OpenIGTLink/ProtocolV2/Index

<< OpenIGTLink

General Information

Version 2 Release Timeline

We are inviting proposals from the community for new and modified message formats, which are potentially included into OpenIGTLink version 2 protocol. The deadline of proposal is September 12 (One week before MICCAI 2010). Anyone, who has an account in NA-MIC wiki, can propose a new message. The proposed messages will be reviewed by the community during a period between MICCAI 2010 and NA-MIC All Hands Meeting 2011.

Inviting Message Type Proposal -- How to Propose

Please add one proposal page per message type. The template for a proposal page is available here. All proposal pages must be linked from the section below in this page.

OpenIGTLink version 2 Summary

• The header format will not be changed.
• Simple querying mechanism is defined. See querying mechanism in version 2.
• The protocol version 2 continue to focus on message formats. Supporting tools (simulators and interfaces for specific applications e.g. 3D Slicer, Matlab) and transportation layer (use of UDP or other network communication middleware) should be discussed separately.
• (TBD)Xenios proposed to introduce a "footer" field in addition to header and body in the OpenIGTLink message format. The idea is to use footer as an area, which can be used by the developers to put application-specific information. In most case, this "footer" approach does not violate the rules in version 1 protocol.

OpenIGTLink Protocol Rules

• The OpenIGTLink protocol is a network communication protocol works in the Application Layer in the OSI model.
• The minimum unit in data transfer in OpenIGTLink protocol is an OpenIGTLink message.
• An OpenIGTLink message consists of header and body sections. The header format is consistent and can be interpreted by all software that has OpenIGTLink interface. The header contains device type (or data type) name, which specifies the format of the body.
• The OpenIGTLink protocol is stateless.

Architecture and Header

• OpenIGTLink Header

Proposed Message Types

Message types inherited from version 1

• TRANSFORM
• QTRANS (formerly POSITION)
• POSITION (alias of QTRANSFORM)
• IMAGE
• COLORT
• STATUS
• CAPABILITY

New message types for image-guided surgery (IGS) systems

• IMGMETA
• LBMETA
• POINT
• TRAJECTORY
• TDATA
• QTDATA

New message types for other applications

• SENSOR
• STRING
• NDARRAY
• BIND
• POLYDATA

Other Information

• 64-bit UNIT field in OpenIGTLink