Source-linked AI summary
ROS2 Connect: A new ROS2 over WAN Solution
Daniel Schott, Lakshminarasimhan Srinivasan, Christian Herrmann, Andreas Nüchter
TL;DR
ROS2’s DDS/RTPS multicast-dependent discovery is poorly suited to many WAN environments, limiting straightforward remote interaction. This paper introduces ROS2 Connect, a secure client-server framework that bridges local DDS communication through WebSockets with configuration-driven interface control and authentication. Over a real WAN, it reports lower latency, higher stability, and better scalability than existing ROS2-over-WAN solutions under the evaluated conditions.
Problem
ROS2 is primarily designed for LAN deployments, while its DDS/RTPS communication architecture relies on multicast-dependent discovery that is unavailable in many WAN environments.
Method
ROS2 Connect uses client-server WebSocket mediation between local DDS-based ROS2 systems, with explicit interface configuration, authentication, and access control.
Results
ROS2 Connect achieved lower latency, higher stability, and better scalability under evaluated concurrent loads than DDS Router, rosbridge, and Zenoh.
Takeaways & Limitations
The framework provides a secure and reliable basis for ROS2 interaction across WANs without network-layer modifications or vendor-specific DDS configurations.
Takeaways & Limitations
The conclusion identifies further work in evaluating additional application stacks and exploring adaptive transport optimizations under varying network conditions.
Abstract
from arXiv · showhide
The Robot Operating System 2 (ROS2) has become a widely adopted framework for the development of distributed robotic systems. However, its communication architecture, based on DDS and RTPS, relies on multicast discovery mechanisms that are typically unavailable in wide-area network (WAN) environments, making remote operation challenging. This work presents ROS2 Connect, a WebSocket-based communication framework that enables transparent and secure ROS2 interaction across routed networks without requiring modifications to network infrastructure or DDS configurations. The proposed client-server architecture supports bidirectional exchange of topics, services, actions, and system data while integrating authentication and access control mechanisms. Experimental evaluation over a real WAN connection demonstrates significantly lower latency, higher stability, and improved scalability compared to existing solutions, including DDS Router, rosbridge and Zenoh. Initial results show that ROS2 Connect provides a reliable foundation for teleoperation and distributed robotics applications over wide-area networks.
1. Introduction
ROS2 is widely used for distributed robotics, but its DDS/RTPS communication architecture is primarily suited to LANs and relies on multicast-dependent discovery. ROS2 Connect addresses this challenge while maintaining controlled remote access and system integrity.
- ROS2 has emerged as the de facto framework for developing, integrating, and coordinating heterogeneous robotic systems.
- WAN communication is essential for teleoperation, cloud robotics, and multi-site robotic systems.
- ROS2 remains primarily designed for LAN deployments because its DDS/RTPS communication layer fundamentally relies on multicast-dependent discovery.
- ROS2 Connect enables controlled remote access while preserving operational safety and system integrity.
- ROS2 Connect exhibits lower latency and consistently low variability than existing solutions.
2. Existing Solutions
Existing ROS2-over-WAN approaches include network-layer extensions, DDS-level routing, and alternative middleware. VPN-based approaches can preserve native DDS operation but are often impractical where users cannot create network tunnels.
- ROS2-over-WAN solutions are categorized as network-layer approaches, DDS-level routing mechanisms, or alternative middleware frameworks.
- VPNs extend local-area connectivity across routed infrastructure, allowing native DDS discovery and communication to operate transparently.
- VPN deployment is often impractical in centrally managed environments where users lack privileges to establish custom network tunnels.
3. ROS2 Connect
ROS2 Connect decouples WAN communication from multicast-dependent DDS discovery through a client-server architecture that bridges local DDS with WebSockets. Configuration-driven mediation, authentication, and authorization restrict remote access to explicitly permitted interfaces.
- ROS2 Connect uses a server in the robot’s local ROS2 environment and a remote client connected through a persistent WebSocket connection.
- The framework tunnels topics, services, and actions between local DDS communication and WebSocket-based WAN transport without multicast support, VPN infrastructure, or vendor-specific DDS configuration.
- Server and client parameters explicitly define relayed interfaces and QoS profiles, limiting exposure to configured topics, services, and actions.
- Application-layer authentication suppresses data exchange until client credentials are verified, while plugin-based strategies support custom validation.
- Authorization rejects attempts to access or publish to unspecified interfaces, preventing arbitrary system-data access or unauthorized message injection.
4. Evaluation
The evaluation measured serialized ROS-message RTTs over a real WAN across payload sizes and concurrent topic loads. ROS2 Connect achieved the lowest latency with low variability, while concurrent-load behavior remained stable but reflected single-stream and bandwidth constraints for large payloads.
- WAN evaluation: RTTs were measured over a real WAN for serialized ROS messages ranging from 12 B to 500 kB.The setup used a residential client, a university-hosted server, and approximately 18 Mbit/s uplink and 58 Mbit/s downlink capacity.
- Latency comparison: ROS2 Connect consistently achieved lower latency than Eclipse Zenoh, with differences of approximately 1ms for smaller and up to 16ms for larger payloads.
- Latency comparison: ROS2 Connect achieved the lowest average latency and substantially lower round-trip variability than DDS Router and rosbridge, while Zenoh showed comparable variability.
- Concurrent load: Communication remained stable and predictable across tested message sizes and parallel workloads.
- Concurrent load: For small messages, latency remained nearly constant with up to ten parallel topics transmitted simultaneously.
- Concurrent load: For larger messages, latency increased approximately linearly with parallel-topic count because bandwidth limits and a single ordered TCP stream serialize transmissions.
5. Conclusions
ROS2 Connect enables secure and reliable ROS2 communication across WANs while avoiding multicast-dependent DDS discovery and network-layer modifications. Evaluation found lower latency, higher stability, and better scalability under the tested workloads, while further work remains.
- ROS2 Connect enables secure and reliable ROS2 interactions across WANs using WebSocket transport.
- The framework transparently transmits topics, services, actions, and system infrastructure data without network-layer modifications or vendor-specific configurations.
- ROS2 Connect achieved lower latency, higher stability, and better scalability than DDS Router, rosbridge, and Zenoh under the evaluated concurrent load.
- Future work includes extending generic services and actions support, evaluating full application stacks in real robotic deployments, and exploring adaptive transport optimization.
- Figure 2 measures average round-trip latency as the number of parallel topics increases, with each point averaging 1000 measurements.
Declaration on Generative AI
During preparation, the authors used DeepL Write and ChatGPT 5.2 for grammar, spelling, paraphrasing, and rewording, then reviewed and edited the content.
- The authors used DeepL Write and ChatGPT 5.2 for grammar, spelling, paraphrasing, and rewording during preparation.
- The authors reviewed and edited the generated content and retained full responsibility for the publication’s content.
A. Source Code
ROS2 Connect is released under the Mozilla Public License Version 2.0 and is publicly available through its source-code repository.
- ROS2 Connect is released under the Mozilla Public License Version 2.0.
- The implementation is available at the ROS2-Connect GitHub repository.