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Cloud Connector

The Cloud Connector is a DICOM network gateway that lets traditional imaging equipment (modalities, PACS, workstations) talk to the Unomed cloud without any DICOMweb support of their own.

It listens on the local network as a standard DICOM SCP (Service Class Provider) and bridges each DIMSE association to the Unomed cloud over a single authenticated, encrypted connection.

Architecture

flowchart LR
    subgraph onsite["On-site network"]
        MOD["Modalities<br/>CT · MR · US · XA …"]
        WS["Workstations<br/>/ existing PACS"]
        CC["<b>Cloud Connector</b><br/>DICOM SCP"]
        MOD <-->|"DIMSE"| CC
        WS <-->|"DIMSE"| CC
    end

    subgraph cloud["Unomed Cloud"]
        PACS["<b>Unomed PACS</b><br/>Archive · Worklist · Routing"]
    end

    CC <==>|"Authenticated TLS"| PACS
  • On-site → Connector — modalities and workstations speak ordinary DIMSE (C-STORE, C-FIND, C-GET/C-MOVE, MPPS) to the Connector on the local network. No cloud awareness is required on the equipment.
  • Connector → Cloud — the Connector opens one outbound, authenticated, encrypted connection to the Unomed cloud. No inbound ports need to be opened at the clinic's firewall.
  • Cloud — the Unomed PACS provides the archive, modality worklist, and routing that back the Connector's DICOM services.

To an on-site modality the Cloud Connector looks like an ordinary DICOM node: point the modality at its IP, port, and AE title and send images, run worklist queries, or report procedure steps exactly as you would to any PACS.

What it does

  • Store — accepts C-STORE and uploads each instance to the cloud.
  • Query / Retrieve — answers C-FIND, C-GET, and C-MOVE from the cloud archive.
  • Modality Worklist — answers MWL C-FIND from the cloud worklist.
  • MPPS — accepts N-CREATE / N-SET / N-GET and reports procedure-step state to the cloud.

Deployment

The connector runs as a background service on a Linux server (e.g. a Synology NAS) or macOS, and ships as a menu-bar application for macOS and Windows. It authenticates to the cloud with OAuth2 client credentials and then fetches its own configuration — listen port, AE title, and TLS settings — from the cloud. There is no local configuration file to maintain.

Integrating a modality

See the DICOM Conformance Statement for the full list of supported services, SOP classes, transfer syntaxes, and security options, and the Security & Hardening Guide for the credential model, required privileges, and hardening guidance.

To configure a modality you need three values, which are assigned per deployment and provided by Unomed:

Setting Notes
Host / IP The machine running the Cloud Connector on your local network.
Port Assigned per deployment.
AE Title The connector's AE title, assigned by Unomed. Set this as the destination AE title on the modality.

In addition, each modality's calling AE title must be registered and authorized by Unomed before it can store images, query the worklist, or report procedure steps. An unrecognized or unauthorized AE title is rejected by the cloud and the association fails — see Association Establishment.

The connector also advertises itself over mDNS (_dicom._tcp) for discovery on the local network.