IARM Bus

IARM Bus (Inter-Application Resource Manager Bus) is a platform-agnostic Inter-Process Communication (IPC) interface for the RDK middleware stack. It allows processes to communicate with each other by sending events or invoking Remote Procedure Calls (RPC). The programming API is independent of the operating system or the underlying IPC mechanism, making it usable across a variety of platforms. Two processes connected to the same bus instance can exchange events and RPC calls; processes on different bus instances cannot communicate with each other.

IARM Bus operates as a system-level service, launched early in the boot sequence before other RDK middleware daemons. Its core function is to provide a named, well-known message bus over which middleware components — such as the device settings manager, power manager, and display service manager — register, publish events, and invoke methods in other processes. All bus members are uniquely identified by a string name registered at connection time.

At the module level, IARM Bus provides a client library (libIARMBus) that middleware components link against, and a daemon (IARMDaemonMain) that acts as the central coordinator for member registration, resource ownership arbitration, and system-wide pre-change notifications. The daemon maintains the list of registered members and dispatches coordinated lifecycle calls (power pre-change, resolution pre-change, deep-sleep wakeup, and system-mode change) to all registered members before the corresponding state transition occurs.

flowchart LR

%% Styles
classDef Apps stroke:#00B9F1,fill:#E6F7FD,stroke-width:2px;
classDef RDKMW stroke:#75D701,fill:#F1FFE6,stroke-width:2px;
classDef VL stroke:#808080,fill:#F2F2F2,stroke-width:2px;

%% Apps Layer
    subgraph Apps["Apps & Runtimes"]
        RDKUI["UI"]
        FBApps["Firebolt Apps"]
        WPE_RT["WPE Runtime"]
    end

%% Middleware
    subgraph RDKMW["RDK Core Middleware"]
        AM["App Manager"]
        Rialto["Rialto"]
        Westeros["Westeros"]
        Thunder["WPE Framework (Thunder)"]
        IARMBUS["IARM Bus Daemon\n(IARMDaemonMain)"]
        MW_Clients["Middleware Clients\n(dsMgr, pwrMgr, etc.)"]
    end

%% Vendor Layer
    subgraph VL["Vendor Layer"]
        HAL["Component HAL"]
        BSP["BSP"]
        DBUS["D-Bus (system bus)"]
    end

    %% External connections
    Apps -->|Firebolt APIs| RDKMW
    MW_Clients -->|IARM_Bus_Init / Connect\nBroadcastEvent / Call| IARMBUS
    IARMBUS -->|D-Bus IPC| DBUS
    RDKMW -->|HAL APIs| VL

Key Features & Responsibilities:

• Event Publishing and Subscription: Provides IARM_Bus_BroadcastEvent() and IARM_Bus_RegisterEventHandler() APIs so any middleware process can publish system-wide asynchronous events and any other process can register to receive them.
• Remote Procedure Calls: Exposes IARM_Bus_RegisterCall() and IARM_Bus_Call() / IARM_Bus_Call_with_IPCTimeout() APIs allowing one process to invoke a named function implemented in another process, with optional timeout control.
• Member Registration and Discovery: Maintains a list of all connected processes via IARM_Bus_Init() and IARM_Bus_Connect(), and provides IARM_Bus_IsConnected() for processes to check whether a named member is currently registered on the bus.
• Resource Ownership Management: Arbitrates exclusive access to shared device resources (decoder planes, focus, power, resolution) through IARM_BusDaemon_RequestOwnership() and IARM_BusDaemon_ReleaseOwnership(), broadcasting a resource-available event when a resource is freed.
• Coordinated Pre-Change Notifications: Before system-state transitions (power change, resolution change, deep-sleep wakeup, system-mode change), the daemon iterates all registered members and sequentially calls each member’s registered pre-change handler, ensuring orderly preparation across the stack.
• Memory Management: Provides typed memory allocation (IARM_Malloc / IARM_Free) for process-local memory. Arguments and event data are serialized by value across process boundaries, with each allocation prefixed by a size field to support D-Bus byte-array transfer.

Design

IARM Bus is designed around a daemon-centric hub-and-spoke model where a single long-running daemon process (IARMDaemonMain) acts as the coordinator, and all middleware clients link a shared library (libIARMBus) to connect to it. The underlying transport uses D-Bus as the IPC mechanism, selected at build time via the _USE_DBUS flag. The library abstracts all D-Bus message construction, dispatch, and filtering so that client code interacts only with the IARM API rather than D-Bus primitives. The daemon and client both share the same libIARMBus, meaning the daemon is itself a bus member registered under the name "Daemon". The maximum string length for all member and method names on the bus is 64 characters (IARM_MAX_NAME_LEN), enforced throughout the API.

Northbound, the API surface (libIBus.h) exposes a lifecycle sequence: IARM_Bus_Init() → IARM_Bus_Connect() → use APIs → IARM_Bus_Disconnect() → IARM_Bus_Term(). Clients register event handlers and RPC methods only after connecting. Southbound, the D-Bus layer (libIARM-dbus.c) creates three DBusConnection handles per process — conn for incoming message dispatch, connEvent for outgoing event signals, and connMethodCall for outgoing blocking RPC calls — and spawns two dedicated dispatch threads each running a D-Bus read-write-dispatch loop. Method calls are serialized by a recursive pthread_mutex (m_Lock), which protects the registered call list and event handler list.

IPC is implemented exclusively over D-Bus. Method calls use dbus_message_is_method_call() against the iarm.method.Type interface, and events are dispatched as D-Bus signals on the iarm.signal.Type interface. Event data and RPC arguments are passed by value using a memcpy-equivalent byte-array serialization, which is why the API explicitly prohibits pointer members inside argument structures. The memory allocation layer prefixes each allocation with a size_t length field so the D-Bus serializer can determine the byte count without an additional parameter.

Membership information is maintained entirely in the daemon’s in-memory m_registeredList (a GLib GList), and resource ownership is tracked in the m_resourceOwner[] array. Both structures are initialized fresh on each daemon startup. Log output is routed to uimgr_log.txt via the syslog-ng filter configured in the bb file.

graph TD
    subgraph IARMBusDaemon ["IARMDaemonMain (iarmbusd)"]
        subgraph DaemonCore ["Daemon Core (libIBusDaemon-dbus.c)"]
            MemberReg["Member Registry\n(m_registeredList)"]
            ResOwnership["Resource Ownership\n(m_resourceOwner[])"]
            PreChangeList["Pre-Change Handler List\n(m_preChangeRpcList)"]
        end

        subgraph ClientLib ["Client Library (libIARMBus)"]
            BusAPI["Bus API\n(libIBus-dbus.c)"]
            CoreLayer["Core / D-Bus Layer\n(libIARM-dbus.c)"]
        end

        subgraph DispatchThread ["Dispatch Thread"]
            DBusLoop["D-Bus Main Loop\n(DBusConnection dispatch)"]
        end
    end

    subgraph MiddlewareClient ["Middleware Client Process"]
        ClientAPI["libIARMBus\n(IARM_Bus_Init / Connect)"]
        EventHandlers["Registered Event Handlers"]
        RPCHandlers["Registered RPC Methods"]
    end

    ClientAPI -->|D-Bus method call| BusAPI
    BusAPI --> CoreLayer
    CoreLayer --> DBusLoop
    DBusLoop -->|Signal dispatch| EventHandlers
    DBusLoop -->|Method call dispatch| RPCHandlers
    BusAPI --> MemberReg
    BusAPI --> ResOwnership
    BusAPI --> PreChangeList

Threading Model

• Threading Architecture: Multi-threaded; each connected process has a dedicated dispatch thread in addition to the calling thread.
• Main Thread: Handles IARM_Bus_Init, IARM_Bus_Connect, IARM_Bus_RegisterCall, IARM_Bus_RegisterEventHandler, and all outgoing IARM_Bus_BroadcastEvent / IARM_Bus_Call invocations.
• Worker Threads:
• Dispatch thread (<memberName>_IARMD): Runs the D-Bus connection’s main loop for a member, invoking registered event listeners and RPC handlers when messages arrive. The thread name is set via prctl(PR_SET_NAME, ...) using a suffix _IARMD appended to the member name, confirmed in libIARM-dbus.c.
• Method-call dispatch thread: Runs dbus_connection_read_write_dispatch() on connMethodCall. Outgoing blocking RPC calls via IARM_CallWithTimeout also use connMethodCall, keeping outgoing calls off the main conn dispatch loop to avoid deadlock.
• Synchronization: A process-wide recursive pthread_mutex_t m_Lock (initialized as PTHREAD_RECURSIVE_MUTEX_INITIALIZER_NP) serializes access to the registered call list (m_registeredCallList) and event handler list (m_eventHandlerList).
• Async / Event Dispatch: Event callbacks are invoked from the dispatch thread. The IARM_Bus_BroadcastEvent() caller is unblocked immediately after the D-Bus signal is sent; listeners are notified asynchronously on their own dispatch threads.

RDK-V Platform and Integration Requirements

• Build Dependencies: libxml2, dbus, glib-2.0, safec-common-wrapper. Conditionally depends on directfb (when the directfb distro feature is enabled) and systemd (when the systemd distro feature is enabled), as declared in the bb file.
• Systemd Services: The D-Bus system daemon (dbus.service) must be running before iarmbusd starts, as declared by After=dbus.service in the service unit.
• Startup Order: iarmbusd.service is ordered after dbus.service and is part of multi-user.target. All other RDK middleware services that use IARM Bus must start after iarmbusd is active.

Component State Flow

Initialization to Active State

The daemon transitions through the following states: Starting (signal handlers registered, logger initialized) → DaemonInit (IARM_Bus_DaemonStart: IARM_Bus_Init + IARM_Bus_Connect) → RPC Registration (all daemon RPC methods registered with IARM_Bus_RegisterCall) → Active (heartbeat loop; accepting member registrations, events, and RPC calls) → Shutdown (IARM_Bus_DaemonStop: Disconnect + Term).

sequenceDiagram
    participant System as systemd
    participant Main as IARMDaemonMain
    participant DaemonLib as libIBusDaemon
    participant Bus as libIARMBus

    System->>Main: Start IARMDaemonMain
    Main->>Main: signals_register SIGINT SIGTERM
    Main->>Main: rdk_logger_init (when RDK_LOGGER_ENABLED)
    Main->>DaemonLib: IARM_Bus_DaemonStart()
    DaemonLib->>Bus: IARM_Bus_Init(Daemon)
    Bus-->>DaemonLib: Initialized
    DaemonLib->>Bus: IARM_Bus_Connect()
    Bus-->>DaemonLib: Connected, dispatch thread started
    DaemonLib->>Bus: IARM_Bus_RegisterEvent(IARM_BUS_SIGNAL_MAX)
    DaemonLib->>Bus: IARM_Bus_RegisterCall(RequestOwnership)
    DaemonLib->>Bus: IARM_Bus_RegisterCall(ReleaseOwnership)
    DaemonLib->>Bus: IARM_Bus_RegisterCall(RegisterMember)
    DaemonLib->>Bus: IARM_Bus_RegisterCall(UnRegisterMember)
    DaemonLib->>Bus: IARM_Bus_RegisterCall(PowerPreChange)
    DaemonLib->>Bus: IARM_Bus_RegisterCall(CheckRegistration)
    DaemonLib->>Bus: IARM_Bus_RegisterCall(ResolutionPreChange)
    DaemonLib->>Bus: IARM_Bus_RegisterCall(ResolutionPostChange)
    DaemonLib->>Bus: IARM_Bus_RegisterCall(SysModeChange)
    DaemonLib->>Bus: IARM_Bus_RegisterCall(DeepSleepWakeup)
    DaemonLib-->>Main: DaemonStart returns SUCCESS
    Main->>System: sd_notifyf(READY=1) when ENABLE_SD_NOTIFY

    loop Heartbeat (every 300s)
        Main->>Main: Log heartbeat ping
    end

    System->>Main: SIGTERM or SIGINT
    Main->>Main: g_running = 0
    Main->>DaemonLib: IARM_Bus_DaemonStop()
    DaemonLib->>Bus: IARM_Bus_Disconnect()
    DaemonLib->>Bus: IARM_Bus_Term()

Runtime State Changes

The daemon’s primary runtime role is processing incoming RPC calls from members. The key runtime state managed by the daemon is the member registry and resource ownership table, both held entirely in memory.

State Change Triggers:

• A middleware client calling IARM_Bus_Connect() triggers a RegisterMember RPC to the daemon, adding the member to m_registeredList. Disconnection triggers UnRegisterMember, which also force-releases any resources still owned by that member.
• A power manager or equivalent component calling IARM_BusDaemon_RequestOwnership() for a resource type triggers _RequestOwnership in the daemon; if the resource is currently held by another member, the daemon calls IARM_Bus_Call(..., IARM_BUS_COMMON_API_ReleaseOwnership, ...) on the current owner before transferring ownership.
• When a resource is released via _ReleaseOwnership, the daemon broadcasts IARM_BUS_EVENT_RESOURCEAVAILABLE so interested members can re-request the resource.

Context Switching Scenarios:

• Before a power state transition, the component managing the power change calls IARM_BusDaemon_PowerPrechange(), which causes the daemon to iterate all registered members and invoke each member’s IARM_BUS_COMMON_API_PowerPreChange handler in sequence.
• Before and after a display resolution change, coordinated calls to IARM_BusDaemon_ResolutionPrechange() and IARM_BusDaemon_ResolutionPostchange() distribute the new width/height to all registered pre-change handlers.
• On deep-sleep wakeup, IARM_BusDaemon_DeepSleepWakeup() is called, triggering the equivalent pre-change iteration for all handlers registered for IARM_BUS_COMMON_API_DeepSleepWakeup.
• On system-mode change (Normal / EAS / Warehouse), the daemon dispatches to all members with a registered IARM_BUS_COMMON_API_SysModeChange handler.

Call Flows

Initialization Call Flow

sequenceDiagram
    participant ClientApp as CecDaemonMain
    participant LibBus as libIARMBus
    participant DBus as D-Bus
    participant Daemon as IARMDaemonMain

    ClientApp->>LibBus: IARM_Bus_Init(CecDaemonMain)
    LibBus->>LibBus: IARM_Init(IARM_BUS_NAME, CecDaemonMain)
    LibBus->>LibBus: IARM_Malloc(PROCESSLOCAL, sizeof(IARM_Bus_Member_t))
    LibBus-->>ClientApp: IARM_RESULT_SUCCESS, m_initialized=1

    ClientApp->>LibBus: IARM_Bus_Connect()
    LibBus->>DBus: dbus_bus_get_private() - acquire system bus connections
    LibBus->>LibBus: Spawn dispatch thread (CecDaemonMain_IARMD)
    LibBus->>Daemon: IARM_Bus_Call(Daemon, RegisterMember, member_info)
    Daemon->>Daemon: _RegisterMember() - add to m_registeredList
    Daemon-->>LibBus: IARM_RESULT_SUCCESS
    LibBus-->>ClientApp: IARM_RESULT_SUCCESS, m_connected=1

Request Processing Call Flow — Event Broadcast

sequenceDiagram
    participant Publisher as Publisher Process
    participant LibBus as libIARMBus
    participant DBus as D-Bus
    participant Subscriber as Subscriber Process

    Publisher->>LibBus: IARM_Bus_BroadcastEvent('OwnerName', eventId, data, len)
    LibBus->>DBus: dbus_message_new_signal(iarm.signal.Type)
    LibBus->>DBus: Append eventId, ownerName, size, data bytes
    DBus-->>Publisher: Signal sent, returns to caller

    DBus->>Subscriber: D-Bus signal delivered to dispatch thread
    Subscriber->>Subscriber: dbusCallHandler() filters by eventId + ownerName
    Subscriber->>Subscriber: eventInfo.listener() callback invoked

Request Processing Call Flow — RPC Method Call

sequenceDiagram
    participant Caller as Caller Process
    participant LibBus as libIARMBus
    participant DBus as D-Bus
    participant Callee as Callee Process

    Caller->>LibBus: IARM_Bus_Call('OwnerName', 'MethodName', arg, argLen)
    LibBus->>DBus: dbus_message_new_method_call(iarm.method.Type, MethodName)
    LibBus->>DBus: Append size + arg[] as byte array
    DBus->>Callee: Method call delivered to dispatch thread
    Callee->>Callee: dbusCallHandler() dispatches to registered handler
    Callee->>Callee: callInfo.handler() executes, writes result into arg
    DBus-->>LibBus: Method reply received
    LibBus-->>Caller: IARM_RESULT_SUCCESS, arg contains output

Internal Modules

Component Interactions

IARM Bus operates as an infrastructure component, providing the IPC fabric that other middleware components use to communicate. Its interactions span the D-Bus transport layer, the systemd service manager, and the middleware clients that connect to the bus.

Interaction Matrix

Events Published

IPC Flow Patterns

Primary Request / Response Flow (RPC):

When a caller invokes IARM_Bus_Call(), the client library serializes the argument structure into a D-Bus byte-array method call and blocks on the reply. The callee’s dispatch thread receives the D-Bus method call in dbusCallHandler(), extracts the argument buffer, invokes the registered IARM_BusCall_t handler, and the reply is sent back through the D-Bus connection. The result is written into the shared argument buffer and returned to the caller.

sequenceDiagram
    participant Caller as Caller Process
    participant Bus as libIARMBus
    participant Callee as Callee Process

    Caller->>Bus: IARM_Bus_Call(ownerName, methodName, arg, argLen)
    Bus->>Callee: D-Bus method call on iarm.method.Type
    Callee->>Callee: dbusCallHandler() invokes registered IARM_BusCall_t handler(arg)
    Callee-->>Bus: D-Bus method reply
    Bus-->>Caller: IARM_RESULT_SUCCESS, output in arg

Event Notification Flow:

When a process calls IARM_Bus_BroadcastEvent(), the library constructs a D-Bus signal carrying the event ID, owner name, data size, and data bytes, and sends it on the session bus. Each subscriber process’s dispatch thread receives the signal, and dbusCallHandler() filters it by event ID and owner name before invoking the registered IARM_EventHandler_t callback.

sequenceDiagram
    participant Publisher as Event Publisher
    participant Bus as D-Bus
    participant Sub1 as Subscriber 1
    participant Sub2 as Subscriber 2

    Publisher->>Bus: IARM_Bus_BroadcastEvent(ownerName, eventId, data, len)
    Bus->>Sub1: D-Bus signal (iarm.signal.Type)
    Bus->>Sub2: D-Bus signal (iarm.signal.Type)
    Sub1->>Sub1: dbusCallHandler() invokes IARM_EventHandler_t callback
    Sub2->>Sub2: dbusCallHandler() invokes IARM_EventHandler_t callback

Implementation Details

Major HAL APIs Integration

The following D-Bus library and system functions are called directly by the IARM Bus implementation.

Key Implementation Logic

• State / Lifecycle Management: Process state is tracked with two volatile int flags — m_initialized and m_connected — guarded by the recursive m_Lock mutex. Both must be in the correct state for any API call to proceed; otherwise IARM_RESULT_INVALID_STATE or IARM_RESULT_INVALID_PARAM is returned.
• Core init/term logic: libIBus-dbus.c, libIARM-dbus.c
• Daemon member-list management: libIBusDaemon-dbus.c
• Event Processing: Events are dispatched by the per-process dispatch thread running the D-Bus main loop. The dbusCallHandler function is registered as a connection filter and distinguishes between incoming signals (iarm.signal.Type) and method calls (iarm.method.Type) by interface name. Event filtering by eventId and ownerName is applied before invoking the registered handler; mismatched messages fall through to DBUS_HANDLER_RESULT_NOT_YET_HANDLED.
• Message filter and dispatch: libIARM-dbus.c (dbusCallHandler)
• Handler registration list: libIBus-dbus.c (m_eventHandlerList)
• Error Handling Strategy: Each IARM API returns an IARM_Result_t code. Errors from the D-Bus layer are mapped to IARM_RESULT_IPCCORE_FAIL. Null or out-of-range parameters map to IARM_RESULT_INVALID_PARAM. Memory allocation failures return IARM_RESULT_OOM. The daemon’s pre-change dispatchers (_PowerPreChange, _ResolutionPreChange, etc.) continue iterating through all registered members regardless of individual call outcomes, ensuring every member receives the notification.
• Logging & Diagnostics: When RDK_LOGGER_ENABLED is defined, log output is routed through RDK_LOG(RDK_LOG_DEBUG, "LOG.RDK.IARMBUS", ...). When the flag is absent, output falls back to printf. The IARM_Bus_RegisterForLog() API allows a caller to inject a custom log callback (IARM_Bus_LogCb). Each log message is prefixed with the thread ID using syscall(SYS_gettid). Log output is routed to uimgr_log.txt via the syslog-ng filter configured in the bb file.

Configuration

Key Configuration Files

Key Configuration Parameters