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SimpleComTools, LLC
Virtual COM-UDP™
SimpleComTools, LLC
3
OVERVIEW
Virtual COM-UDP™ is a software based UDP/COM Port Redirector solution that provides a full-
time two-way communications path between a virtual serial COM Port and any UDP port of any
remote IP address. Virtual COM-UDP™ allows users to connect their existing (legacy) serial
communications software programs to remote IP network addresses via UDP protocol, giving
them the ability to IP enable the remote side of their communications program without having to
modify the original application.
Designed to run on any Microsoft Windows PC, Virtual COM-UDP™ UDP/COM Redirector
software enables your existing serial communication programs that use a Windows COM Port to
send data to and from a user-defined IP network address and UDP port. Unlike other TCP based
COM Redirector software solutions, Virtual COM-UDP™ supports the UDP transport protocol,
and allows for user-definable IP packet source and destination ports.
The most commonly used network protocols today are TCP (Transport Control Protocol) and
UDP (User Datagram Protocol). TCP is a proven and reliable protocol, and probably the most
widely implemented protocol in use on IP networks today. However, TCP has a lot of overhead
and payload issues, and can sometimes be ‘too-reliable’ or robust for many applications. In fact,
when used as transport, for many serial based applications TCP can actually hinder reliable
communications. In contrast, UDP is a much simpler protocol, and is being used more frequently
today - particularly in areas where bandwidth or throughput is constrained. An example is the
predominant use of UDP for transport of wireless data applications.
UDP is first a connectionless protocol. Like TCP, UDP runs on top of IP networks. But unlike
TCP, UDP does little to help with transport delivery or error recovery. Instead it offers a direct way
to send and receive packets, letting the software application manage things like error recovery
and data retransmission. Once primarily used for broadcasting small messages, UDP is now
used for everything from browsers to Instant Messaging, Video, and Voice over IP applications.
Virtual COM-UDP™ is designed to let serial communications software programs take advantage
of the ‘light’ and ‘connectionless’ nature of UDP, allowing instead for their native error recovery
and retransmissions designs to be the source for reliable data throughput. This approach makes
for a very different type of COM Redirector, one that we think many legacy applications can
benefit from. This also makes Virtual COM-UDP™ uniquely suited for wireless IP networks such
as CDPD, CDMA, or GPRS. These bandwidth constrained and pay-for-usage networks have
been the development grounds for many newer UDP-based applications. Now serial software
users can harness the benefits of these networks and not have to pay for unnecessary TCP
overhead.
Virtual COM-UDP™ can be easily installed on any Windows-based embedded computer or data
loggers, enabling serial data applications or messages to be packaged and sent to any remote
host as a single UDP packet. It will in turn listen for return messages, passing the returning serial
data back to the serial software. This makes Virtual COM-UDP™ ideal for numerous types of
applications:
Manufacturing
Inventory Control
Retail Sales
Vehicle Data Acquisition Systems
Transportation Systems
Network Monitoring