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TCP/IP Receive

Receive data over TCP/IP network from specified remote machine

  • TCP/IP Receive block

Libraries:
Instrument Control Toolbox

Description

The TCP/IP Receive block configures and opens an interface to the specified remote address using the TCP/IP protocol. The configuration and initialization occur once at the start of the model's execution. The block acquires data either in blocking mode or nonblocking mode during the model's run time. Use the TCP/IP Receive block to read streaming data over a TCP/IP network. This block works only as a TCP/IP client and cannot be used as a TCP/IP server.

This block has no input ports. It has one or two output ports based on whether you select blocking or nonblocking mode. If you select blocking mode, the block has one output port, Data, corresponding to the data it receives. If you do not select blocking mode, the block has two output ports, Data and Status.

This block uses a First In, First Out (FIFO) buffer to receive data. At each time step, the Data port returns the requested values from the buffer. In nonblocking mode, the Status port indicates if the block has received new data. If the Status port displays 1, new data is available and if the Status port displays 0, no new data is available.

Other Supported Features

  • The TCP/IP Receive block supports the use of Simulink® Accelerator mode and Rapid Accelerator. This feature speeds up the execution of Simulink models.

  • The TCP/IP Receive block supports the use of model referencing. This feature lets your model include other Simulink models as modular components.

  • The TCP/IP Receive block supports C/C++ code generation. This feature allows you to generate C and C++ code using Simulink Coder™.

For more information on these features, see the Simulink documentation.

Ports

Output

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Data received by the block from the remote address, returned as a vector, matrix, or array.

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64

New data available status, returned as a logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). If this port returns 1, new data is available to be read.

Dependencies

To enable this port, unselect the Enable blocking mode parameter.

Data Types: Boolean

Parameters

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IP address or name of the TCP/IP server that you want to receive data from.

Programmatic Use

Block Parameter: Host
Type: character vector, string

Remote port on the TCP/IP server that you want to connect to, specified as a number from 1 to 65535.

Programmatic Use

Block Parameter: Port
Type: character vector, string
Values: 1 to 65,535
Default: '80'

Click this button to check if a connection to the specified remote address and port is valid.

Output data size, or the number of values to be read at each simulation time step. This parameter is specified as a scalar or vector. The data does not include the terminator values.

Programmatic Use

Block Parameter: DataSize
Type: character vector, string
Values: vector
Default: '[ 1, 1 ]'

Data type that the block receives from the remote address, specified as a MATLAB data type.

This data type must match the data type of the data at the remote address. You cannot use this parameter to change the data type of the data at the remote address.

Programmatic Use

Block Parameter: DataType
Type: character vector, string
Values: 'single' | 'double' | 'int8' | 'uint8' | 'int16' | 'uint16' | 'int32' | 'uint32' | 'int64' | 'uint64' | 'ASCII'
Default: 'uint8'

This parameter defines the format of the received string data. You can use the following conversion specifiers or a combination of them.

Note

If you generate C/C++ code using Simulink Coder, you can only use a single conversion specifier.

Numeric Field TypeConversion SpecifierDetails

Integer, signed

%d

Base 10

%i

The values in the data determine the base:

  • The default is base 10.

  • If the initial digits are 0x or 0X, then the values are hexadecimal (base 16).

  • If the initial digit is 0, then values are octal (base 8).

%ld or %li

64-bit values, base 10, 8, or 16

Integer, unsigned

%u

Base 10

%o

Base 8 (octal)

%x

Base 16 (hexadecimal)

%lu, %lo, %lx

64-bit values, base 10, 8, or 16

Floating-point number

%f

Floating-point fields can contain any of the following (not case sensitive): Inf, -Inf, NaN, or -NaN.

%e

%g

Programmatic Use

Block Parameter: ASCIIFormatting
Type: character vector, string
Values: '%d' | '%i' | '%ld' | '%li' | '%u' | %o' | '%x' | '%lu' | '%lo' | '%lx' | '%f' | '%e' | '%g'
Default: '%f'

Dependencies

To enable this parameter, set Source Data type to ASCII.

If this parameter is selected, you can specify the terminator that indicates the end of your data block. The simulation considers any data that occurs before the terminator as a new data block. The terminator data is not sent to the output port. This terminator must match the terminator in the data you are reading from your remote machine.

If you select Custom Terminator, you can specify your own terminator value.

Programmatic Use

Block Parameter: Terminator
Type: character vector, string
Values: 'CR' | 'LF' | 'CR/LF' | 'LF/CR' | 'Custom terminator'
Default: 'LF'

Dependencies

To enable this parameter, set Source Data type to ASCII.

Custom terminator that indicates the end of your data block. The simulation considers any data that occurs before the terminator as a new data block. The terminator data is not sent to the output port.

The numeric array specified in this parameter is the uint8 integer representation of the corresponding ASCII characters. The exact form of this parameter depends on the type of the ASCII character.

Type of ASCII CharacterExample ASCII CharacterMATLAB CommandParameter Value
Control character (escape sequence)"LF" ("\n")uint8(sprintf('\n'))[10]
Special character"#"uint8('#')[35]
Numeric"81"uint8('81')[56 49]
Alphabet"End"uint8('End')[69 110 100]

You can also specify this parameter using the hexadecimal representation of the ASCII characters.

Programmatic Use

Block Parameter: CustomTerminator
Type: character vector, string
Values: integer array
Default: '10'

Dependencies

To enable this parameter, set Terminator to Custom terminator.

Sequential order in which bytes are arranged into larger numerical values. If the byte order is little-endian, then the first byte is organized in the first memory address in the received TCP/IP packet. If the byte order is big-endian, then the last byte is organized in the first memory address in the received TCP/IP packet.

Configure the byte order to match the appropriate value for your remote machine before receiving data. Refer to your instrument documentation for information about the order in which it stores bytes.

Programmatic Use

Block Parameter: ByteOrder
Type: character vector, string
Values: 'little-endian' | 'big-endian'
Default: 'big-endian'

This parameter has the simulation wait while the block receives data. When new data becomes available, the simulation continues from the next time step. Unselect the check box if you do not want the read operation to cause the simulation to wait.

If you enable blocking mode, the simulation waits for the requested data to become available. At each time step, the model waits for up to the amount of time specified by the Timeout parameter. If data is not received within this time, the block outputs a value of 0.

If you do not enable blocking mode, the simulation runs continuously and the block has two output ports, Status and Data. The Data port contains the requested set of data at each time step. The Status port contains 0 or 1 based on whether it received new data at the given time step.

For more information, see Enable Blocking Mode in Receive and Send Blocks.

Programmatic Use

Block Parameter: EnableBlockingMode
Type: character vector, string
Values: 'on' | 'off'
Default: 'on'

Amount of time in seconds that the model waits for data during each simulation time step. This value is relative to real-world or "wall clock" time.

Programmatic Use

Block Parameter: Timeout
Type: character vector, string
Values: positive scalar
Default: '10'

Dependencies

To enable this parameter, set Enable blocking mode to on.

Sampling time of the block during the simulation. This is the rate at which the block is executed during simulation. For more information, see Timing in Hardware Interface Models.

Programmatic Use

Block Parameter: SampleTime
Type: character vector, string
Values: positive numeric
Default: '0.01'

Extended Capabilities

Version History

Introduced in R2007b

See Also