VILLASnode: An Open-Source Real-time Multi-protocol Gateway

VILLASnode is a multi-protocol gateway, designed to facilitate real-time data exchange between various components of geographically-distributed real-time experiments.Components can be testbeds, digital real-time simulators, software tools, and physical devices.It is designed for the co-simulation of power system and related energy applications.VILLASnode was originally designed for the co-simulation of electrical networks, but since then was further extended to cover a larger variety of use cases and domains.VILLASnode serves as the gateway that connects components across different infrastructures by providing a set of protocols and customized third-party implementations, e.g., different simulators.It enables seamless collaboration in research and testing environments while safeguarding the intellectual property of the infrastructures.The components of every infrastructure appear as a black box.The infrastructure does not need to share models or confidential information.VILLASnode is a set of Linux command line tools and shared library.It can be installed from source or via a OCI container.It is written in C/C++ and designed in a modular and extensible way.