sp-rtk-base-relay 2.1.0

RTCM relay service for custom GPS correction servers

SP-RTK-Base-Relay

A Python service that relays RTCM correction data from RTK GPS base stations to multiple destinations simultaneously — Sure-Path servers, NTRIP casters, and local TCP clients.

Overview

SP-Base-Relay v2.1 is a production-ready multi-destination RTCM relay and embeddable Python library. A single GPS input source (TCP, serial, or Bluetooth) feeds correction data to any combination of destinations — proprietary Sure-Path servers, NTRIP v1.0/v2.0 casters (RTK2go, Onocoy, rtkdirect), and local TCP rebroadcast servers.

Key Features

• 🔀 Multi-Destination Broadcast: Fan-out RTCM data to 1–N destinations simultaneously
• 🌐 NTRIP v1.0 + v2.0: Push corrections to any NTRIP caster (RTK2go, Onocoy, rtkdirect)
• 📡 TCP Rebroadcast Server: Serve corrections to LAN rovers via TCP
• 🔐 Sure-Path Protocol: Custom INIT:user:pass* auth with $HB$ heartbeat monitoring
• 🔌 Multiple Input Sources: TCP (RTKBase), Serial UART, USB Serial, Bluetooth GPS
• 🎯 Per-Destination Filtering: Pass-all, allowlist, or blocklist RTCM message types per destination
• 📊 Per-Destination Prometheus Metrics: Individual throughput, errors, queue depth per destination
• 🔄 Automatic Recovery: Exponential backoff reconnection per destination — independent fault isolation
• 🔧 Self-Healing Bluetooth: Automatic Bluetooth GPS recovery without manual intervention
• 🛡️ Production Ready: Systemd integration, structured logging, comprehensive error handling
• 🧪 Well Tested: 88% code coverage with 1,106 passing tests
• 🧩 Embeddable Library (v2.1): RelayEngine API for programmatic control by external applications
• 📢 Real-Time Events (v2.1): EventBus with typed events for state change notifications
• 🔌 Hot Plug Destinations (v2.1): Add/remove/start/stop destinations while running

Architecture

                              ┌──▶ [SurePath Thread] ──▶ Sure-Path Server
[Input Source] ──▶ [BroadcastHub] ─┤──▶ [NTRIP Thread]   ──▶ RTK2go / Onocoy / etc.
  TCP / Serial       Fan-out    │──▶ [NTRIP Thread]   ──▶ rtkdirect
  / Bluetooth       + Filter    └──▶ [TCP Srv Thread]  ──▶ LAN Rover Clients
                                        │
                                [Prometheus Metrics] ◄──── per-destination labels

Each destination runs in its own thread with an independent queue, so a failure in one destination never affects the others.

Quick Start

Installation

git clone https://github.com/rodenj1/sp-rtk-base-relay.git
cd sp-rtk-base-relay
sudo ./tools/install.sh

Configuration

Edit /etc/sp-rtk-base-relay/config.yaml (or see config.example.yaml):

input:
  source: "tcp"
  config:
    host: "192.168.1.100"
    port: 3000

destinations:
  - name: surepath
    type: surepath
    enabled: true
    filter:
      mode: pass_all
    config:
      host: "server.example.com"
      port: 50010
      username: "USER01"
      password: "abc1"

  - name: rtk2go
    type: ntrip
    enabled: true
    filter:
      mode: pass_all
    config:
      caster: "rtk2go.com"
      port: 2101
      mountpoint: "MY_MOUNT"
      password: "my_password"
      version: "2.0"

  - name: local_tcp
    type: tcp_server
    enabled: false
    filter:
      mode: pass_all
    config:
      host: "0.0.0.0"
      port: 5016
      max_clients: 10

metrics:
  enabled: true
  port: 8080

logging:
  level: "INFO"
  format: "json"

Running

# As a systemd service
sudo systemctl start sp-rtk-base-relay

# Or foreground
sp-rtk-base-relay --config config.yaml --foreground

Destination Types

Sure-Path (surepath)

Custom proprietary protocol with INIT:user:pass* authentication and $HB$ heartbeat monitoring. Wraps the battle-tested v1.x RTCMClient.

NTRIP (ntrip)

Pushes RTCM corrections to NTRIP casters. Supports both protocol versions:

• v2.0 (default): HTTP POST + Basic auth + chunked transfer encoding
• v1.0: SOURCE auth + raw binary streaming

Tested against RTK2go, Onocoy, and rtkdirect.

TCP Server (tcp_server)

Local TCP rebroadcast server for LAN clients. Multiple rovers can connect and receive corrections simultaneously. Features max_clients enforcement and per-client write timeout for backpressure handling.

Message Filtering

Each destination can independently filter RTCM messages by type ID:

filter:
  mode: pass_all          # Forward everything (zero overhead)

filter:
  mode: allowlist         # Only forward these message types
  message_ids: [1005, 1077, 1087, 1097, 1127]

filter:
  mode: blocklist         # Forward everything except these
  message_ids: [4072]     # Drop proprietary messages

Monitoring

Prometheus Metrics

Per-destination metrics with {destination="..."} labels:

Metric	Type	Description
sp_rtk_base_relay_dest_bytes_sent_total	Counter	Bytes sent per destination
sp_rtk_base_relay_dest_messages_sent_total	Counter	Messages sent per destination
sp_rtk_base_relay_dest_messages_dropped_total	Counter	Queue overflow drops per destination
sp_rtk_base_relay_dest_connection_status	Gauge	Connection state (1/0) per destination
sp_rtk_base_relay_dest_errors_total	Counter	Errors per destination
sp_rtk_base_relay_dest_queue_depth	Gauge	Queue depth per destination
sp_rtk_base_relay_input_connection_status	Gauge	Input source connection state
sp_rtk_base_relay_input_seconds_since_last_data	Gauge	No-data watchdog
sp_rtk_base_relay_tcp_server_connected_clients	Gauge	TCP server client count
sp_rtk_base_relay_service_uptime_seconds	Gauge	Service uptime

Grafana Dashboard

Import templates/grafana_dashboard.json for a pre-built v2 dashboard with per-destination panels, throughput graphs, and the no-data watchdog.

Input Sources

Source	Use Case	Config Key
tcp	RTKBase integration, network base stations	host, port, timeout
serial	Direct GNSS receiver via UART	port, baudrate
usb_serial	USB-to-serial adapters	port, baudrate
bluetooth	Bluetooth GPS devices	device_address, channel

Project Structure

sp-rtk-base-relay/
├── src/sp_rtk_base_relay/
│   ├── main.py                      # Service orchestration (v2)
│   ├── config.py                    # YAML config with destinations: list
│   ├── metrics.py                   # Per-destination Prometheus metrics
│   ├── exceptions.py                # DestinationError, NtripError, etc.
│   ├── logger.py                    # Structured logging
│   ├── rtcm_decoder.py             # RTCM 3.x frame parser
│   └── core/
│       ├── broadcast_hub.py         # Fan-out coordinator (input → N queues)
│       ├── message_filter.py        # Per-destination RTCM filtering
│       ├── rtcm_client.py           # Sure-Path protocol client
│       ├── connection_states.py     # Connection state machine
│       ├── bluetooth_manager.py     # Bluetooth GPS recovery
│       ├── destinations/
│       │   ├── base_destination.py       # ABC + queue + stats
│       │   ├── destination_factory.py    # Registry-based factory
│       │   ├── surepath_destination.py   # Sure-Path server
│       │   ├── ntrip_destination.py      # NTRIP v1.0 + v2.0
│       │   └── tcp_server_destination.py # Async TCP rebroadcast
│       └── input_sources/
│           ├── base_input.py        # Input ABC
│           ├── tcp_input.py         # TCP input
│           ├── serial_input.py      # Serial input
│           └── bluetooth_input.py   # Bluetooth input
├── tests/                           # 942 tests, 88% coverage
│   ├── unit/                        # Unit tests (26 test files)
│   ├── integration/                 # Hardware integration tests
│   ├── manual/                      # Manual production tests
│   └── fixtures/                    # Mock servers and generators
├── tools/                           # Install/uninstall, systemd, bluetooth
├── templates/                       # Grafana dashboard v2
├── docs/                            # Documentation
│   ├── v2-architecture-plan.md      # Full architecture + design decisions
│   ├── deployment-guide.md          # Installation & deployment
│   ├── metrics-guide.md             # Prometheus metrics reference
│   └── bluetooth-*.md               # Bluetooth GPS guides
└── config.example.yaml              # v2 configuration template

Development

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/rodenj1/sp-rtk-base-relay.git
cd sp-rtk-base-relay
uv sync --all-extras
source .venv/bin/activate

# Run tests
uv run pytest

# Run with coverage
uv run pytest --cov=src/sp_rtk_base_relay --cov-report=html

Code Quality Standards

• Python 3.10+ with modern type hints (dict, list, X | None)
• PEP8 code style, pyright strict mode

• 88% test coverage (942 tests)

• UV package management

CLI Usage

sp-rtk-base-relay [OPTIONS]

Options:
  --version                Show version and exit
  -c, --config PATH        Configuration file path
  --validate               Validate configuration and exit
  --generate-config        Generate example configuration
  --foreground             Run in foreground
  --log-level LEVEL        Override log level

Embedded Usage (v2.1)

SP-Base-Relay can be used as a Python library by external applications (e.g., GPS configuration UIs). The RelayEngine facade provides full programmatic control:

from sp_rtk_base_relay import RelayEngine
from sp_rtk_base_relay.config import InputConfig, DestinationConfig

# 1. Create engine with input source
engine = RelayEngine(InputConfig(source="tcp", config={"host": "192.168.1.100", "port": 3000}))

# 2. Start with destinations
engine.start([
    DestinationConfig(name="rtk2go", type="ntrip", enabled=True,
                      config={"caster": "rtk2go.com", "port": 2101,
                              "mountpoint": "MY_MOUNT", "password": "pass"}),
])

# 3. Hot-add a destination while running
engine.add_destination(DestinationConfig(
    name="local_tcp", type="tcp_server", enabled=True,
    config={"host": "0.0.0.0", "port": 5016}
))

# 4. Get typed status snapshot
status = engine.get_status()
print(f"Running: {status.is_running}, Destinations: {len(status.destinations)}")

# 5. Subscribe to real-time events
sub = engine.subscribe_events()
event = sub.get_event(timeout=1.0)
if event:
    print(f"Event: {event.event_type} — {event.message}")
sub.close()

# 6. Stop when done (releases serial port for other tools)
engine.stop()

Exported API

Symbol	Description
RelayEngine	High-level facade — start/stop/manage relay
EventBus	Pub/sub event system
EventSubscription	Per-subscriber event queue (iterable)
RelayEvent	Typed event (event_type, message, timestamp, payload)
RelayStatus	Frozen status snapshot
DestinationStatus	Per-destination status
InputStatus	Input source status

See Relay Engine API Spec for the full technical specification.

Migration from v1.x

v2.0 is a breaking change. Key differences:

v1.x	v2.0
server: config key	destinations: list
Single destination	1–N destinations
Global metrics	Per-destination {destination="..."} labels
DataPipelineCoordinator	BroadcastHub + DestinationFactory
v1 Grafana dashboard	v2 dashboard with $destination variable

See config.example.yaml for the new format. Old server: configs are detected with a clear migration error message.

Releasing

Releases to PyPI are fully automated via .github/workflows/release.yml. Bump the version in pyproject.toml, push a vX.Y.Z tag, then publish a GitHub Release — the workflow re-runs the full test matrix, builds, and publishes to PyPI via Trusted Publishing (OIDC, no API tokens). See docs/release-process.md for the per-release checklist and the one-time PyPI / GitHub-environment setup.

Documentation

• Release Process: PyPI release workflow + runbook
• Relay Engine API Spec: Full v2.1 programmatic API reference
• v2.1 Architecture Plan: Embeddable relay engine design
• v2.0 Architecture Plan: Multi-destination design with 7 DRs
• Configuration Reference: Complete config guide (YAML + programmatic)
• Deployment Guide: Installation and systemd setup
• Metrics Guide: Prometheus metrics reference
• Bluetooth Recovery: Self-healing Bluetooth GPS

License

MIT License — see LICENSE.

Project Status

Current Version: 2.1.0

• ✅ Multi-destination broadcast (Sure-Path, NTRIP v1.0/v2.0, TCP server)
• ✅ Per-destination message filtering and Prometheus metrics
• ✅ BroadcastHub fan-out architecture with independent fault isolation
• ✅ Embeddable RelayEngine API with EventBus and typed status (v2.1)
• ✅ 1,106 tests, 88% coverage, production-stable

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Made with ❤️ for the RTK GPS community