibliography: paper.bib
+
+---
+
+# Summary
+
+VILLASnode is a software tool, designed to facilitate real-time data exchange between various components in geographically distributed real-time experiments. Components can be test beds, real-time simulators, software tools, and physical devices.
+Whereas distributed computing, systems or algortihms aim to solve a common task, geographically distributed experiments link infrastructures with different components to make these components accessible to other infrastructures. Thus, data exchanges are possible which would not be possible in one single infrastructure.
+VILLASnode serves as the gateway that connects components across different infrastructures by providing a set of protocols and customized third-party implementations, e.g., different simulators. It enables seamless collaboration in research and testing environments while safeguarding the intellectual property of the infrastructures. The components at every infrastructure appear as a black box. The infrastructure does not need to share models or confidential information.
+
+VILLASnode is a Linux command line tool and can run as installation from source or as container. It is written in C/C++ and designed in a modular way.
+All components which are interfaced by the VILLASnode gateway are represented by nodes (n). These nodes act as sinks or sources for data specific to the component. Every node is an instance of a node-type. In a single VILLASnode instance, multiple instances of the same node-type can co-exist at the same time.
+The basic data package, common for all node-types, includes timestamped data, constituting a sample. Up to 64 values can form a sample.
+Samples may need modification or filtering. VILLASnode supports hooks (h) for this purpose. Hooks are simple callback functions, which are called whenever a message is processed.
+Paths (p) take care of the processing and define the connections and dataflows between nodes.
+Node-types, hooks, and paths need to be initalized in a configuration file which is passed when starting VILLASnode.
+Figure 1 shows an example of an experiment where five different node-types are used, connected by three paths, using three hooks.
+It includes queues (q) and registers (r). Queues temporarily store data before data is forwarded to registers. Registers provide the possibility to (de-)mulitplex data and to create new samples.
+
+![Example of modular exprimental design with nodes, paths, and hooks [@villasnode_docs].](VILLASnode-modular.png)
+
+VILLASnode can be controlled remotely by an Application Programming Interface (API). It is used by the Python Wrapper allowing to control, configure and execute most of the functions of VILLASnode. This is useful if Python software tools are to be integrated in a distributed experiment.
+In general, the interaction with VILLASnode is available for other tools and coding languages by using clients that implement basic functionalities, custom configurations and data conversions.
+Since VILLASnode is written in C/C++ it supports real-time capabilites and can supports real-time tuning for Linux systems.
+To provide all necassary information, VILLASnode has a detailed documentation [@villasnode_docs]. It includes installation recommendations and best practices for development as well as example configurations and beginners guides, so-called labs.
+
+# Statement of need
+
+VILLASnode supports the coupling of real-time simulators of different hardware and software vendors, specifications and implementations [@monti_global_2018]. They play a crucial role in both academic research and industrial applications, especially within simulation of electrical power networks. They are primarily utilized for hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) simulations. For example, an electrical grid is emulated so that the physical component can interface safely via analog input and output signals [@Mehlmann2023].
+This approach not only reduces development costs but also allows for the validation of components under scenarios that are difficult or unsafe to replicate real-world field scenarios. Moreover, VILLASnode supports the linking of simulators and real-time simulators of different vendors so that models do not need to be shared. It allows for conversation of intellectual property during collaboration. Local simulator and simulation infrastructure can be combined in a powerful arrangement unavailable at any individual infrastructure. This approach has the additional advantage of allowing to co-simulate with heterogeneus methods, algorithms and communication protocols. The communication with the components, sensors or actuators can also be implemented using VILLASnode.
+
+This can be extended to geographically distributed experiments. In this case, VILLASnode takes care of the communication between the different participants to the experiment which spans multiple infrastructures. Not only simulators can be included, but also physical devices can be integrated [@Bach2025]. Although communication latencies constrain the dynamics of the experiment for real-time applications, VILLASnode offers significant advantages such as leveraging existing infrastructure across sites and facilitating collaboration among interdisciplinary teams. Manufacturers, customers, and certifiers benefit from remote access and distributed testing while maintaining data confidentiality and intellectual property. Current work includes automation of integration of VILLASnode in practical field devices [@Pitz2024].
+
+# Features
+
+VILLASnode is a part of the VILLASframework, which offers several key features.
+Firstly, it includes VILLASweb, a tool designed for the visualization and monitoring of experiments.
+Secondly, there is VILLASfpga, which provides hard real-time capabilities for VILLASnode.
+Lastly, VILLAScontroller is currently under development and aims to automate simulation equipment.
+
+# Acknowledgements
+
+- [RESERVE](http://re-serve.eu/): European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 727481.
+- [VILLAS](https://villas.fein-aachen.org/website/): Funding provided by [JARA-ENERGY](http://www.jara.org/en/research/energy). Jülich-Aachen Research Alliance (JARA) is an initiative of RWTH Aachen University and Forschungszentrum Jülich.
+- [Urban Energy Lab 4.0](https://www.uel4-0.de/Home/): Funding is provided by the [European Regional Development Fund (EFRE)](https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/funding/erdf/).
+- [ERIGrid2.0](https://erigrid2.eu/): European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 870620.
+- [ENSURE](https://www.kopernikus-projekte.de/projekte/ensure): Federal Ministry of Education and Research supports the project under identification 03SFK1C0-3.
+- [NFDI4Energy](https://nfdi4energy.uol.de/): Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – 501865131.
+- [HYPERRIDE](https://hyperride.eu/): European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 957788.
+- [Erigrid2.0](https://erigrid2.eu/): European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 870620.
+- [AI-EFFECT](https://ai-effect.eu/): European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101172952.
+- [EnerTEF](https://enertef.eu/): European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101172887.
+
+# References