Toward loosely coupled design: Using persistent publish/subscribe messaging in medical devices

A little over a year ago, I published two long yet popular posts (here and here) on persistent publish/subscribe messaging, aka PPS. The posts explored why PPS offers several advantages over other forms of IPC and why it makes automotive instrument clusters, smart energy panels, and other devices easier to develop, maintain, and upgrade.

In a nutshell, PPS lets you create loosely coupled designs based on asynchronous publications and notifications. This “decoupling” offers a great deal of flexibility, allowing you to delay final decisions on module connection points and data flow until runtime. Because such decisions don’t have to be hardcoded, they can be adapted as requirements evolve; they can even change dynamically as the system runs.

Just one thing: My posts failed to discuss how PPS could be applied to medical devices — a glaring omission! Fortunately, my QNX colleagues Justin Moon and Ben VandenBelt have filled the gap. To check out their new paper on PPS in medical devices, click here.