The whole Generic Networking architecture was built with networked communication in mind. The first releases came with a quite straightforward TCP implementation. For later versions, GenNet offers a “protocol abstraction layer” that allows for both other transport mechanisms and protocol syntax.

The original - and default - Variant protocol uses plain TCP primitives in LabVIEW to send and receive the DQMH's variant data, flattened to and unflattened from string.

Writing variant data

Reading variant data

The PlainString protocol was added in later versions and allows 3rd party applications to communicate over the same interface by sending simple, human-readable strings. It again uses plain TCP primitives in LabVIEW to send and receive data.

Writing string data

Reading string data

You can provide an object for the protocol abstraction class you'd like to use by wiring the GenNet Protocol input of the Start Module.vi:

Simply inherit from GN Protocol Server.lvclass and GN Protocol Client.lvclass. These are installed as part of the HSE Core: GenNet VI package. On disk, the files can be found at

  <%vi.lib%>\HSE\HSE GenNet\Source\hse-gennet\GenNet Protocols\Abstract\